The Simpsons: The Surprisingly Dark Inspiration for Milhouse's Name
Milhouse, Bart Simpson's best friend on The Simpsons, is a perpetual loser, making it appropriate that even the inspiration of his name is depressing. Over The Simpsons' 31-year run on FOX, Milhouse has never seemed to be able to catch a break. He's nominally Bart's friend, but even Bart gets sick of and ditches him a lot, or turns against him if a better option comes along. His parents, Kirk and Luann, are usually either not together or bickering, leaving him trapped in the middle.
Then of course there's Milhouse's unrequited crush on Lisa, which causes him ongoing emotional turmoil. Couple that with being targeted by bullies as if he were a nerd, but not possessing the standard level of intelligence to merit that label, Milhouse's life is kind of awful in general. Were he a not a child, one wonders if he would've tried to take the Moe route and end his own miserable life. At least some of the future-set episodes have foretold that he'll one day finally marry Lisa.
Fittingly, for such a downer of a character, Milhouse's name was itself inspired by three really terrible people from history. One wonders why Kirk and Luann would've chosen such names, but well, they're not exactly great parents.
Springfield's resident punching bag, Milhouse's name is a tale of three bad choices, in the context of him having to live with them for his entire existence on The Simpsons. Milhouse's first name was inspired by disgraced U.S. president Richard Nixon, whose middle name is Milhouse. Nixon of course had to resign the presidency or face impeachment for the infamous Watergate scandal. Milhouse's middle name is a reference to someone even worse, although some fans might not remember it, as it wasn't revealed until season 17. Done that late in the game, the writers clearly just wanted to make the poor guy's life more problematic.
As revealed in the episode "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas," Milhouse's middle name is Mussolini, which he shares with Benito Mussolini, the former fascist dictator of Italy. Under his leadership, Italy fought alongside Hitler in World War II. Mussolini is also his mother's maiden name, suggesting the family may be related to Benito. Finally, Milhouse's last name, Van Houten, is a reference to Leslie Van Houten, a member of the Manson Family. Van Houten is currently serving life in prison for participating in the Charles Manson-directed murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969. When it comes to names, everything is most assuredly not coming up Milhouse.