The Simpsons showrunner reveals how show predicts future events 34 and counting

For 36 seasons, “The Simpsons” has been right on the money — for the most part.Fans of the beloved sitcom have seen how the show’s writers have been able to serve up hundreds of thousands of jokes while eerily predicting the future.But viewers may be surprised to hear how the magic is really made.“Well, the sourpuss answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things,” showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman told People in an interview published Sunday.“If you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality, and then that’s the math element. And then, the history element is if you make a show that is based on studying the past foolishness of humanity, you are surely going to anticipate the future foolishness of humanity as it sinks further into foolishness fair. So we don’t really think about it.”Selman — who has worked on the series since 1997, starting as a writer — added that the number of predictions the long-running series has made (which currently stands at 34) is “completely unregulated.”The 53-year-old explained that the only thing writers “hate” is when viewers “put obviously fake images online and say, we predicted things that we didn’t.”“It was nicer when the predictions were just predicting real horrible events, not people pretending we predicted horrible events,” he continued, adding that it is “very depressing and dispiriting that people want the magic to be true so bad that they just start” making up scenarios that never appeared on “The Simpsons.”The animated program, created by Matt Groening, debuted on FOX on Dec.

17, 1989.Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer have continued to be the primary voice cast throughout the years.Season 36 premiered on Sept.

29 with an episode dubbed a “series finale,” whic...