{"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\/nl\/2022\/02\/21\/een-verenigd-koninkrijk-de-mens-wordt-betaald-om-te-kijken-naar-de-simpsons-voor-zijn-voorspellingen-van-de-toekomst\/","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 &#8220;Bart to the Future,&#8221; 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_19328\"  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 &#8220;Friends and Family&#8221; up against Apple&#8217;s Vision Pro. Trump&#8217;s return to the ballot made the chalkboard gag \u2014 &#8220;Being right sucks&#8221; \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&#8217; 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&#8217; 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&#8217; apparent predictions, from Trump&#8217;s presidency to gadget launches. Later comparisons include Apple&#8217;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\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397927"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1199486,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397927\/revisions\/1199486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}