Austin Mayor Tells Constituency To Stay Home While He's On Vacation, Drawing Comparisons To 'Simpsons' Bit

2020 has its fair share of Simpsons Did It hoaxes, from a rumor the long-running comedy predicted George Floyd's death to another somehow saying the show predicted Trump's COVID diagnosis. However, yesterday journalists and Twitter users discovered that The Simpsons actually did predict something about 2020 when a small scandal involving Austin, Texas Mayor Steve Adler broke.

On November 9th, Adler told Texans via a Facebook video to stay home and protect themselves from COVID-19. He failed to disclose that he was delivering his message while on vacation in Cabo, Mexico, where he had just flown on a private jet with eight family members and guests.

EXCLUSIVE: Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the public to "stay home if you can…this is not the time to relax" in a Nov. 9 Facebook video. He did not disclose that he was at a timeshare in Cabo San Lucas after flying on a private jet with eight family members and guests. pic.twitter.com/w1uZahGfpM

— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) December 2, 2020

The scandal was yet another "austerity for thee, not for me" story about a hypocritical politician during the pandemic, but what made it particularly notable is that it is basically exactly the same as a 27-year-old Simpsons bit. In the Season 4 episode "Marge In Chains," Mayor Quimby addresses the public saying he had canceled his vacation to the Bahamas due to an epidemic, only to pan out and reveal that he was in fact on vacation in the Bahamas.

The coincidence is yet another way 2020 has lined up with this particular Simpsons episode, in which Springfield is besieged by an Asian virus called "Osaka Flu" and a sight gag involves the town unleashing killer bees (or Murder Hornets, in 2020 equivalent).

The Simpsons predicted #Austin Mayor Steven Adler traveling to Cabo during a pandemic.@MayorAdler is the Mayor Quimby of Texas politics. pic.twitter.com/UmW7aqgduy

— Kenny Webster (@KenWebsterII) December 3, 2020

Last night I watched an episode of the Simpsons season 4 where a flu from China takes over Springfield. Mayor Quimby gives a live video address from what looks like his office, but is actually a resort. Amazing. https://t.co/qXb4Hz0QKk

— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) December 3, 2020

Austin's Mayor Adler is an actual Simpson's Meme. pic.twitter.com/RntafNFJca

— Jake Barnett (@barnettjake) December 3, 2020

There's still one month of 2020 left, so there's still time for more weird Simpsons coincidences to happen. Is there an episode where Santa catches COVID after confirming the existence of aliens?