The great minds behind The Simpsons are once again hoping to do what they do best, and have this evening made a prediction about this year's Academy Awards ceremony.
For those in need of a reminder, the long-standing cartoon has a reputation of always being right on the money with future events.
Most famously, in 1999, an episode looking ahead saw Lisa Simpson voted for president, after which one of her advisors tells her, 'We inherited quite the budget crunch from President Trump' - seemingly predicting the father-of-five's transition into politics.
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And just last week, producers of the animation 'did it again' with tech boss Elon Musk, who was compared to The Simpsons supervillain Hank Scorpio, after being seen waving a chainsaw around the stage during the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this month (19 Feb).
As we say, however, it's a prediction the show has made about tonight's Oscars ceremony that has set tongues wagging.
On The Simpsons official Instagram account, a snap has been shared of a cartoon version of comedian-actor Conan O'Brien, who is presenting this year's star-studded soiree.
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"We predict... Conan is going to crush it as the Oscars host!" the caption read.
And the comments have since come crawling in.
A 1994 episode of the cult cartoon classic previously saw mischievous youngster Bart Simpson being interviewed by O'Brien on the show, who famously broke into dancing.
And many viewers have seemingly been brought right back to that nostalgic moment.
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"Sit perfectly still, only he may dance," one fan wrote in the comments of the latest social media post, looking back on the episode.
Another jibed: "Only I may dance!"
The biggest Oscars snubs ever
Citizen Kane loses to How Green Was My Valley (1942)
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Orson Welles’ epic tale of the rise and fall of a media baron topped BFI’s Sight & Sound poll of the best films ever made for 40 years, but this apparently wasn’t enough to win an Academy Award.
The gong instead went to How Green Was My Valley, which it’s fair to say has not stood the test of time to quite the same extent.
To add insult to injury, Welles had a falling out with the Academy prior to the ceremony, and the audience booed every time his name was mentioned.
Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but only took home the statuette for Best Original Screenplay.
E.T. loses to Gandhi (1983)
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Even Richard Attenborough, who ended up winning Best Picture for his biopic Gandhi, thought Steven Spielberg’s E.T. should have won.
He is quoted in Joseph McBride’s Steven Spielberg: A Biography as saying of the moment his win was announced: “I didn’t go to the podium, I went over to Spielberg. He got up, I put my arms round him, and I said, ‘This isn’t right, this should be yours'."
Spielberg’s tale of the bond between a lonely child and a horrifying looking alien remains one of the most beloved films of all time, absolutely dominating the box office following its 1982 release
The Shawshank Redemption loses to Forrest Gump (1995)
While both of these films are pretty much universally adored, The Shawshank Redemption still tops IMDb's 250 highest rated list and is regularly cited as one of the greatest movies of all time.
While in hindsight, the fact the film failed to win any of the seven Oscars it was nominated for is pretty odd, The Shawshank Redemption was a box office bomb, and in the year of its release was massively overshadowed by Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction.
Nevertheless, one fan admitted they were ‘blown away to find out that the movie didn't win a single Academy Award’ on Reddit.
Saving Private Ryan loses to Shakespeare in Love (1999)
In yet another upset for Steven Spielberg, his epic World War Two drama lost out to romcom Shakespeare in Love.
This has since been chalked up to the sinister machinations of Harvey Weinstein, who Den of Geek reports started a ‘whisper campaign’ claiming the only good part of Saving Private Ryan was the first 20 minutes, with the rest being ‘sentimental hokum’.
DreamWorks marketer Terry Press recalls Spielberg telling him ‘I do not want to get down in the mud with Harvey’ when he was urged to fight back amid Weinstein’s bullish campaign tactics.
Brokeback Mountain loses to Crash (2000)
The following year saw another shock Best Picture upset, with the widely reviled Crash triumphing over Brokeback Mountain.
A Reddit user called it ‘truly the greatest robbery of all time’.
Director Ang Lee claimed in a 2024 Deadline interview that support for his tragic gay love story ‘had a ceiling’ amid the Academy of the time.
He even recalls being told to stay in the wings of the stage in-between his Best Director win and the announcement of Best Picture, being told by a stage manager: “Everybody assumes you will win.”
It’s clear this one still hurts for many cinephiles, with one calling Crash’s win ‘absolutely criminal’.
Topics: Celebrity, US News, TV And Film, Oscars
Rhianna Benson