Fact check: Did the Simpsons predict the Coldplay kiss cam?

Hardly any social media user has been able to ignore this video since last week: The CEO of Astronomer and the company's HR manager, tightly embraced at a Coldplay concert, turn away in embarrassment when the "kiss cam" captures them. Because: Both are married, but unfortunately not to each other. According to viral social media posts, things got even better: The US animated series "The Simpsons " allegedly predicted the kiss cam moment years in advance – like many other events before it, users say.

The rumor spread across various social media platforms, including TikTok , X ( archived ), Instagram ( archived ), and Facebook ( archived ), in various languages. Some posts garnered millions of views, and some even included specific details ( archived ), such as the season, episode, and airdate from which the alleged Simpsons screenshot was supposedly taken. The DW fact-checking team has examined the alleged predictions of Bart, Homer, and co.

Claim: "Did The Simpsons really predict the Coldplay concert incident in a 2003 episode? (The alleged affair or sighting of Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot)," reads this post on X , which includes a still from the Kiss Cam footage next to an image that appears to show a similar scene from the animated series "The Simpsons."

DW Fact Check: False

Most versions of the rumor claim the prediction was made in season 26, episode 10, "The Man Who Came for Dinner." The episode premiered in the US on January 4, 2015, and centers on the Simpson family being abducted by aliens during a visit to an amusement park. The episode is available on streaming platforms and can be watched here . The problem is: There's no such scene in this episode.

Another episode, Season 17, Episode 22, "Home Run for Love," does contain a kiss-cam scene, but it takes place at a baseball game. And the kissing characters are Marge and Homer—so that doesn't fit either. You can watch this scene here .

The screenshot of the alleged prediction circulating online was therefore most likely generated by artificial intelligence or digitally manipulated. The DW fact-checking team uploaded the image to several AI detection platforms, including AIorNot , which classified it as "likely AI-generated." Hive Moderation even estimates that it is 99.9 percent "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content."

This isn't the first time "The Simpsons" has allegedly predicted future events. For example, this one:

Donald Trump as US President

One of the most famous alleged predictions from "The Simpsons": that Donald Trump would become President of the United States.

In Season 11, Episode 17, Lisa Simpson mentions Donald Trump in connection with a US presidency – and she did so on March 19, 2000, as shown here in German. In the episode, set in the future, Lisa is the incumbent US president and suggests that real estate magnate Trump was her predecessor and caused a budget crisis. In 2015, media outlets cited the episode as a precursor to Trump's then-emerging presidential candidacy.

However, the image often used to prove the alleged "presidential prediction" comes from a short episode called "Trumptastic Voyage" from the 25th season, which aired in July 2015, long after Trump had announced his candidacy. The image shows Trump and Homer on an escalator in front of a crowd. The animated scene is based on a real photo from June of that year.

Bridge collapse near Baltimore in 2024

Another viral post claimed that "The Simpsons" predicted the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge near Baltimore in March 2024. It shows Homer and Lisa witnessing the event. At first glance, the image looks real, but again, the devil is in the details. There are some indications that the image was indeed generated by an AI—but you'd have to look very closely and be a true Simpsons expert.

If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice that Lisa's hair has ten points, while the real character from the animated series only has eight. Homer's hair also has flaws: The zigzag lines are significantly narrower than in the series.

COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

Here, too, many people online have claimed that the show predicted it: the COVID-19 pandemic . They are referring to Season 4, Episode 21, titled "Marge Gets Arrested," which can be seen here in German. In the episode, several Springfield residents order juice machines from Osaka, Japan. One of the factory workers is sick and coughs into the cartons, spreading the so-called "Osaka Flu."

The only similarity between the "Osaka Flu" and COVID-19 is that both originated in East Asia. The fictitious flu didn't lead to a global lockdown, a pandemic, or millions of deaths. In contrast, COVID-19 was far more severe, resulting in over 7 million deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) .

Why are the Simpsons sometimes right?

While many of the so-called "Simpsons predictions" circulating online are either misattributed or completely fake, the show's creators were surprisingly accurate with their predictions in some cases, as you can read here .

How does this happen? And what do the creative minds behind the series say about this phenomenon? Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons," has explained that the show's writers always try to imagine the most absurd possible outcomes for their episodes: "We've made so many jokes over the course of the many seasons we've done that it was clear that we're bound to get something right at some point," he said of this phenomenon at a fan event.

Edited by Tetyana Klug. Adapted from English by Friedel Taube.