90-Second Read: Did The Simpsons predict the Hantavirus?

The animated series is also said to have predicted Donald Trump's presidency What is it with The Simpsons and predicting the future? While there's an argument that linking the Hantavirus with The Simpsons isn't the same as saying the moon landings were faked, it's worth considering that these theories are often spread so that people can claim to have knowledge of something that others don't. But as we've shown, even a small amount of fact-checking, such as a reverse image search on one of the posts claiming that The Simpsons cruise ship had Hantavirus graffiti, shows that there's no truth behind this particular theory. It's happened again with the Hantavirus that hit the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius.

This is a sad story, but that hasn't stopped some people on socials linking it to an episode of The Simpsons from 2012. TikTok posts claiming the episode featured a cruise ship with 'Hantavirus' sprayed across it are also fake. When people say The Simpsons can predict the future, it's an example of a conspiracy theory. In A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again, main characters Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie go on a luxury cruise.

Whether it's Donald Trump's presidency, the Baltimore bridge collapse or fire at Notre Dame cathedral, the cartoon family from Springfield, USA, has become famous for their adventures to foretell major events years before they happen. But as BBC Bitesize Other Side of the Story has explained before, those claims of uncanny predictions are not exactly true. For a start, the virus situation in The Simpsons isn't real. The Simpsons' executive producer, Matt Helman, also confirmed in an email to the news agency Reuters, a trusted source, that the connection between the two was fake news and some images from the episode appearing on socials had been altered to look that way.

In 2025's Teen Summit survey carried out by BBC Bitesize and BBC Radio 5, just over half of the teenagers surveyed said they had seen conspiracy theories online, but 18% weren't sure if they had or not. Not sure if the news you're seeing on social media is true or false? These theories aren't always true and they're described as a belief that secret, influential groups are controlling world events behind the scenes.