The Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman has called out fans who ruin "the magic" of the show by making up fake predictions for "horrible events".
The long-running animated series has famously predicted a number of major events since its debut in 1989, from Donald Trump's presidency and the FIFA corruption scandal to Disney's takeover of Fox and Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime show.
Selman, who has worked on The Simpsons since 1997, has now revealed the secret to these predictions: a combination of history and maths.
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"Well, the sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things," he explained during a new interview with People.
"If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that's the math element.
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"And then, the history element is if you make a show that is based on studying the past foolishness of humanity, you are surely going to anticipate the future foolishness of humanity as it sinks further into foolishness fair. So we don't really think about it."
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However, Selman noted some instances where fans have "put obviously fake images online and say we predicted things that we didn't," which he said the writers "hate".
"It was nicer when the predictions were just predicting real horrible events, not people pretending we predicted horrible events," he continued.
"[It's] very depressing and dispiriting that people want the magic to be true so bad that they just start" making up scenarios that never appeared on the show.
The Simpsons airs Sunday nights on FOX in the US. The show currently streams on Disney+ in the UK.
Social Executive, Entertainment Portfolio After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022, where she wrote across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. Following her internship, Iona continued contributing to the site as a freelance reporter, becoming social executive for the Hearst UK entertainment portfolio in summer 2025. Iona now leads the DS social channels, covering red carpets with stars such as Paul Mescal, Austin Butler, and more.
