Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance during The Simpsons panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 on Saturday, July 27.
Harris, 59, addressed fans of Fox’s animated series in a video clip played at the end of a panel celebrating the show, according to multiple reports.
“We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom,” Harris said, quoting the 1996 “Treehouse of Horror VII” episode in a pre-recorded clip, per The Hollywood Reporter.
To introduce the clip, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening told the audience that they were about to hear from a “superfan.” No context was given about when the clip was recorded.
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“Treehouse of Horror VII” originally aired in October 1996 ahead of the election between former President Bill Clinton and his challenger at the time, the late Bob Dole. The two candidates were being impersonated by aliens Kang and Kodos in the Halloween episode.
Harris’ appearance at the panel comes after fans on social media have been pointing out the similarities between the politician and the animated character Lisa Simpson in a 2000 episode of the series, titled “Bart to the Future,” where Lisa became the first female president.
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Lisa wore a purple blazer accessorized with a pearl necklace in the episode. The Simpsons writer Al Jean pointed out in a post on X (formerly Twitter) featuring side-by-side photos of Harris and Lisa that the character’s outfit was similar to the one that Harris wore on Inauguration Day in 2021 when she was sworn in as vice president.
“@TheSimpsons ‘prediction’ I’m proud to be a part of,” Jean wrote in the post on July 21, the day that President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and announced his endorsement of Harris.
