On July 5, 2023, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, Meta, rolled out a new, Twitter-like platform for text- and image-based conversations called Threads. The new app's abstract logo design, which more or less resembled an ornate "at" sign (@), immediately caught the fancy of users on other social media platforms, who joked and speculated about its meaning and origin.
(Meta)
Some argued it looked like a twirled strand of spaghetti; others likened it to an ear. In the spirit of the internet tradition of finding (or inventing) references to every conceivable topic in past episodes of the animated TV series "The Simpsons," people began suggesting that the logo's design is visually identical to depictions of Homer Simpson's ear in the show, and/or that "The Simpsons" had thereby "predicted" the rollout of Threads.
No waaaaaay the simpsons predicted Threads ?? pic.twitter.com/3c9Tx1lrgO
— KTYGraphics cartoonist✍? (@CathyGraphics3) July 9, 2023
But, in fact, that is not what Homer Simpson's ear looks like. It looks like this:
(The Simpsons/YouTube)
The version used in comparisons with the Threads logo was clearly fabricated for that purpose by editing a commonly shared drawing of Homer's face:
(Snopes)
The claim is therefore false.
We've fact-checked many examples of so-called "Simpsons predictions" over the years, from the Silicon Valley Bank crash of 2023 to Donald Trump's presidency. For the complete roster, see our collection, 'The SImpsons' Didn't Predict That.