The authors use the sitcom to secretly prepare the public for actual events, a top regional cleric has claimed

People behind The Simpsons use the animated sitcom to "program" the audience and prepare it for real-life events, a senior Russian mufti has claimed. 

Mufti Aynur Birgalin, the chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Russia's Muslim-majority Bashkortostan Republic, went viral on Wednesday after an excerpt from his sermon was shared online. During a gathering of Muslims in the regional capital of Ufa, Birgalin said that the Simpsons "predicted" actual events, such as pandemics. 

Fans have long joked that during its nearly 40-year run, the animated comedy show predicted many historical events, including the presidency of Donald Trump. 

Birgalin, however, argued that "behind-the-scenes conductors" use the show to influence the public.

"We often hear that The Simpsons are supposedly predicting the future. But let's think about it. Can it be mere coincidences? No, of course not," the cleric told the news website Gazeta.ru on Wednesday. "These are not predictions but the deliberate work of specific forces to implant certain concepts via pop culture to test the public's reaction and prepare people for different events," he claimed.

Birgalin suggested that movies, TV shows, and memes are being used to "program" the audience and control how they think. The mufti claimed that the plot of the American series Madam Secretary is "nearly 90% identical" to the real-life events in Ukraine. The show centered around fictional US Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord ran from 2015 to 2016. It had a Ukrainian character with the last name Zelinsky, which sounds similar to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who was elected president in 2019.

"A coincidence? No. It is a pre-planned scenario. It is not a joke. It is not a cause for laughter, but a serious signal to think about," Birgalin stated.

In 2024, The Simpsons showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman told People magazine, "If you study history and math, it would be literally impossible for us not to predict things." He added that "if you say enough things, some of them are going to overlap with reality."