“The Simpsons” showrunner Al Jean said the show’s prediction of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in a 1998 episode is “very sad.”
“In terms of predictions, there are two kinds we have: The trivial, like Don Mattingly getting in trouble for his hair in ‘Homer at the Bat,'” Jean told the Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Thursday.
“And then there are predictions like this,” he added. “I hate to say it, but I was born in 1961, so 30 years of my life were lived with the specter of the Soviet Union. So, to me, this is sadly more the norm than it is a prediction. We just figured things were going to go bad.” (RELATED: Team Biden Launches Plan Straight Out Of ‘The Simpsons’)
.@TheSimpsons Very sad to say this was not hard to predict: https://t.co/oC9LScSHrU
— Al Jean (@AlJean) February 24, 2022
The animated episode he was referring to happened 24 years ago in a part of a show called “Simpson Tide.” It was after Homer Simpson accidently fires the sub captain out of the vessel of a nuclear submarine. The cartoon then cuts to a clip of Russia at the United Nations showing that the USSR was alive and well. Then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin pushes a button on the desk, and troops and tanks suddenly descend upon the streets as the Berlin Wall is instantly resurrected, News18.com noted. (RELATED: FACT CHECK: Did ‘The Simpsons’ Predict The Horned Rioter Would Storm The Capitol?)
WATCH:
The Simpsons predicted the
Crisis of #Putin, #Russia,#Ukraine and #Donetsk and#Luhansk way before it was cool #RussiaUkraineCrisis#Ukraina #ukrainerussia #USA pic.twitter.com/Hqd2icRj6w— Genius Manushya (@GeniusManushya) February 22, 2022
“Historical aggression never really goes away, and you have to be super vigilant,” Jean explained, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “In 1998, when this clip aired, it was maybe the zenith of U.S.-Russia relations. But ever since [Russian President Vladimir] Putin got in, almost everybody has made it clear that he’s a bad guy and bad things are going to happen.”
“There is the kind of prediction, where we reference something that has happened, happening again — we hope it wouldn’t, but sadly, it does,” he added.