TRUMP PRESIDENCY PREDICTED BY THE SIMPSONS
Is Donald Trump’s election to the presidency a complete surprise? It was for most journalists. It may be for you. It isn’t for Matt Groening, the brain behind The Simpsons TV series, though. He predicted a Trump presidency fifteen years ago.
In 2001, Groening and his crew produced an episode in which Bart Simpson dreams about his future as an adult. The adult Bart, who wears a ponytail, sunglasses, and a Hawaiian shirt, is the lead singer and guitarist for an unsuccessful band. The band is so desperate, the few dive bars that will hire it pay only in popcorn shrimp.
In the extremity of his financial duress, Bart seeks help from the Federal Government. He visits the White House, where his sister Lisa is “America’s first straight female president”. This implies, of course, that the first female president was… eh, never mind. While Bart and Lisa are talking in the Oval Office, Milhouse Van Houten, the Treasury Secretary, rushes in and tells Lisa that her predecessor, Donald Trump, left the country broke.
Maybe the actual Trump presidency will leave America in better fiscal condition. But we’re not making any predictions.
The Simpsons was not alone in predicting Trump’s presidency. Adam Corolla, a comedian who hosts a daily radio show and a weekly podcast, predicted it eight years ago. On his radio show, Corolla said, “He’s gonna be president in eight years. You understand that, everybody?” His co-cost, Theresa Strasser, groaned at this. Corolla repeated his assertion: “He’ll be president one day. It’ll be in our lifetime.”
Corolla’s not infallible. Strasser asked him, “Will he still have Melankia, or whatever her name is?” She obviously meant Melania, Trump’s third wife.
“Oh, no, no no”, Corolla said, “because she will have passed her 38th birthday.”
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