The writers of The Simpsons appear to have exercised their prophetic wisdom once again by predicting Sir Richard Branson's history-making journey to the edge of space on July 11th all the way back in 2014. The Simpsons is no stranger to accurate predictions of future events over the show's many episodes and seasons. Past predictions have including smart-watches, the Disney-Fox merger, Donald Trump's presidency, and even the British horsemeat-scandal in a 1998 episode. While the writers have rejected the show being labelled as a modern Nostradamus, there are maybe one too many accurate predictions to be considered coincidence.
On July 11, Branson, Virgin Galactic founder and entrepreneur, flew 85km (282,000ft or 53 miles) to the edge of space in the rocket-plane Unity that his company has been developing for 17 years. The billionaire's flight also marked the successful flight of a space-tourism craft, beating out rivals Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in the process. The journey lasted an hour and served as a test of Virgin Galactic's tourism experience, which Branson aims to launch commercially next year.
Continuing their trend of oddly prophetic moments, it seems that Branson's journey was predicted by The Simpsons back in 2014. Twitter user Aditya Kondawar pointed this out in a viral tweet while asking: "How can The Simpsons show predict every Damn thing?" along with screenshots from Branson's space flight and the episode in question. In episode 15 of the show's 25th season, titled "The War of Art", Lisa and Homer meet and art forger named Klaus Ziegler voiced by Max von Sydow. While being admonished by Lisa, Ziegler points out that his forgeries have brought happiness to people all around the world leading to a series of cutaways to prove this point, including one of Branson admiring a painting while floating in a space shuttle. You can see Kondwar's full tweet below:
Perhaps the prediction isn't as off-the-wall as it may seem however, especially when you consider that Branson's company had been developing a viable form of space tourism since 2004. With that in mind, the prediction isn't as much of a wildcard as some of The Simpson's other predictions - like Donald Trump becoming President - but it's still entertaining nonetheless. Rather, it's more of a suitable pastiche of the entrepreneur whose challenging foray into space tourism has become something of a defining feature over the past two decades.
Branson's appearance in the episode isn't his first within The Simpsons either, with the entrepreneur first appearing in the season 20 episode, "The Burns and the Bees" and again in a fully voiced appearance in the season 26 episode, "The Princess Guide" as a neighbor of Mr. Burns, with a relationship between the two akin to Homer and Ned Flanders. These episodes have suitably parodied Branson in a way that audiences would typically expect of The Simpsons, but never in such a prescient manner as his space flight in the 2014 episode. Still, now that Branson has successfully achieved his lifelong ambition of traveling to space, The Simpsons will surely utilize it for further ribbing in episodes going forward.
Source: Aditya Kondawar