For over 30 years, "The Simpsons" has been tackling trending topics. On Sunday, the show took on non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
What Happened: Past episodes of "The Simpsons," under the helm of creator Matt Groening, have been known to predict things before they come true. The show even predicted Donald Trump‘s becoming U.S. president. The newest episode has NFT fans excited. Perhaps "The Simpsons" is predicting a new bull run of the popular digital assets.
Sunday's "Treehouse of Horror XXXIV," which aired on Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOX)(NASDAQ:FOXA) owned Fox, featured three chapters. "Wild Barts Can't Be Token,” the first chapter sees Bart turned into an NFT. His mother, Marge Simpson, goes into the blockchain to rescue him.
Many NFT fans were able to spot references to famous works of digital art throughout the episode including references to digital artist Beeple and the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection. Other artwork featured included "The Goose" by Dmirtri Cherniak, artwork from XCOPY, Nyan Cat and CryptoKitties.
Beeple enjoyed the episode, which became the theme of an “Everydays” daily piece of digital art.
"Impossible to overstate the impact of Simpsons on me growing up, bucket list moment," Beeple tweeted. "Seriously such a MASSIVE part of my childhood and now that I think about it, a lot of my desire to document history through art probably comes from them."
Beeple's daily digital art featured a boy on a bean bag watching "The Simpsons." "12-Year-old Beeple Achievement Unlocked," the artist said.
Chris, the creator of Nyan Cat also took to Twitter, saying that seeing his artwork on "The Simpsons" was "wild."
Several collections paid tribute to The Simpsons shortly after the episode aired, including Springfield Punks by Simpsons parody artist Rino Russo. The NFTs, which were free mint, hit a floor price of over 0.40 Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) on Sunday night before falling to 0.15 ETH on Monday and down to 0.05 ETH, or around $92.64 on Tuesday.
Related Link: How To Buy NFTs
Why It's Important: This isn’t the first time that “The Simpsons” mentioned Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). During an episode that aired on Dec. 8, 2013, an episode called "Yellow Subterfuge" revolved around Krusty the Klown going broke.
Lisa Simpson encourages him to sell the foreign rights to his show for broadcasts in other countries.
Krusty also tells Lisa how he became broke.
"Yeah, all it takes is some bad luck at the ponies, worse luck in the Bitcoin market, heavy investment in a high-end bookmark company," Krusty says.
Bitcoin traded at around $795.87 at the time the episode aired. Anyone who invested when "The Simpsons” featured the leading cryptocurrency enjoyed a significant return.
A 2020 episode of "The Simpsons" titled "Frinkcoin" featured Jim Parsons providing education about cryptocurrency.
A 2022 episode also features Krusty the Klown once again sharing that he is broke, this time from investing in NFTs, which he calls "non-funny TV shows."
Another item in the Sunday episode of "The Simpsons" featured a picture of a golden statue, which closely resembles the NFTs from VeVe, a company that Simpsons owner The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) previously partnered with.
As shared previously by Benzinga, Disney partnered with VeVe to launch NFTs based on several of its hit IP, including Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and "The Simpsons."
In 2021, a golden statue NFT depicts Homer Simpson choking Bart. It was released on VeVe along with a NFT golden state of Bart's skateboard. These pieces of digital art marked the first officially licensed Simpsons digital collectibles.
Some media companies and consumer products companies embraced NFTs. Disney has been relatively quiet outside its partnership with VeVe. Returning CEO Bob Iger praised the technology and said there is a big opportunity for Disney going forward.
A 1997 episode from "The Simpsons" may have predicted the rise of Bitcoin, according to a Reddit thread and post shared by The Chainsaw.
In the episode, a store called "Crypto Barn" is described as a "place for codes." It aired over 10 years before Bitcoin was launched. It’s likely a coincidence, but given the show's history of predicting things, the episode might be part of the show's uncanny odds of getting things right.
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