The Simpsons writer calls claims show predicted coronavirus "gross" and "nefarious"

Coronavirus: The symptoms
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Megan C. Hills16 March 2020

A former writer for The Simpsons has debunked claims that the show predicted the coronavirus pandemic, calling it “gross” that people were “misappropriating it to make coronavirus seem like an Asian plot.”

Writer Bill Oakley, who co-wrote an episode some are claiming prophesied the outbreak, has since shut down the claims in an interview.

Over social media, photos and videos from Oakley and his co-writer Josh Weinstein’s season 4 episode ‘Marge in Chains’ have been making the rounds.

Fox

The episode, which aired in 1993, sees a Japanese worker cough into a box which is then transported to Springfield, where residents including Homer Simpson are hit with a disease called the ‘Osaka Flu.’

Marge Simpson is later arrested after she accidentally shoplifts supplies for her sick family.

Clips from the episode uploaded by fans have since racked up millions of views on YouTube. A four panel Facebook post has also been shared widely showing the workers coughing into a box, characters being infected and a doctored image of a Simpsons newscaster with the words “corona virus” on the backdrop.

Facebook's fact checking system has since flagged the post as "False information", redirecting Facebook users to an article titled 'False: There is no evidence "The Simpsons" predicted the coronavirus.'

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Oakley said, “I don't like [the episode] being used for nefarious purposes. The idea that anyone misappropriates it to make coronavirus seem like an Asian plot is terrible. In terms of trying to place blame on Asia — I think that is gross.”

Oakley explained that he had heard of the Hong Kong flu of 1968 in headlines as a child, which was the “antecedent” to the 'Osaka Flu' in the episode.

"There are very few cases where The Simpsons predicted something," Oakley said. "It's mainly just coincidence because the episodes are so old that history repeats itself. Most of these episodes are based on things that happened in the '60s, '70s or '80s that we knew about."

In the episode, the virus operates like a character: “It was meant to be absurd that someone could cough into [a] box and the virus would survive for six to eight weeks in the box. It is cartoonish" he said, "We intentionally made it cartoonish because we wanted it to be silly and not scary, and not carry any of these bad associations along with it, which is why the virus itself was acting like a cartoon character and behaving in extremely unrealistic ways."

Fans also believed that The Simpsons Movie predicted actor Tom Hanks’ quarantine, after the Toy Story actor revealed last week that he and his wife Rita WIlson have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

In the film, Tom Hanks was seen saying, “This is Tom Hanks saying if you see me in person, please, leave me be.”

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