Video claiming to show 'The Simpsons' predict the April 8 eclipse is fabricated | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
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The claim: Video shows 'The Simpsons' predicted April 8 eclipse

An April 2 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a man listening to a cartoon character from “The Simpsons” deliver "breaking news" about the April 8 solar eclipse.

“This is set to be the last solar eclipse for two decades,” the character says, before mentioning “strange preparations” being made ahead of the eclipse, including schools closing for the day and National Guard troops mobilizing to certain areas.

The man in the video then questions how "The Simpsons" could have knowledge of preparations being made for the eclipse.

"It’s very interesting that people say what’s on movies and what’s on television is fake, but the Simpsons know exactly what’s going on in this reality," he says. "How is that possible? ... It's connected to this reality."

The post was shared more than 1,000 times in a week. The video was first shared on TikTok where it was liked more than 50,000 times.

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Our rating: Altered

This video is fabricated with AI. A newscast about the April 8 eclipse does not appear in any episode of "The Simpsons." The video comes from a TikTok channel that creates AI-generated content.

'Simpsons' AI-generated content has started to trend

The video of the Simpsons character presenting the news comes from a TikTok channel called Brokman_News, which labels its content as AI-generated in its bio. The channel uses the likeness of the show’s character Kent Brockman, a news anchor, to report about real-life events.

“The Simpsons” has aired at least two episodes in the past about a solar eclipse: “Marge vs. the Monorail” in Season 4 and “Gone Maggie Gone” in Season 20. But neither mention the April 8 solar eclipse specifically.

There are no credible news reports about the animated sitcom predicting or depicting the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Fact check: No, episode of 'The Simpsons' did not predict solar superstorm in 2024

USA TODAY has debunked other false posts that passed off AI-generated content as if it came from the show, including an image of characters watching the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and another of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as a character running away from police.

Matt Selman, one of the sitcom's co-showrunners, wrote about the fabricated images on X, formerly Twitter.

“Sadly #TheSimpsons ‘predictions’ are now meaningless. People so desperately want to believe in the show's ‘magic powers’ – or are just very lazy – that they ignore that obviously fake images of the so-called predictions cannot be traced to any actual episode,” Selman wrote, pointing to the bridge picture as an example.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The TikTok user couldn't be reached for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Simpsons' did not predict eclipse, video is AI | Fact check