An episode of the animated series "The Simpsons" is being interpreted as a prediction of a conflict in the fall of this year in Kosovo.
The allegations are based on part of the episode 20th of season sixteen entitled "Home Away from Homer" or in Albanian "At Home Far From Homer", broadcast in 2005.
In this episode, the animated characters in the American series go to the cinema for a screening of a film titled, as seen in the image, "Kosovo Autumn" (see here part of the episode shared as a video on TikTok).
The film in this episode talks about the people of Kosovo who are at war, illustrating it with the image of two soldiers speaking in Albanian in an unknown space.
Conspiracy theorists see this as a warning for war in Kosovo this fall.
Hibrid.info brings publications with these types of claims made in some of the Albanian-language media:
Publication in the show "Komplot" on RTV Dakagjini:
Publication on the show "Albania Live" on Top-Channel:
Publication on the show "7pa5" on Vizion Plus:
Arianit Sllamniku appears in all three shows., who is known to the public as a protagonist for his conspiracy ideas.
In the show "Komplot", he claims without facts that there has been a warning of a conflict in Kosovo in the fall of this year, linking it to several events in the region but also in Ukraine (see the show from the sixth minute).
In fact, the claim was also made by the video that went viral is part of episode 20 of season 16 called Home AWay from Homer , which was broadcast on May 15, 2005.
In this particular episode, the character named Lisa wins tickets to the screening of the film, which in this episode is titled "Kosovar Autumn".
Meanwhile, two soldiers are also seen in the stills from the series, which suggests that a war situation is being depicted. In one part of this episode, the Simpson family looks at movie posters before the screening, including one titled "Oppenheimer's Elevator."
However, in this episode, claims were made about a prediction of a conflict or war in Kosovo in 2023.
Production of the 16th season of this animated film began on November 7, 2004 and ended in May 2005, which means 4 to 5 years after the end of the war in Kosovo (June 1999) (here, here)
While in 2004, unrest also occurred in Kosovo, known as "The March 2004 riots".
Other influential events that occurred in and for Kosovo during that period include when the American organization, the United States Institute of Peace, issued a document in March 2005 stating that the process of deciding on Kosovo's future status should begin in 2005. (here)
A little later, in October 2005, the UN Security Council decided that “it is time to begin a political process to determine the future status of Kosovo.” (here)
This episode of the animated series "The Simpsons" has also been interpreted in other conspiratorial ways.
Some Albanian-language media outlets, in 2021, had published articles claiming that this episode predicted the good performance of the feature film "Zgjoi" at international festivals, where it also won several awards (see here Gazetaexpress.com article published in November 2021).
The same episode was also used to claim other predictions by some Albanian-language media (see example here)
This claim has also been addressed by the Fact-Checking Platform in Serbia.Truth meter” addressed this claim based on a Serbian-language video that says it is “particularly interesting” that the film about “father of the atomic bomb” Robert Oppenheimer is currently in theaters. “So, it’s about this year.” Autumn of Kosovo, this year,” the video concludes.
So, Oppenheimer's film is taken as additional fact to reinforce the claim that it is about the fall of this year (2023) despite the fact that the episode was broadcast in May 2005.
However, not even the Oppenheimer movie poster adds strength to the "evidence" for predicting war in Kosovo in the fall.
Books and various film adaptations about the nuclear bomb scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer, have been made before (see examples). here)
also The book "American Prometheus" (American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer) by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, based on which Nolan's "Oppenheimer" was filmed, which premiered on July 21 of this year (2023), was released in 2006.
Even then, it was known that the book would be adapted to the screen in some way. Meanwhile, the "father of the atomic bomb", physicist Robert Oppenheimer, was the central subject of many documentaries, series, books, plays, and even operas.
The Simpsons didn't predict that the film would be a prelude to any war, but it's another conspiracy prediction.
Analyze:
It was claimed that a 2005 episode of The Simpsons about the film "Kosovo Autumn" in which two soldiers are seen on stage, predicts war in Kosovo during the fall of this year.
No facts are provided to prove that The Simpsons predicted a war in the fall as claimed.
Based on the working methodology, hibrid.info considers this interpretation to be a "conspiracy theory".
Rating:
"Conspiracy theories" are media reports that disseminate a false or unverifiable description of a phenomenon, event, or person, presenting it as part of or the result of a secret plan ("conspiracy"). A characteristic of these reports is that they present a series of claims, presented as facts, between which cause-effect relationships are established, without providing any credible evidence.