‘The Simpsons’ Showrunner Unveils the Animated Series’ Method of Constantly Predicting Future Events (Exclusive)

The list of global events predicted by ‘The Simpsons’ now stands at 34, and showrunner Matt Selman shares with PEOPLE the key to their success

The Simpsons they have been right about many things over the years.

Fans of the show have long witnessed the ability of the FOX show’s writers to predict several important current events. From Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox to Donald Trump’s presidency and, most recently, Vice President Kamala Harris’s purple outfit, The Simpsons is on a winning streak.

However, the method of their magic is not as flashy or amazing as fans might imagine.

Related: ‘The Simpsons’ Will Explain How They Predicted Several Future Events in Season 34 Episode

“Well, the sour answer I always give that no one likes is that if you study history and math, it would literally be impossible for us not to predict certain things,” showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman tells PEOPLE exclusively. “If you say enough things, some of them will match reality, and there will be a mathematical element to it. And the historical element is that if you make a show based on the study of humanity’s past stupidity, we’re certainly going to predict humanity’s future stupidity as it sinks deeper and deeper into stupidity, fairly, so we don’t really think about it.

Noting that the list of things expected for the series (currently 34) is “totally unsettled,” Selman – who has been working on the series since 1997, starting as a writer – claims that the only thing the writers “hate” is when fans “put obviously fake photos on the internet and say we predicted things we didn’t.”

“It was nicer when the predictions predicted really terrible events, rather than people pretending to predict terrible events,” he says, adding that “what’s very depressing and depressing is that people want magic to be real so badly that after they just start doing it. scripts that never appeared on the show.

The Simpsonscreated by Matt Groening, it debuted on FOX on December 17, 1989. Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer round out the series’ main voice cast.

The long-running animated show is currently in its 36th season, which premiered on September 29, and the episode was dubbed the “series finale,” causing confusion among viewers who watched it. Selman raves about the episode’s “bold premise,” saying “it really worked beautifully.”

“What we may have lost sight of before it premiered on linear TV, I think we’ll probably do well on streaming and people will be like, ‘Wow, I heard that’s crazy. I have to check it out,’” he says. , repeating that “it wasn’t a finale, just a fun experiment in stupidity.”

Related: The Simpsons Season 36 Premiere Meta ‘Series Finale’ Episode Aired: How They Did It (Exclusive)

The new season has many more surprises in store, although Selman believes that “teasing” what’s to come could have adverse effects.

“I’m worried that if we told anyone about this idea before it aired, there would be a stir on the Internet and news The Simpsons it’s actually coming to an end,” he says. “And then somehow it will manifest. We would have predicted our famous prophecies – we would have predicted our own deaths.

However, Selman can say there are several special episodes coming, including one airing on Sunday, October 6 that will be a “parody” of several popular shows. The series will also return with the 35th edition of the iconic Halloween-themed “Treehouse of Horror” anthology episode, as well as several specials that will premiere exclusively on Disney+.

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The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

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