Titanic submersible tragedy: Simpsons writer who ‘predicted’ sub trip travelled to site last year

Simpsons writer Mike Reiss travelled on OceanGate's submersible last year. Photos / Getty Images, Twitter

Eagle-eyed fans of The Simpsons think the show has predicted history once again - but the show’s veteran writer and producer Mike Reiss has debunked the claims.

The 1998 episode Simpson Tide, written by a team led by Reiss, shows Homer Simpson and his long-lost father Mason Fairbanks getting into two deep-sea submersibles, echoing the Titan’s recent journey that ended in tragedy.

“The Simpsons ahead of the curve - as usual - 25 yrs ago,” one person tweeted yesterday.

what do you mean the simpsons predicted the titanic submarine incident pic.twitter.com/IHUpFV2es1

— kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss) June 22, 2023

But then Reiss stepped in to clear things up, revealing that the episode was actually inspired by the film Crimson Tide.

However, in July 2022, Reiss himself descended 3800m in a submersible to see the Titanic’s wreckage.

He told the New York Post: “That’s my show. Even I forgot about that,” referring to the episode he wrote more than 20 years before he would descend to the wreckage site.

“We did that episode because the movie Crimson Tide had just come out,” he said of the 1995 film starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington.

“We didn’t predict the future, we just did it off that movie and 20 years later, something like that happened.”

The submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. Photo / AP

The Emmy-winning writer-producer travelled in OceanGate Expedition’s Titan submersible with four others last year, having paid more than US$100,000 (NZ$160,000) to make the journey.

He and his wife Denise flew from their home in New York to St John’s in Newfoundland to board the MV Polar Prince and travel 400 miles to the surface above the wreckage site.

Reiss recalled of the experience that “Death is always lurking, it’s always in the back of your mind.

“Before you even get on the boat, there’s a long, long waiver that mentions death three times on page one.”

Reiss returned safely, but this morning it was confirmed by searchers that those on the most recent OceanGate expedition died after the submersible imploded.

It’s not the first time the long-running cartoon show has supposedly predicted historic events.

Fans claimed it predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine in an episode that aired in 1998.

A clip from the episode titled Simpson Tide shows a UN meeting between Russia and the US that results in Russia announcing the revival of the Soviet Union, with a zombie-like Lenin rising from the dead to “crush capitalism”.

In early 2021, some were convinced the show also predicted the US Capitol riots, with one episode showing riots and looting in Springfield after Homer Simpson neglected to vote.

There are countless other examples - some more convincing than others - of times the show predicted the future, from Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox to the censoring of Michelangelo’s statue of David and a regular person being sent to space.