The Simpsons’ tendency for predicting predictions that come true years later simply keeps on coming… Barbie is in the spotlight this time.
Fans of Cypress Hill were pleased earlier this year when the hip hop group confirmed plans to perform with the London Symphony Orchestra, over three decades after their collaboration inspired a comedy joke.
Now, The Simpsons fans have looked into the show’s archives to uncover yet another strange coincidence as Barbie movie craze sweeps the globe, with moviegoers eager to see Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in action as Barbie and Ken.
The Greta Gerwig-directed picture has received critical acclaim, with reviewers describing it as a “dazzlingly bold female dream.”
In 1994, an episode of The Simpsons called Lisa versus Malibu Stacy was produced, in which Lisa implores the doll’s producers to create a toy that delivers a more feminist message to young girls.
In the episode, newsreader Kent Brockman is persuaded by his daughter to produce a newscast on Lisa Lionheart, a new doll created by Lisa and Malibu Stacy designer Stacy Lovell.
Later, the Simpsons family watch Brockman speak on the news about the doll, as he says: ‘Though it was unusual to spend 28 minutes reporting on a doll, this reporter found it impossible to stop talking. It’s just really fascinating news folks. Good night.’
As usual, fans of the animated sitcom were left stunned by the parallels, with one tweeting: ‘The Simpsons did it again.’
‘The Simpsons writers could make billions if they all teamed up to open a psychics hotline and did medium readings. This is wild,’ someone else remarked.
A couple of the persons involved in the Lisa vs Malibu Stacy Simpsons episode spoke out about it before of the debut of the Barbie movie.
Writer Bill Oakley telling Vanity Fair: ‘It particularly seems to resonate with women, I would say. When I meet a female Simpsons fan, that is often the one they cite as their favourite.’
Several Barbie enthusiasts expressed their appreciation for the film, having grown up spending endless hours lost in their own imaginations inventing fantastic worlds for their dolls to live in.
‘I worked in theatre for 16 years and now run a cinema. I honestly think Barbie played a huge part in determining the career path I ended up taking. It rooted imagination, creativity, and escapism at the heart of what makes me a happy human,’ said Lucy Askew, the CEO of Broadway Cinema in Nottingham.
She continued: ‘She also provided a way to create endless worlds and stories, I would play with Barbies from the moment I got up until it was bedtime.
‘Games ranged from playing schools, or hospitals to acting out Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or pretending there was a nuclear war in Barbie world!’
The Simpsons is available to watch on Disney Plus.
