As was likely a matter of time, some online are now bandying about theories that this week's Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore was predicted by The Simpsons some unknowable amount of years ago.

The idea that The Simpsons has the gift of prophecy has been around almost as long as The Simpsons. Some major examples that seem to "prove" the theory correct include a 2000 episode that had Donald Trump as President 16 years before that became a reality and a 2003 episode that joked about one of Siegfried and Roy's tigers attacking them, years before precisely that happened.

However, there are plenty of "Simpsons predicted it" examples where the connection is far more tenuous in which The Simpsons, due to having roughly 9 billion episodes, had a plot that resembled a later real-life event.

This case seems to be one of the latter examples, this time mixed with a bit of AI tomfoolery to further spread the idea. Several posts purport to "prove" The Simpsons predicted the bridge collapse, but the only one that has any possible basis in reality is a clip from the season eight episode You Only Move Twice in which Hank Scorpio blows up a bridge in New York City.

It definitely was explosive in the Simpsons episode that predicted this back in 1996. He's a free Mason that writes the show. They already know like a written book what they are doing to us and why. Now research how that bridge will effect the economy pic.twitter.com/UPNQv18tcq

— Marjorie Bishop (@Marjori88206011) March 27, 2024

In this example, a bridge is blown up in a completely different city and by different means than the Baltimore bridge collapse.

Some decided to try and further prove that The Simpsons predicted the disaster, even going so far as to fabricate fake evidence to do so.

One clip shows Kent Brockman, The Simpsons news anchor character, reading the details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in great specificity, causing some confusion on social media as to whether the clip was legitimate.

@brokman_news The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being struck by a container ship. #Baltimore #Bridge #collapse. #Ship #StateOfEmergency ♬ original sound – Brokman_News

The clip comes from the account Brockman_News, which openly states in its bio that it uses AI to have Kent Brockman deliver reports about real-life current events. This detail was missed by some, who began passing around the clip as if it were a legitimate Simpsons scene.

There’s no way , the Simpson have to be manipulating events cause how do they know ??? pic.twitter.com/yVsP2jRLhh

— Junior 🎒 (@SackedByBosa_) March 26, 2024

Finally, there's the above post by NoContextHumans, which sees Homer looking sadly over a collapsed bridge. The account says, "Simpsons was right again," but the image is clearly AI-generated.

It first appeared on TikTok and NoContextHumans received a Community Note correcting the misinformation.

While there have been fairly compelling "Simpsons Called It" coincidences in the past, it seems that there's not much to this latest theory at all.