An episode of The Simpsons was quietly pulled from Channel 4 over the weekend following the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump.
The world’s longest running cartoon has form for seemingly predicting real life events, including former reality TV star Mr Trump’s rise to the White House.
The episode titled ‘Lisa the Iconoclast’ was due to air on Sunday at 1pm, one day after the attack on July 14, but was switched out for another without explanation.
Eagle-eyed fans online speculated that it could be due to a scene in the episode which sees a law enforcement officer perched on a nearby rooftop, taking aim at character Lisa Simpson as she stands at a podium in a rally.
This seemingly mirrors what happened with Mr Trump, who was shot as he addressed a crowd at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
The episode’s synopsis reads: “Lisa finds out that Springfield’s founder was a murderous pirate who tried to assassinate George Washington, and decides her fellow citizens should know the truth.”
Instead, the broadcaster aired the episode Baby You Can’t Drive, which follows Marge and Homer Simpson as they work together at a tech company that makes self-driving cars.
Taking to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, one use pondered: “Wondered at first why Channel 4 just pulled the scheduled broadcast of ‘Lisa the Iconoclast’, but I think I get it.”
They also uploaded a still from the episode showing the sniper on a roof near a rally.
Although the sniper in the episode is not an active shooter, fans also speculated that it could have been pulled because of the reference to the attempted assassination of another president.
“Just to add to this that Jebediah Springfield trying to kill George Washington is also a major plot point in the episode, so it might have been pulled because of that without anyone remembering this specific sniper scene,” wrote one person.
The Standard has contacted Channel 4 for comment.
