History Main / CaligulasHorse

* In ''Fanfic/TheNewAdventuresOfInvaderZim'', at one point [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Norlock]] claims that the TroperNamer incident [[BeenThereShapedHistory was his idea]]. Though he also states that he and Caligula were both blind drunk at the time, and Norlock didn't think he'd actually ''do'' it.

This trope can also be {{Invoked|Trope}} by rather [[ManipulativeBastard more cunning rulers]]; either as a symptom of ObfuscatingInsanity, a way to install a SockPuppet in a position of power ("Well, Incitatus agrees with me, so I'm afraid it's two votes to one"), or both. The second of these overlaps with LoopholeAbuse: there Ain't No Rule you can't make a horse consul!

** A past Patrician of Ankh-Morpork (the aptly named "Mad Lord Snapcase", though most Patricians had names like that) appointed his horse as a city councilor, though it is pointed out that it wasn't a ''bad'' councilor compared to some of the others, which included: a vase, a heap of sand, and three people who had been beheaded.

** In ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', Susan reaps an old man who left all his money to his cat, because he hated his entire family. He then rejoices in the prospect of the animal trying to get away alive from the family alive, because he hated the cat as well.
* Lord Midnight in the {{backstory}} of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', a horse who gets appointed heir by a Count as part of a feud between the Count and his son. The funniest thing about Lord Midnight is that he is an ''important precedent''. When his appointment was legally challenged it was upheld by a rump majority of the Count's friends and political allies, thus establishing the precedent that a Count's designated heir need not be his own descendant, or even human. This becomes important when cloning and genetic engineering technology starts to blur the traditional definitions of what makes someone a descendant, or a person. Midnight fortunately/sadly predeceased the Count, who designated his now reconciled son as heir once again.
* One Andermani Emperor tried to do this for his potted plants in the backstory of the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novels. He was quietly deposed. By his own sister, who, by common agreement, was one of the most successful Andermani Emperors of all time.

* The president of the Henchmen Guild in ''ComicStrip/{{Nodwick}}'' is a hamster. Of course, the hamster only got appointed to membership in the Guild by its owner, the previous president. It was elected president at the next election due to all people present and voting being drunk. The hamster's reelection (for life) was due to the guild steward being bribed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'', Wander finds a creature who, by accident (long story), he calls Captain Tim. Wander subsequently gives Captain Tim over to Lord Hater as a pet. Hater makes "Captain" the creature's actual military rank and thus outranks most, if not all of his minions.

* TropeNamer: Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} famously planned to appoint his favorite horse Incitatus to the consulship, the Prime Minister of Rome. However, it's a little more complicated than it sounds. He may have done this in order to mock the Senate. ("My horse could do as good a job as any of you clowns! I'll just teach him to stamp once for 'yes' and twice for 'no comment'.") It may have been a rumor started after his death. Or he genuinely might have been completely insane, which was the firm position of most ancient writers.

* The movie ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' has a Paris woman deciding to allow the Cats to inherit her estate, with her butler intending to off the cats before she dies so he could acquire the inheritance. And, ironically enough, that turned out to be completely pointless: if he had listened to the ''whole'' will, he would've heard that upon the Paris woman's death, the butler was to be ''appointed the cats' caretaker'', so he actually would've (sort of) gotten the money ''anyway'' if he'd just left the cats alone.

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'', if your character has the Lunatic trait, you can get a random event where you decide to appoint your horse as your chancellor. Previously, this just dismissed the current chancellor and left the position vacant, but a recent patch makes the event generate an actual horse character to fill the position. Naturally, someone took it to the [[UpToEleven logical extreme]] and did...[[BestialityIsDepraved certain things]] in order to [[https://imgur.com/a/K1utf make a horse the ruler of the restored Roman Empire]].

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'', if your character has the Lunatic trait, you can get a random event where you decide to appoint your horse as your chancellor. Previously, this just dismissed the current chancellor and left the position vacant, but a recent patch makes the event generate an actual horse character to fill the position. Naturally, someone took it to the [[UpToEleven logical extreme]] and did...[[BestialityIsDepraved certain things]] in order to [[https://imgur.com/a/K1utf make a horse the Emperor of Rome]].

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'', if your character has the Lunatic trait, you can get a random event where you decide to appoint your horse as your chancellor. Previously, this just dismissed the current chancellor and left the position vacant, but a recent patch makes the event generate an actual horse character to fill the position. Naturally, someone took it to the [[UpToEleven logical extreme]] and did... [[BestialityIsDepraved certain things]] in order to [[https://imgur.com/a/K1utf make a horse the Emperor of Rome]].

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'', if your character has the Lunatic trait, you can get a random event where you decide to appoint your horse as your chancellor. Previously, this just dismissed the current chancellor and left the position vacant, but a recent patch makes the event generate an actual horse character to fill the position. Naturally, someone took it to the [[UpToEleven logical extreme]] and [[BestialityIsDepraved did...certain things]] in order to [[https://imgur.com/a/K1utf make a horse the Emperor of Rome]].

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'', if your character has the Lunatic trait, you can get a random event where you decide to appoint your horse as your chancellor. Previously, this just dismissed the current chancellor and left the position vacant, but a recent patch makes the event generate an actual horse character to fill the position. Naturally, someone took it to the logical extreme and [[BestialityIsDepraved did...certain things]] in order to [[https://imgur.com/a/K1utf make a horse the Emperor of Rome]].

[[AC:{{Anime}}]]

[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd''

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

** Similarly, the movie ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' had a Paris woman deciding to allow the Cats to inherit her estate, with her butler intending to off the cats before she dies so he could acquire the inheritance.
*** And, ironically enough, that turned out to be completely pointless: if he had listened to the ''whole'' will, he would've heard that upon the Paris woman's death, the butler was to be ''appointed the cats' caretaker'', so he actually would've (sort of) gotten the money ''anyway'' if he'd just left the cats alone.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

** A past Patrician of Ankh-Morpork (the aptly named 'Mad Lord Snapcase', though most Patricians had names like that) appointed his horse as a city councilor, though it is pointed out that it wasn't a ''bad'' councilor compared to some of the others, which included: a vase, a heap of sand, and three people who had been beheaded.

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

* In one episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', there is a rather loopy corporate executive who took investment advice from his dog (There was mention of him once trying to buy-out General Motors because the dog chased a Buick). By the time of the episode, Sparky the dog had been dead for months - but his owner had him stuffed and mounted in his office and ''still'' took investment advice from it.

[[AC:{{TabletopGames}}]]
* [[WarhammerFantasy Marius Leitdorf, the Mad Count of Averland]] had this with his warhorse, Daisy Kurt von Hellboring II, on whose advice he relied on as much as any of his advisors.

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]

[[AC:{{Web Comics}}]]
* {{Subverted}} In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The ruler of Azure City has a cat as a trusted adviser, but he doesn't actually take its advice - it's just to make people [[ObfuscatingInsanity think he's senile when he isn't]].
* The president of the Henchmen Guild in ''{{Nodwick}}'' is a hamster.
** Of course, the hamster only got appointed to membership in the Guild by its owner, the previous president. It was elected president at the next election due to all people present and voting being drunk. The hamster's reelection (for life) was due to the guild steward being bribed.
* King Steve of ''[[Webcomic/EightBitTheater 8-Bit Theater]]'' has a ''coffee stain'' named Rodney as his right hand man. He also briefly lost his kingship to a length of string.
* Before joining ''[[Webcomic/SturgeonsLaw Sturgeon Law]]'', Pierce was senior vice president under such a [[http://sturgeonslaw.net/comic/chief-equine-officer/ CEO]].

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

** There is also the (in-universe) historical example of St Ossory's ass (his donkey, not his behind) which was made a bishop in the Omnian church.

[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_%28cat%29 Tama the cat]] was a station master in Japan from 2007 until her death in 2015. The stations on the Kishigawa Line had all been destaffed as a cost-cutting measure, with station masters being selected from local business owners. Tama was selected from a number of cats being cared for by passengers and Kishi Station's manager, Toshiko Koyama. She had several cat assistants and a deputy, Nitama, who took up the role of station master after Tama's death.

* In one episode of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', there is a rather loopy corporate executive who took investment advice from his dog (There was mention of him investing in General Motors because the dog chased a Buick). By the time of the episode, Sparky the dog had been dead for months - but his owner had him stuffed and mounted in his office and ''still'' took investment advice from it.

* Lord Midnight in the {{backstory}} of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', a horse who gets appointed heir by a Count as part of a feud between the Count and his son. The funniest thing about Lord Midnight is that he's ''important''. When his appointment was legally challenged, [[RefugeInAudacity it was upheld]]-- thus establishing the precedent that a Count's designated heir need not be his own descendant, or even human. This becomes important when cloning and genetic engineering technology starts to blur the traditional definitions of what makes someone a descendant, or a person.
** Midnight fortunately/sadly predeceased the Count, who designated his now reconciled son as heir once again.

** A cat named Stubbs in Talkeenta, Alaska has been mayor since 1997.

** In another episode, an inanimate carbon rod from the nuclear reactor was honored as Employee of the Month (much to Homer's chagrin), and [[spoiler: after Homer used a different Inanimate Carbon Rod to lock the door on the spacecraft after it was destroyed]], it was given its own ticker-tape parade.

** The Judges once put an orangutan as a candidate to show the people how ridiculous democracy was and how good their regime was. [[RuleOfFunny The orangutan won by a landslide is considered one of the best leaders Mega City One ever had.]]