A flurry of Simpsons memes have erupted on social media in response to a bizarre and wildly false statement about pets made by Donald Trump during his first presidential debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday.

In a claim that was almost immediately debunked by ABC News moderator David Muir, Trump said: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating – they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

Trump was referring to a racist rumour spread by his running mate JD Vance that Haitian immigrants in the city of Springfield, Ohio had been abducting pets and eating them, “causing chaos” in the town. Springfield Police Division said it was aware of the “rumours” but has no information to support them.

As a stunned Harris looked on in disbelief, Muir interjected and corrected the former president, adding: “ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

Trump protested and said that he had seen stories on TV about pets being eaten adding: “People on television say, ‘My dog was taken and used for food,’ so maybe he said that and maybe that’s a good thing to say for a city manager.”

Given that Trump referenced a city named Springfield, it wasn’t long before a frenzy of jokes about the fictional hometown of the Simpsons started to appear online with many nods towards the family’s dog, Santa’s Little Helper.

“IN SPRINGFIELD THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS,” wrote one person on X/Twitter along with a picture of the cartoon pooch.

Another X/Twitter user quoted Trump but this time also included an image of the Simpsons’ cat Snowball II.

The account for the BBC show Have I Got News For You, chimed in with an image of Homer Simpson and his dog writing: “US Presidential debate: After Trump claims people in Springfield are eating dogs, there’s concern about where he’s been getting his news from.”

The classic ‘old man yells at cloud’ meme also made an appearance.

Elsewhere, an edit of the “We Put The Spring in Springfield” song from “Bart After Dark” has deservedly gone viral.

In another instance of the Simpsons appearing to predict the future, a clip from the 1997 episode “The Springfield Files” was shared featuring the Red Tick Beer brewery showing that they make their beverage using dogs.

Speaking about people’s habit of The Simpsons foreseeing major news events, such as the start of the Ukraine-Russia war, showrunner Al Jean told The Hollywood Reporter that The Simpsons’ long-running history of “predicting” such events is “sadly more the norm than it is the prediction”.

“In terms of predictions, there are two kinds we have: the trivial, like Don Mattingly getting in trouble for his hair in Homer at the Bat. And then there are predictions like this,” Jean said. “I hate to say it, but I was born in 1961, so 30 years of my life were lived with the spectre of the Soviet Union.”

“So, to me, this is sadly more the norm than it is the prediction. We just figured things were going to go bad.”