Photo: FOX
The Simpsons has been a funny show to watch over the years, but it also has an uncanny ability to predict the future, and its showrunner, Matt Selman, is finally coming clean as to how they do it.
Speaking to the New York Post, Selman said, "People really want magic to be real, right?," also joking that they do "witch and wiazard-type stuff" to predict the future. But then added, "We never try to predict anything. There’s nothing we’d ever say on the show, like ‘Hey, here’s a prediction, everybody.'" Matt went on to explain, "It’s just that we talk about the world, which is full of dumb-dumbs. And dumb-dumbs do the same dumb stuff, again and again."
Selman is aware of the show's shocking predictions-come-true, and joked, "People want it to be like, 'Oh, there’s this amazing laser that beam into a crystal… and then we all meditate and then we say a prayer. Then we all wake up the next morning covered in sweat, and we know what’s going to happen. That’s what it is!'"
But, it's like the sheer volume of episodes (700!) that may help in the show's predictions. The Simpsons writer, Carolyn Omine, explained, "We’ve done a lot of episodes, and a lot of things we predicted did not come true. I do think that we try to, whenever we put any sort of facts out there, we tend to try to be very accurate. Sometimes it’s just luck." She added, "We would all be much richer than we are if we could actually predict the future!"
The show's Christmas special, "O C’mon All Ye Faithful," is now streaming on Disney+.