The long-running animated TV series “The Simpsons,” in the opinion of fans, has once again accurately anticipated two unrelated current events that occurred on the same day. Social media users claimed the prescient cartoon predicted Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” movie craze and the arrest of former President Donald Trump.
Both incidents purportedly served as narrative ideas for “The Simpsons” episode “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” from 1994. Trump was indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, becoming the first former president to ever be charged with a crime.
A new teaser trailer for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s live-action “Barbie” film debuted at the same time as this momentous revelation.In a scene from the episode, Kent Brockman, the TV host, discusses Lisa Simpson’s crusade to get the makers of Barbie to create a more empowering toy for young girls.
The segment is then concluded by Brockman saying that the president has been detained in a typical whiplash-inducing newsman shift.
Over 30 years ago, creator Matt Groening couldn’t have predicted the news headlines we see today: Trump is accused of participating in a “catch-and-kill” scheme that entailed paying porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal six figures in hush money. A writer for the article said that he was attempting to get them to keep quiet about suspected liaisons with the former president before his 2016 presidential campaign.
The episode’s setting in the 1990s, when the toy’s popularity was arguably at an all-time high, makes the other aspect plausible. As a result, it was commonplace for media at the time to make references to the toy. The episode’s premise, which involved updating Barbie’s image to reflect contemporary morals, may have been more perceptive.
Right-wing opponents charged that Mattel, the parent company of Barbie, had pandered to the “woke” masses by releasing a gender-neutral Barbie in 2019. Progressive audiences, on the other hand, praised the plastic seller for personifying inclusivity.
