--- title: The Simpsons Predicted Nobel Prize Winner Six Years Ago description: Everything's coming up Milhouse canonical: https://time.com/4530391/simpsons-accurate-prediction/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-13T19:22:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:39.092Z og:title: The Simpsons Predicted Nobel Prize Winner Six Years Ago og:description: Everything's coming up Milhouse og:url: https://time.com/4530391/simpsons-accurate-prediction/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Simpsons Predicted Nobel Prize Winner Six Years Ago twitter:description: Everything's coming up Milhouse twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # _The Simpsons_ Also Used Psychic Abilities to Get Our Nobel Prize Winner Right by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 13, 2016 7:22 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 13, 2016 7:22 PM UTC Six years ago on [_The Simpsons_](http://time.com/4488094/michelle-obama-rejected-the-simpsons/?iid=sr-link2), Milhouse Van Houten predicted that Bengt Holmström of MIT would win the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2016\. On Monday, that prediction came true. Holström and [Oliver Hart](http://time.com/4524746/nobel-prize-economics-oliver-hart-bengt-holmstrom/) of Harvard were announced as joint winners of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Economics for their pioneering work on contract theory and government versus private ownership. It’s a fairly bookish topic for the beloved Fox series, but it made sense in the context of Krusty the Clown being scammed into thinking he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Milhouse proving himself to be a clairvoyant with uncanny knowledge of Nobel Prize winners. He was so eerily accurate that he even bested Lisa Simpson in the contest. The prediction is spooky, particularly so in that this is far from the first time that _The Simpsons_ have accurately [predicted](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/03/16/donald-trumps-political-career-and-26-other-real-things-that-hap/) the future. They foresaw the [tiger attack](http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/10/04/roy.attacked/) on Siegfried and Roy, they [helped design the iPhone,](http://uproxx.com/tv/one-simpsons-joke-helped-fix-iphone/) and they predicted [Donald Trump’s](http://time.com/4231871/the-simpsons-2016-candidates/?iid=sr-link1) [presidential](http://time.com/4263402/simpsons-writer-donald-trump-presidency/?iid=sr-link10) candidacy. They even referenced [golfer Arnold Palmer](http://time.com/4507810/simpsons-arnold-palmer/?iid=sr-link4) the same day as he died, which is strange as episodes are made months in advance. > [](https://twitter.com/MIT/status/785551840205307904) Watch below. \[H/T [The Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/the-simpsons-nobel-prize-winner-bengt-holmstrom-a7358906.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4530391/simpsons-accurate-prediction/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4530391/simpsons-accurate-prediction/"},"headline":"The Simpsons Also Used Psychic Abilities to Get Our Nobel Prize Winner Right","datePublished":"2016-10-13T19:22:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:39.092Z","description":"Everything's coming up Milhouse","url":"https://time.com/4530391/simpsons-accurate-prediction/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","Science topic","The Simpsons","Culture","nobel prize"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4530391/simpsons-accurate-prediction/","name":"The Simpsons Also Used Psychic Abilities to Get Our Nobel Prize Winner Right"}}]}] ```