Sunday's premiere of The Simpsons' 28th season contained a reference to Arnold Palmer, which wouldn't normally be notable, except for the fact that Sunday was the day the golfing legend passed away at age 87.

The reference, which was made during entirely innocuous quip about the mixture of ice tea and lemonade named after the late golfer, was a strange coincidence indeed, as production of the episode had finished months ago.

Producer/writer for the show Al Jean showed his respect to Palmer in a tweet.

When asked by another twitter user if the joke would be cut out of respect for the golfer, Jean responded by saying "...of course I wish I could but it's too late."

With the breadth of cultural references that have been made on The Simpsons over the the last few decades, it's not the first time that TV's longest running animated show has had a bit that proved to be strangely coincidental.

h/t EW