The "Supermarket Shortages and Hoarding" (COVID-19)

The Simpsons has earned quite the reputation for seemingly predicting the future. It’s actually a bit of a meme at this point, with fans pointing out how many things in the real world appear to have been "predicted" by the show, sometimes years in advance. While some of these predictions are purely coincidental or the result of broad satire, others do seem oddly prescient.

The "Supermarket Shortages and Hoarding" (COVID-19)

• What happened: In "Marge in Chains" (1993), during the outbreak of the Osaka Flu, there are scenes showing people rushing to supermarkets, panic-buying, and creating shortages of essential items like toilet paper and food.
• Reality: This mirrors the panic buying and supermarket shortages seen during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, where items like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and canned goods flew off the shelves, and many stores ran out of stock. The societal panic and hoarding behavior predicted in the episode became a reality.