Vice President Kamala Harris surprised fans when she appeared for a surprise virtual appearance during The Simpsons panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, July 27. The Democratic presidential candidate had been receiving loads of comparisons to the animated sitcom’s beloved character Lisa Simpson, especially when fans noticed a similarity to an episode where Lisa becomes a president and rocks a purple pantsuit, similar to one that Harris wore during the 2021 inauguration.
Before the clip was shown, series creator Matt Groening said that they had a message from a “superfan” at the panel. The pre-recorded message was then shown to close out the exciting panel. Harris quoted a line from the October 1996 episode “Treehouse of Horror VII.” She read, “We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom,” according to People. It’s not clear if the clip shown was recently filmed or not. TMZ reported that sources close to the show said that the video was actually an old clip, recorded about 11 years ago.
This clip is about 11 years old. Vice President kamala harris says a quote from The Simpsons season eight’s episode
“Treehouse of Horror VII” https://t.co/vjlgSxwQDJ pic.twitter.com/RiOHzcjK4P— Kay Henry🍉 (@floridadropout) July 28, 2024
The short video was shared shortly after it was announced that Harris would step up to seek the Democratic nomination for the 2024 election, after President Joe Biden announced he was stepping out of the race. After Harris stepped into the race, many Simpsons fans began drawing the similarities to Lisa in the episode “Bart to the Future,” where Bart time travels to learn that his sister has become president.
Besides the similarities in the purple pantsuit, the president that Lisa follows is none other than Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016, but was defeated by Biden, who had Harris as his VP, in the 2020 race. After people began sharing the side-by-side photos of Harris and Lisa, Simpsons writer Al Lean tweeted his excitement about the similarities. “@TheSimpsons ‘prediction’ I’m proud to be a part of,” he said. As many people like to say, The Simpsons did it first.