{"id":397927,"date":"2022-02-21T14:20:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T22:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theaegisalliance.com\/?p=397927"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:23:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:23:47","slug":"united-kingdom-man-gets-paid-to-watch-the-simpsons-for-its-predictions-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/2022\/02\/21\/un-britannique-est-paye-pour-regarder-les-simpson-et-ses-predictions-du-futur\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Researcher Alexander Townley Gets Paid to Watch The Simpsons for Predictions. The Gag Still Works Because the Show Keeps Hitting"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1074493\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1074493\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1074493\" src=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UK-man-gets-paid-to-watch-The-Simpsons-for-its-predictions-of-the-future-2.jpg\" alt=\"The Simpsons family beside researcher Alexander Townley, paid to catalogue the show's predictions\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1074493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Simpsons family (left, 20th Century Fox) and Alexander Townley (right, Jam Press).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND \u2014<\/strong> Alexander Townley, 26, got paid about \u00a35,000 \u2014 $6,804 in the 2022 write-ups \u2014 to sit with every episode of <em>The Simpsons<\/em> and catalogue the gags that later looked like prophecy. <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/02\/21\/i-get-paid-to-watch-the-simpsons-for-their-predictions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New York Post<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ladbible.com\/community\/man-paid-5k-to-watch-the-simpsons-20220221\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LADbible<\/a> treated it as a dream job. The list is famous: Lisa Simpson inheriting a budget crunch from President Trump in the 2000 episode \u00ab\u00a0Bart to the Future,\u00a0\u00bb Disney buying Fox, auto-correcting phones, smartwatches, a Lady Gaga Super Bowl. Thirty-plus seasons of a show that throws everything at the wall will hit a few times. The job is to clip the hits.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"755\" height=\"900\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-397958\" src=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UK-man-gets-paid-to-watch-The-Simpsons-for-its-predictions-of-the-future-3.jpg\" alt=\"The Simpsons predictions stills\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-397959\" src=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UK-man-gets-paid-to-watch-The-Simpsons-for-its-predictions-of-the-future-4.jpg\" alt=\"Alexander Townley researching The Simpsons\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\">\n<div  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_53921\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" data-facadesrc=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2y7KPf69IeY?enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=0&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__ epyt-facade epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" data-epautoplay=\"1\" ><img decoding=\"async\" data-spai-excluded=\"true\" class=\"epyt-facade-poster skip-lazy\" loading=\"lazy\"  alt=\"The Most TERRIFYING Simpsons Predictions For 2026 That Are Already Coming True\"  src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/2y7KPf69IeY\/maxresdefault.jpg\"  \/><button class=\"epyt-facade-play\" aria-label=\"Play\"><svg data-no-lazy=\"1\" height=\"100%\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 68 48\" width=\"100%\"><path class=\"ytp-large-play-button-bg\" d=\"M66.52,7.74c-0.78-2.93-2.49-5.41-5.42-6.19C55.79,.13,34,0,34,0S12.21,.13,6.9,1.55 C3.97,2.33,2.27,4.81,1.48,7.74C0.06,13.05,0,24,0,24s0.06,10.95,1.48,16.26c0.78,2.93,2.49,5.41,5.42,6.19 C12.21,47.87,34,48,34,48s21.79-0.13,27.1-1.55c2.93-0.78,4.64-3.26,5.42-6.19C67.94,34.95,68,24,68,24S67.94,13.05,66.52,7.74z\" fill=\"#f00\"><\/path><path d=\"M 45,24 27,14 27,34\" fill=\"#fff\"><\/path><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The gag still prints because the writers have been mocking the same American future for three decades, and America keeps cooperating. In 2024 outlets lined the 2016 episode \u00ab\u00a0Friends and Family\u00a0\u00bb up against Apple&rsquo;s Vision Pro. Trump&rsquo;s return to the ballot made the chalkboard gag \u2014 \u00ab\u00a0Being right sucks\u00a0\u00bb \u2014 look like a second punchline. The AEGIS Alliance will not baptize a cartoon as intelligence. We will say coincidence plus volume plus a writers&rsquo; room that reads the newspaper is not a crystal ball. It is a mirror that got lucky.<\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2021\/08\/08\/trevor-moore-dies\/\">Trevor Moore and The Whitest Kids U&rsquo; Know<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2021\/08\/13\/british-foot-fetish\/\">Richard Cove and NHS 111<\/a>, and more <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/category\/news\/odd-news\/\">Odd News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nottingham researcher Alexander Townley was paid about \u00a35,000 to catalogue The Simpsons&rsquo; apparent predictions, from Trump&rsquo;s presidency to gadget launches. Later comparisons include Apple&rsquo;s Vision Pro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":1074493,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,21,194624,204522,204504],"tags":[205945,205946,52,218903,206172,218904,188560,189217],"class_list":["post-397927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news","category-news","category-odd-news","category-other-videos","category-videos","tag-entertainment","tag-entertainment-news","tag-news","tag-simpsons","tag-the-simpsons","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/UK-man-gets-paid-to-watch-The-Simpsons-for-its-predictions-of-the-future-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397927"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199486,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397927\/revisions\/1199486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}