History Main / CaligulasHorse

** Mr. Burns ''loves'' this trope. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E9TheLastTemptationOfHomer The Last Temptation of Homer]]", it was shown that he had, aside from hiring an illegal Iranian immigrant worker, also hired a duck named "Stewart" as a low level employee who tows nuclear waste (he also berates it to "get back to work!" when it briefly stops to catch it's breath). This may be less outright insanity and more Mr. Burns' cheapness combined with a callous disregard for life. Later in the episode Burns is scanning the security monitors trying to find a pair of employees who are ''not'' currently fighting with each other to send as his representatives to a convention, not only is the duck seen fighting another employee, he's ''winning''.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E9TheLastTemptationOfHomer The Last Temptation of Homer]]", it was shown that he had, aside from hiring an illegal Iranian immigrant worker, also hired a duck named "Stewart" as a low level employee who tows nuclear waste (he also berates it to "get back to work!" when it briefly stops to catch it's breath). This may be less outright insanity and more Mr. Burns' cheapness combined with a callous disregard for life. Later in the episode Burns is scanning the security monitors trying to find a pair of employees who are ''not'' currently fighting with each other to send as his representatives to a convention, not only is the duck seen fighting another employee, he's ''winning''.

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* In ''Film/{{Gordy}}'' the head of a major corporation hands over control to the title character, a small pig, upon his death. The film treats this as a good thing.

* In BusinessCat the titular character appoints [[spoiler:his mouse toy]] to multiple positions in the company.

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': [[https://loominggaia.tumblr.com/post/673029857702215680/anonymous-asked-ruled-by-a-house-cat-ok-now-i A Matuzan queen once declared a cat to be the heir to her throne]]. She died soon after, and the kingdom was ruled by a cat for three days, until it was ursurped by one of the queen's children.

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', it is discovered that the real town founder was Quentin Trembley, a CloudCuckoolander who was once elected President. Among his acts during his short term, he appointed babies to the Supreme Court. [[spoiler: Those same babies later helped erase him from the history books.]]

** In ''WesternAnimation/BallotBoxBunny'', WesternAnimation/BugsBunny and WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam are running against each other for mayor. They were defeated by a ''dark horse'' candidate. An actual dark horse is the town's new mayor. (Mare?) Bugs doesn't count, since he's a TalkingAnimal. The new mayor only neighs.

* RealLife examples happen all the time (especially in small towns in the United States) with towns electing animals, and in one unconfirmed case of a statue, as mayors for their cities.
** Although not officially, one of the things that the seventies era Feminist movement did was crown a ''live sheep'' Miss America on a boardwalk of Atlantic City in 1968.
** In the same year, the Youth International Party (the Yippies) famously nominated a pig named Pigasus as their presidential candidate, saying the Democratic and Republican Parties had [[TakeThat done the same thing already with their candidates Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon]].

* A rare case of such a character being the main protagonist, the film ''Film/BaileysBillions'' had the titular character, a dog named Bailey, inheriting $1 billion from a deceased relative, causing the woman's nephew and his wife to try to kidnap the dog to gain the inheritance.

** There is the (in-universe) historical example of St Ossory's ass (his donkey, not his behind) which was made a bishop in the Omnian church.[[note]]The parellel in Literature/TheBible is the tale of Balaam's ass, who developed enough sentience to rebuke the prophet Balaam for not doing God's will.[[/note]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': In "The Klimpaloon Ultimatum'', a warthog was elected mayor of Danville in 1805. The warthog filled his cabinets with his relatives, and the public became so fed up that they not only removed the warthog from power but also wrote a law preventing a warthog from having a position of power ever again.

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'', 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 later patch made the event generate an actual horse character named Glitterhoof to fill the position. Naturally, someone took it to the [[UpToEleven logical extreme]] and used an exploit in order to [[https://imgur.com/a/K1utf make a horse the ruler of the restored Roman Empire]].

* In VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds DLC, "Peril on Gorgon" while at a bar called The Sprat Shack, the bartender tells the PlayerCharacter that in order to avoid legal trouble, the place is actually legally owned by a sprat (space rat) that's somewhere on another huge ship called [[PortTown The Groundbreaker.]] The fact that no one can tell sprats apart is the whole point.

* ''Hilariously'' {{Subverted}} in ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'', where the heroes encounter the actual, original Caligula and his horse... and it turns out the horse is as intelligent as a human and capable of speech.

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', it is discovered that the real town founder was Quentin Tremblay, a CloudCuckoolander who was once elected President. Among his acts during his short term, he appointed babies to the Supreme Court. [[spoiler: Those same babies later helped erase him from the history books.]]

** In ''Literature/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 from the family alive, because he hated the cat as well.

* Lord Midnight in the {{backstory}} of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'', a horse who was appointed the official heir by Count Vortala during a feud between the Count and his son [[note]]Count Vortala had infamously proclaimed the page quote, "If a horse's ass can be Count, why not the whole horse?"[[/note]]. The funniest thing about Lord Midnight is that he is an ''important legal precedent'', because when his appointment was challenged it was upheld by a rump majority of the Count's friends and political allies. This established that a Count's designated heir need not necessarily 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 then designated his now reconciled son as heir once again.

* * The encyclopedia parody ''Literature/TheOnionBookOfKnownKnowledge'' portrays President UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan as TheCaligula and claims that after murdering his running mate John C. Breckinridge, Buchanan appointed his dog as Vice President instead.

* In ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'', Big Al of the Q-Force loses the position of Chief Science Officer, a position he is unquestionably the most qualified for of the team, to [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys Skrunch the Monkey]].

** In a more literal example, in numerous episodes Kenneth mentions the mayor of his hometown is a horse. (Though, in one, it's possible he said ''"mare"''.)

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', Cartagia was rumored to have a secret council made of people he had beheaded when they opposed his move to reach out to the Shadows, which was dubbed "The Shadow Council". The rumors turn out to be true; in fact, Cartagia [[MummiesAtTheDinnerTable continues to argue with the severed heads. Even worse, he insists that they answer him.]].

* [[https://www.lanacion.com.ar/el-mundo/venezuela-crisis-nicolas-maduro-vacas-nid2021697/ Nicolas Maduro]] offrering some cows on TV to become representatives in the Constitutional Assembly so they could join him in his efforts to change the Constitution.

-->''Vicar Max:''' Most businesses in Halcyon are run by sprats, but this is the first I've heard of it being openly acknowledged.

* In VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds DLC, "Peril on Gorgon" while a bar called The Sprat Shack, the bartender tells the PlayerCharacter that in order to avoid legal trouble, the place is actually legally owned by a sprat (space rat) that's somewhere on another huge ship called [[PortTown The Groundbreaker.]] The fact that no one can tell sprats apart is the whole point.