Inanimate carbon rod

The employee of the plant who, in the event of the death/incapacitation of all other employees, would become manager before Homer. It is literally a carbon rod, inanimate.

It possibly went on to have a career in the space programme, when Homer unintentionally lodged a rod in the shuttle door, closing it and allowing him and the other astronauts a safe return to Earth. The rod went on to feature on the front page of Timemagasine with the title 'in Rod we Trust!'. It was also given the main seat in the subsequent parade, much to Homer's annoyance;- presumably because he had been upstaged yet again by a rod.