‘Simpsons’ Conspiracy Theorists Believe That Matt Groening Is Ex-CIA

The Simpsons has generated a lot of wild theories over the years, from the claims that it was Homer, not Maggie, who shot Mr. Burns, to speculation that Bart is a secret Stonecutter, to the bizarre hypothesis that radiation from the nuclear plant has engulfed the town of Springfield in some kind of hopelessly inescapable time loop (hence why decades pass, but no character ever ages).

Now, some fans are taking their conspiracy theorizing to even greater extremes by suggesting that the show’s creator, Matt Groening, is secretly an ex-spy. You know, like James Bond, if James Bond got his MI6 job by drawing cartoon bunny rabbits.

Seemingly inspired by the many spurious claims that the show can “predict” real world events, some folks online have been suggesting that this is all due to the fact that Groening is a former CIA agent, which is why he was able to “prophesize” everything from U.S. election results to ebola virus outbreaks, a thing that definitely existed prior to 1997.

One person on social media proposed (using conspicuously doctored Simpsons screen grabs) that the ex-CIA operative Groening even hid references to upcoming events like the death of Joe Biden and a horrific nuclear attack — oh wait, the attack was scheduled to happen on May 5, 2024. Maybe the CIA’s precogs screwed up their math? 

The theory prompted an in-depth investigation from professional internet debunkers Snopes, which concluded that the rumor “appears to be a hoax that started from social media platforms,” adding that there is “no credible evidence to support this claim.” They also pointed out that Groening’s backstory is pretty well-documented. It’s true, from what we can tell, Groening was born in Portland, Oregon, attended Evergreen State College, created the popular alternative comic Life in Hell, and then hastily threw together the Simpson family characters while waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks’ office. 

Unless, of course, that’s just what the Deep State wants us to believe. 

Snopes also pointed out that this isn’t the first time people have cobbled together harebrained theories about Groening in order to explain the show’s apparent cultural foresight, like how people insisted that he was really a time traveler who had journeyed to the past with his knowledge of future events (not to mention his knowledge of future head museums and Bachelor Chow). Or maybe it’s really due to his connections to the Freemasons, who apparently orchestrated every significant global event of the past three decades? No word on whether or not they were responsible for the celebrity of Steve Guttenberg.

We should probably point out that Groening doesn’t actually write for the show currently, and in fact, he only has writing credits on a grand total of 10 episodes in the show’s 35-year run. But that’s probably because he was too busy traveling the globe and taking out enemy combatants. 

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