The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded at the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, on Thursday evening, September 3, 2026. The ceremony itself begina at 7:00 pm (Central European time). The pre-show dance performance began at 6:45 pm. The webcast began a few minutes earlier than that. The previous 35 ceremonies all took place in the USA, in Cambridge/Boston. In a break from tradition, this year’s ceremony took place in Zürich, Switzerland.
The webcast was (and in recorded form, is) available here and on our Youtube channel:
The 2026 ceremony was also webcast in a separate stream in Japanese (thanks to NIKONIKO/Dwango).
The basic info: The Ceremony (and webcast) on September 3, 2026
WHEN/WHERE: This year’s ceremony happened on Thursday, September 3, 2026, 7:00 pm (CET), at Kongresshaus Zürich, Claridenstrasse 5, Zürich, Switzerland.
WHAT: Ten new Ig Nobel Prize winners were introduced — each has done something that makes people LAUGH, then THINK. Several bemused Nobel laureates, Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, Michel Mayor, and Tim Hunt, physically handed them the prizes. The 1500 people in the audience showered everyone with paper airplanes. Some of the world’s great thinkers, Els Titeca, Tim Hunt, Marcel van der Hiejden, Alessio Figalli, and Tess Heeremans, each gave a 24/7 Lecture, explaining a topic first in 24 seconds, then in seven words. A new opera song, performed by soprano Serafina Giannoni and pianist Edward Rushton, celebrated this year’s ceremony theme: “FUNGI”. As the audience wandered into the theatre, they savored a pre-show dance performance, “The Laboratory of Small Disasters”, by Vanessa Morandell and Company Lava. A four-piece orchestra — accordion, didgeridoo, alphorn, and yodeler — injected fanfares. Somewhere, far away, joyless pedants shook their heads in dismay.
TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS to attend the ceremony in person went on sale May 12. The tickets sold out within a few days.
- REGULAR TICKETS: 89 CHF
- STUDENT TICKETS (Up to PhD-student level. Please show student ID at the door.): 59 CHF
- BILLIONAIRE TICKETS (Expressly for people who want to financially support the Ig Nobel Prizes! Each billionaire-ticket holder will receive a Zimbabwean 1-billion-dollar bill.): 500 CHF
- MILLIONAIRE TICKETS (Expressly for people who want to financially support the Ig Nobel Prizes! Each millionaire-ticket holder will receive a Zimbabwean 1-million-dollar bill.): 250 CHF
- GROUP TICKETS: If your group wants to be recognized during the ceremony as an OFFICIAL DELEGATION, first purchase your tickets, then email us at zurich@improbable.com Minimum OFFICIAL DELEGATION size is ten (10). Maximum OFFICIAL DELEGATION size is one thousand (1000).
WEBCAST, and WATCH PARTIES: The 2026 ceremony was webcast, in English and also, in a separate stream in Japanese (thanks to NIKONIKO/Dwango). (This was be the Ig’s 32nd straight year of webcasting — the 1995 Ig Nobel ceremony was one of the very first events ever to be webcast). Watch parties happened in many countries, some small and informal, some large:
- Watch by yourself, or gather friends informally. Informal watch parties are of many kinds (examples: the Unruly Ig Nobel Watch Party in India, the many watch parties in Flanders, the watch party at the Museum of Bad Art [MOBA] in Boston,, etc.). If you want to be somewhat grand about it, download a guide for organizing a Watch Party.
- Even grander, there will be OFFICIAL WATCH PARTIES in Flanders (in Antwerp, hosted by University of Antwerp at Agora Caffee), Flanders (in Ghent, hosted by Nerdland / Ghent University at Bar Publika), The Netherlands (in Utrecht, hosted by Utrecht University at Koningsberger Building), Germany (in Hamburg, hosted by and restricted to the 4000 employees of DESY Research Center), France (in Paris, hosted by Université Paris Science & Lettres at PSL-Dauphine), USA (in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hosted by Swissnex), and Sweden (in Lund, hosted by ESS & Science Village at The Loop), and also Switzerland (in Zurich – for anyone who could not get a ticket to be at the ceremony itself in Kongresshaus – hosted by University of Zurich in Hörsaal KOH-B-10 at Rämistrasse 71).
- If your organization would like to host an Official Ig Nobel Watch Party, and thus be mentioned admiringly during the ceremony and also on this web page, email us at <watchparty@improbable.com>. This involves a few formalities.
IG NOBEL FACE-to-FACE in ZURICH: A related event, called “Ig Nobel Face-to-Face”, will happen the next afternoon, Friday, September 4, 2026, 2:00 pm, at Hörsaal Universität Zürich, University of Zürich, Rämistrasse 71, Zürich. The new Ig Nobel Prize winners will ask each other questions about their work. The Face-to-Face event is free. Seating is limited, so we advise arriving a bit early. (The Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event will not be webcast. We will later produce an edited video of the event.)
[THREE WEEKS LATER] IG NOBEL FACE-to-FACE IN TOKYO, JAPAN — Sunday, September 20, 2026. The Miraikan science museum will again host a gala Ig Nobel Face-to-Face event. Details TBA.
[THREE WEEKS LATER] BOST-Ig, A CELEBRATION IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA,— Thursday, September 24, 2026, at the Swiss Consulate, Swissnex, in Cambridge,, 6:00-7:00 pm, then light refreshments (doors open 5:30). This is a small (small because space is very limited) celebration event. A few of the new Ig Nobel Prize winners will do a short informal talks, as will Ig Nobel founder Marc Abrahams. There will be a performance of three Tom Lehrer songs (Tom, who died last year, helped with several of the early Ig Nobel ceremonies) by Amanda Palmer and Dr. Thomas Michel (who each have performed in and helped organize many Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies), and a short display/talk by Louise Reilly Sacco (who also has performed in and helped organize many Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies) of science-related paintings from MOBA, the Museum of Bad Art. And there will be jolly conversation with the audience.
(Curious about the previous year? Take a peek at the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony!)