From Plumbing to Saving the World - Traders in Pop Culture
Traders, tradesmen, tradespeople, where would we be without them? Whether you need an emergency plumber or you’re frantically googling “heating engineer near me” when your boiler has broken, traders are essential workers that can help you out in a pinch. And sometimes they can even be superheroes… in TV, film and video games that is.
For fun, let’s discuss the day jobs of famous characters, as we take a look at traders in pop culture…
Plumbers in Pop Culture
One of the most notable and famous characters with skills in a trade is Super Mario. Mario has had a lot of jobs over the years, he dabbles in sports such as golf and go karting, and has cameos in Punch Out! as a boxing referee, and has even been a doctor (or at least has claimed to be) – but his one go to job is that of a plumber.
In 2023, we got to see him do his first bit of plumbing in years, as The Super Mario Bros movie showed Mario’s (and Luigi’s!) origins as plumbers before ending up in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Wario and Waluigi might also be plumbers too, it’s not ever made clear, but they do wear dungarees and have been known to use the occasional warp pipe.
It’s not just video game characters who have taken up work as plumbers either, real life pop culture icons such as Sir Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins (the latter of which played Mario in the live action 1993 Super Mario Bros Movie) have taken up jobs as plumber’s assistants before their careers in Hollywood took off. Perhaps that experience helped Bob land the role?
Sounds far-fetched, but Ozzy Osbourne trained as a plumber too, before he went on to become one of the world’s most famous bat munchers.
Other notable fictional plumber characters include Mike Delfino from Desperate Housewives, and Gonzo from The Muppets. Tim Allen’s handyman character from Home Improvement, also conveniently called Tim, has been known to dabble in a bit of light plumbing when an episode requires it. Though Tim admits he struggles with plumbing in real life.
Are There Any Famous Electricians?
There isn’t really an electrician equivalent of Super Mario, however, there sure are a lot of fictional characters that can generate electricity. Whether that’s Pikachu, Electro from Spider-Man, or anyone else with a spark, their electrical abilities are sure to be useful in a power cut (and cheaper than paying bills).
Just like Mario, Pikachu has diversified his skills in recent years, choosing to become a Ryan Reynolds-voiced detective in his live action Hollywood debut.
Famous electricians include Del Boy David Jason, who actually trained for 6 years before giving it up for acting, Bobby Charlton who worked the job in between football commitments (football wasn’t high paying back then) and Elvis Presley, who went from working at the Crown Electric Company to becoming “The King” – though further research shows that Elvis was just a supply truck driver for the company, rather than an electrical professional.
There’s Lots of Locksmiths…
There’s a lot of characters out there with locksmithing abilities. It’s a simple plot device really; something is locked, and our heroes, or anti-heroes need to get it open without a key. It’s also a common game mechanic too, found in almost every Bethesda game in some form.
Any movie about thieves or heists, you’re sure to have a character with lock skills. Apparently, Linda Hamilton actually learned how to pick locks when her character, Sarah Connor, needed to escape from an asylum in Terminator 2.
Pest Controllers in TV
Is there really a famous character that works in pest control? Of course there is, and it’s gun and conspiracy theory loving nutcase Dale Gribble with his creatively named Dale’s Dead Bug company.
Besides legitimate exterminators, other pest controllers include the occasional trope character who can literally control insects like bees to follow commands, such as The Pain in Metal Gear Solid 3. Vamonos Pest was also the front that Walt and Jesse used to cover up their meth manufacturing business in Breaking Bad.
Even Glazing Has Its Own TV Show
Double glazing originated in the UK, developed in the 1800s to combat extremely cold winters in Scotland. In the 1980s, double glazing really started to take off and are now found in around 93% of UK homes. You can actually witness the 80’s glazing craze in BBC Sitcom “White Gold” featuring Ed Westwick and two members of the Inbetweeners cast.
Traders, Pop Culture Celebrates You!
And there you have it, important jobs and skills to have in real life and in fiction. Can you think of any more examples of traders in pop culture?
