Channel 4 has pulled an episode of The Simpsons over the weekend following the attempted assassination of former US president, Donald Trump . Trump was attending a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday (13 July) when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks took aim at him from a nearby rooftop. The former president left the podium surrounded by the Secret Service.
A bullet scraped his ear, but he is said to be relatively uninjured. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the event had affected Channel 4’s programmed scheduling of The Simpsons . The show is known for covering subject material bearing an uncanny resemblance to reality at times, leading many fans to feel it often prophesies the future .
An episode titled “Lisa the Iconoclast” was due to air at 1pm on Sunday (14 July) – a day after the attack– as the network continued to run episodes from its seventh season. But the episode was abruptly replaced by another instalment from a later season. In the original episode, a law enforcement officer is seen on a nearby rooftop, taking aim at Lisa as she stands at a podium in a rally – similar in appearance to the one attended by Trump on his campaign trail.
A description for the episode summarises, “Lisa finds out that Springfield’s founder was a murderous pirate who tried to assassinate George Washington, and decides her fellow citizens should know the truth.” Instead, the episode was replaced with one from season 30, titled “Baby You Can’t Drive”, which foll.