The tragedy of the Titan submersible — which disappeared on Sunday en route to the Titanic wreckage and is now thought to have imploded with five people inside — has unexpectedly prompted a lot of online chatter about The Simpsons.
The series released a 1998 episode in which Homer travels in a submersible to a shipwreck before getting stranded, which does sound a lot like recent events. Here are a few tweets about an episode that now seems downright foreboding:
The episode, titled “Simpson Tide,” aired as episode 19 of the series’ ninth season. But despite several misunderstandings online, it wasn’t actually about the Titanic.
What is “Simpson Tide” about?
In the episode, Homer is in the Naval Reserve and joins explorer (and Homer’s potential father) Mason Fairbanks to find the wreckage of a sunken sailing ship carrying treasure. Upon trying to seize the loot via pods with robotic arms, Homer gets lost and trapped in a coral reef. He then passes out while calling for Fairbanks and awakens from a coma days later.
The New York Post talked with Simpsons writer/producer Mike Reiss, who not only helped write the episode — but get this — actually traveled in Titan last summer to see the Titanic on the ocean floor.
However, Reiss explained, The Simpsons didn’t predict the Titan incident. In fact, the episode was actually inspired by the 1994 Tony Scott thriller Crimson Tide, starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman. Reiss said, “We didn’t predict the future. We just did it off that movie, and 20 years later, something like that happened.”
As far as how he feels about traveling in the very sub that seemingly imploded after several warnings were voiced about its safety, Reiss simply said he knew the risks when he took the trip. He noted, “Before you even get on the boat, there’s a long, long waiver that mentions death three times on page one.”
Guess we should all start actually reading the contracts we sign.