Toilet paper hoarding seems to be one of the biggest issues people are dealing with in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving those unable to find any in stores with no choice but to get creative. Perhaps fearing the worst case scenario of being forced to stay at home for an indefinite period of time, panic buyers have been especially buying up all the toilet paper, clearly making bath tissue the most-hoarded item of the pandemic. However, watching panicked people stockpiling toilet paper may not be as surprising for the creators of The Walking Dead, as the hit zombie drama seems to have seen this coming from the very start.
Over on Reddit, fans of The Walking Dead noticed an interesting detail in the background of the show's very first episode. After Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) awakens from his coma and heads back home, he meets Morgan Jones (Lennie James), who has holed up with his son in a neighbor's home. As Rick walks through the house, a look at the background reveals Morgan has stockpiled a large amount of toilet paper, eerily similar to what many people have been doing for the past few weeks. At the time, the detail was hardly noticeable, but seeing it again now suggests The Walking Dead predicted how people would behave in a pandemic better than many of us thought.
The Walking Dead has also been used to poke fun at the toilet paper shortage seen in many grocery stores. One video floating around on social media shows store customers diving into a pallet of toilet paper the instant an employee sets it on the floor, and someone has hilariously and appropriately added zombie sound effects to the footage. The classic and often-memed scene of Rick Grimes crying has also been edited to show the zombie slayer bawling while looking at the empty toilet paper shelves, knowing the next time he heads to the restroom will not be the most comfortable experience.
Created by Robert Kirkman and developed for television by Frank Darabont, The Walking Dead first premiered on AMC in 2010. The series is directly based on Kirkman's comic book series of the same name, which just ended its run last year. Though most of the entire cast has been written out of the show in one way or another, original stars Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride continue to star as their season one characters Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier. Though the series has lost millions of viewers over the past several years, it remains one of the most popular shows on television with no signs from the network that it will end anytime soon.
New episodes of The Walking Dead air Sunday nights on AMC. Because even the CDC recommends people watch the series as a small way to help prepare for a real-life contagion, it probably doesn't hurt to keep up with the series. You can read more about what The Walking Dead fans are saying about the show predicting the toilet paper panic buying over on Reddit.