Is a clip from 'The Simpsons' showing fires caused by beams of light proof the TV show predicted the use of directed energy weapons in the Maui wildfires? No, that's not true: The respective episode shows fires triggered by sunlight reflecting off a statue. Lead Stories has previously debunked the claim that DEWs caused the Hawaii wildfires that started on August 8, 2023.
The claim appeared in various languages on TikTok, including in this video (archived here) posted by the Romanian TikTok user @andreynicu on August 15, 2023.
The video's text overlay reads:
Did 'The Simpsons' predict the Hawaii fire? With DEW lasers?
What's next after Hawaii? Who's next?
(All translations from Romanian to English by Lead Stories staff).
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Aug 22 10:38:19 2023 UTC)
The TikToker urges his audience to "pay attention to how much this 'Simpsons' episode looks like what happened in Hawaii."
The cropped clip is from a 2016 'Simpsons' episode called "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus," which contains no references to directed energy weapons. The scene shows fires triggered by sunlight reflecting off a metal statue, as Reuters also explained. A large chrome statue built at the center of town that caused the fires in the episode is left out of this clip.
Directed energy weapons "such as lasers, use energy fired at the speed of light," according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office website, and "can produce force that ranges from deterrent, to damaging, to destructive."
The deadly wildfire that began on the Hawaiian island of Maui on August 8, 2023, was not caused by directed energy weapons, a claim that Lead Stories has debunked. 'The Simpsons' predicting real-world events, such as Queen Elizabeth's death, Donald Trump's death or the new Twitter X logo, is a recurrent trend, and Lead Stories has disproven these claims as well.
