They did it again! The Simpsons writer says 1993 episode of the hit show about a flu coming from Japan predicted COVID-19 and killer insects taking over in 2020

The Simpsons writers appear to have done it again when it comes to predicting the future.

Twitter users recently found an episode that seemed to predict the arrival of both COVID-19 and 'murder hornets'. 

A Tuesday tweet featuring a clip of the 1993 episode of the hit show with the caption, 'Sh** the simpsons really did predict 2020' was retweeted by show writer Bill Oakley.

'Ok fine, I guess we did,' he wote on the tweet, which has been liked more than 51,000 times. 

The episode - 'Margie in Chains' - is from the show's fourth season and originally aired on May 6, 1993.  The 21st episode of the season shows all of Springfield purchasing a popular juicer made in Japan.  

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A Tuesday tweet featuring a clip of the 1993 episode of the hit show was retweeted by show writer Bill Oakley

A worker in the factory workers coughs into one of the boxes that is shipped to the city, causing everyone to get sick. Margie is arrested for shoplifting while trying to get supplies for her family, who all have the 'Osaka Flu.'

The clip shows a rebellious crowd demanding a cure and causing a ruckus when they aren't pleased with the doctor's response. 

They manage to push over a truck containing killer bees, which folks noted could be a nod to the now the so-called 'murder hornets' which have been spotted in the US.

The two-inch killer insect, more than three times the size of honeybees, has sparked panic after arriving in the US - with sightings reported on the west coast since November.

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The episode - 'Margie in Chains' - is from the show's fourth season and originally aired on May 6, 1993. The 21st episode of the season shows all of Springfield purchasing a popular juicer made in Japan. A flu breaks out that everyone in the city catches

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The clip shows a rebellious crowd demanding a cure and causing a ruckus when they aren't pleased with the doctor's response. They manage to push over a truck containing killer bees, which folks noted could be a nod to the so-called 'murder hornets'

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A researcher holds a dead Asian giant hornet in Blaine, Washington state

Nicknamed the 'murder hornet', their venom is so strong they kill around 50 people a year in their native East Asia and can finish off a mouse in seconds.

One The Simpsons fan said: 'And just like the Simpsons we move on once this episode is over, learn almost nothing from it, and then go on to do something even more stupid.'

Oakley simply responded: 'Exactly.'

The show writer has had to speak out about the episode in question since the coronavirus took over the United States.  

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One Simpson fan said: 'And just like the Simpsons we move on once this episode is over, learn almost nothing from it, and then go on to do something even more stupid.' Oakley simply responded: 'Exactly'

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'I don't like it being used for nefarious purposes,' Oakley said to the Hollywood Reporter in March, after three stills of the episode went viral and compared the 'Osaka Flu' to the problematic 'Chinese Virus' - a name popularized by conservative circles

'I don't like it being used for nefarious purposes,' Oakley said to the Hollywood Reporter in March, after three stills of the episode went viral and compared the 'Osaka Flu' to the problematic 'Chinese Virus' - a name popularized by conservative circles. Osaka is a city in Japan.

He continued: 'The idea that anyone misappropriates it to make coronavirus seem like an Asian plot is terrible. In terms of trying to place blame on Asia — I think that is gross.

'I believe the most antecedent to [Osaka Flu] was the Hong Kong flu of 1968. It was just supposed to be a quick joke about how the flu got here.' 

Oakley said that the joke was from news headlines he remembered reading as a child. 

'It was meant to be absurd that someone could cough into a box and the virus would survive for six to eight weeks in the box. It is cartoonish. We intentionally made it cartoonish because we wanted it to be silly and not scary, and not carry any of these bad associations along with it, which is why the virus itself was acting like a cartoon character and behaving in extremely unrealistic ways.'