Many people couldn’t help but draw similarities between Inauguration Day 2021 and the past. No, they weren’t comparing it to past presidential inaugurations, but to old scenes in “The Simpsons.”
The 2000 episode “Bart to the Future” is a play on “Back to the Future” – but it very much reflects our present. In the episode, Lisa Simpson, who becomes president, wears a purple jacket and pearls. On Inauguration Day, Vice President Kamala Harris wore the same outfit.
It wasn’t just the attire that was similar. As Lisa sits in the Oval Office, she says her presidency has “inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.”
Getty/”The Simpsons”
Over the past four years, many fans of “The Simpsons” have pointed out that the show predicted Mr. Trump would one day be president. This episode also accurately predicts that a woman would become one of the most powerful leaders in the U.S. after his term.
The parallels between the animated universe and Inauguration Day don’t end there. In “The Simpsons Movie,” from 2007, Tom Hanks voices himself – someone who is generally regarded as an upstanding guy and a low-key, kind celebrity. “Hello. I’m Tom Hanks. The U.S. government has lost its credibility, so it’s borrowing some of mine,” Hanks jokes in the episode.
Fans couldn’t help but point out that Hanks hosted “Celebrating America” on inauguration night. As host of the star-studded show, Hanks was more or less acting as a spokesperson for America – similar to his “credible” Simpsons character, who is a spokesman for a “new” Grand Canyon.
While the show didn’t predict Lady Gaga’s national anthem performance at the inauguration, it predicted elements of her 2017 Super Bowl show back in 2012. And it has made other predictions about entertainment before, like with the explosive outcome of the penultimate episode of “Game of Thrones” — two years before it aired.