Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Claim
The Silicon Valley Bank collapse was predicted by The Simpsons, which has a reputation of accurately predicting future events.
Fact
Video has been digitally edited to replace “First Bank of Springfield” with “Silicon Valley Bank”.
Last week, the Silicon Valley Bank in the US went under due to an abrupt back run. The collapse of the company with its headquarters in California, the biggest failure of a US bank since the 2008 crisis, has captured the interest of both social and traditional media globally. Other users noted that The Simpsons, an American animated series that has developed a reputation for accurately predicting future events, had foretold the Silicon Valley Bank collapse as the bank failure continued to generate interest on social media platforms.
Social media users circulated a clip of the fictional series character Bart Simpson allegedly causing ruckus at the bank shouting, “…the bank is out of money?, Insolvent?!…” Those sharing the video claim that the clip is evidence that The Simpsons yet again foretold a major phenomenon years before any such possibility.
Such posts can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Also Read: No, The Simpsons Did Not Predict Queen Elizabeth II’s Death
Fact Check/Verification
On analysing the viral clip, we spotted a watermark of “Kapwing,” a video editing platform, on the right bottom corner of the screen, suggesting that the footage was likely edited. Further, we noticed “/u/Narudatsu” displayed on the screen. Notably “u/___” is the structure for username on Reddit.
Taking a clue, we looked through the profile of u/Narudatsul on Reddit, and found that the user had shared the viral clip on March 11, 2023. The caption of the same read, “What really happened at Silicon Valley Bank,” and it was categorised as “Meme”
Thus, we understand that the viral footage of The Simpsons predicting Silicon Valley Bank collapse appears to have originated as a meme.
We continued our investigation to ascertain more about the viral clip, and looked up “Bart Simpson,” & “bank” on YouTube. This led us to a video by Kalki23, dated October 18, 2010, titled ‘Bart Simpson starts a bank run.’ The description of the YouTube video read, “In the episode The PTA Disbands! of The Simpsons, Bart Simpson causes a bank run by inserting rumours about the bank’s insolvency.”
We compared the two clips and discovered that they were identical, with the exception of the name of the bank seen in the first frame. Instead of “First Bank of Springfield,” the sign in the YouTube clip reads “Silicon Valley Bank” in the popular video.
Another YouTube channel @ThingsICantFindOtherwise, a channel dedicated “primarily to clips from the Simpsons,” carried the footage showing Bart Simpson creating a disorder at First Bank of Springfield.
Further, a Google search for “The PTA Disbands,” & “Simpsons” yielded a transcript of the episode on the website Simpsons Archive. We skimmed through the transcript, and found “BS First Bank Of Springfield” mentioned as one of the signs that was featured in the episode.
The PTA Bandits was aired in 1995, and is a part of Season 6 of iconic American animated sitcom The Simpsons.
Conclusion
We could thus conclude that footage from an episode of The Simpsons from 1995 has been digitally altered to falsely claim that the well-known American sitcom foresaw the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in 2023.
Result: Altered Media
Sources
Reddit Post By u/Narudatsul, Dated March 11, 2023
YouTube Video By Kalki23, Dated October 18, 2010
Simpsons Archive Website
Self Analysis
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
