When Donald Trump was elected as the president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016, "The Simpsons" fans were amused because the TV show has predicted his winning 16 years ago. This was announced by a lecturer at the University of Glasgow's Philosophy Department.
It became a worldwide frenzy when a graduate tutor at the University, Dr John Donaldson announced that he will be teaching a class on "The Simpsons" in January 2017. The one-day class is called "D'oh! The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy" will go into philosophical topics ranging from ethics to political theory using the show as a guide.
"It deals with situations close to our own hearts and touches on themes we see in our day-to-day lives, so it's unsurprising that some of the things they touch on can become a reality," Donaldson told Business Insider explaining that this is the reason why "The Simpsons" is such a great tool for teaching philosophy. It has also predicted the future many times throughout its 27 years of existence.
Aired in March 2000, the episode "Bart to the Future" fictionalized Trump as a predecessor of Lisa Simpson when she was set to become the U.S. president, Time reports. Apart from Trump's winning, "The Simpsons" has also predicted a few things such as the Higgs Boson discovery and the 2008 US election's faulty voting machines. These unintentional predictions have been labelled as spooky and eerie by numerous news outlets.
Still and all, Donaldson said that these predictions are purely coincidence just like "The Simpsons" prediction on Donald Trump. He added that the show was just there to crack a joke on Trump and it just happened that someone like him would be the elected as the next the U.S. president.
He also said that "The Simpsons" having been aired since 1989, which is long enough that the similarity between real life and the show are par for the course. He added that life imitates art and this is not the very first time that it happened.
