The Tamuna Tamo Facebook account, whose pieces of disinformation have been verified by FactCheck multiple times in the past (1, 2, 3,), posted a scene from The Simpsons animated series. The author wrote in the description: “The Simpsons knew about Hawaii affairs. They show a direct attack by an energy weapon.” In fact, there is no evidence that the forest fires in Hawaii were caused by an “energy weapon” and episode of The Simpsons does not show any kind of prediction.
FactCheck has already verified the disinformation which claimed that the so-called “energy weapon” caused the wildfires in Hawaii. In fact, both the National Weather Service (NWS) and independent experts say dry, windy weather likely contributed to the island's fires. See FactCheck’s article for more details.
The disinformation that The Simpsons had predicted the use of energy weapons in Hawaii was disseminated on both X (formerly known as Twitter) and Facebook. This disinformation was verified by a number of fact-checking organisations (1, 2, 3).
The weapon to which the Hawaii wildfires are being attributed, uses laser and other electromagnetic energy technology to destroy various targets. This type of weapon is called a directed energy weapon. The damaging effect of this type of weapon is carried out by concentrated radiation in a narrow cone.
In that episode of The Simpsons, entitled “Monty Burns Fleeing Circus,” from where the conspiracy theorists cut the footage, does not even mention Hawaii, let alone a directed energy weapon. In fact, the source of the laser in the animation is a chrome-plated monument which is intentionally not shown in the video clip. In the animation, the action takes place in Springfield instead of Hawaii.
Therefore, the claim that the aforementioned episode of The Simpsons shows the use of an “energy weapon” and thus predicted the Hawaii forest wildfires is false.
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