Fans of The Simpsons were forced to step in after it was claimed the series had possibly predicted this year’s Super Bowl 2022 winner.
The 56th Super Bowl took place on Sunday (13 February) at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Facing off this year were the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams, with the latter beating the Bengals.
However, ahead of the event, a series of Simpsons stills shared online convinced people that the animated series once predicted a win for the losers.
The stills were taken from the eighth episode of season 16, which is titled “Homer and Ned’s Hail Mary Pass”. Originally broadcast in February 2005, the Super Bowl-themed episode arrived after the New England Patriots won for the third time.
The episode sees Homer become a viral sensation thanks to a victory dance filmed by Ned Flanders, which is then put on the internet by Comic Book Guy.
After his dance gains popularity, Homer is recruited by NFL bigwigs to help choreograph the halftime show. As they arrive at his house in Springfield, they tell him: “Mr Simpson, we work for the commissioner of football and he wants to see you.”
Homer replies: “I want to see him too. Maybe he can tell me how to get this off; it's soaked through to the other side.”
He lifts up his vest to show that “Go Bengals” has been written on his stomach in permanent marker.
However, the other stills show cheerleaders at the Super Bowl as well as a news report suggesting the Bengals won, which naturally left those who haven’t watched the show thinking The Simpsons once predicted a win for the Bengals.
But this is not the case: while the stills were taken from episodes of the show, and Homer really did get “Go Bengals” written on his stomach, the headline hinting at a Bengals win was added in by the person who created the post. What’s more is that the Bengals ended up losing to the Rams.
This made it yet another example of a Simpsons moment being manipulated in the hope that it would convince people the show has eerily predicted future events correctly.
Performing this year’s Super Bowl halftime show were Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J Blige, and Kendrick Lamar.
While unconfirmed, it’s not thought that Homer Simpson inspired any part of their performance.
