If Homer Simpson ever went to work for the North Korean space program (and if North Korea ever had a space program), it would be completely believable for a carbon rod to get more recognition than him, and that’s not just because he’s a filthy American pig.
In the Simpsons Season Five episode “Deep Space Homer,” series great David Mirkin experimented with one of the zaniest premises that the series had ever attempted – a space episode. At a time when an astronaut arc was the universal hallmark of a sitcom that had jumped the shark, Mirkin managed to explore middle-class job dissatisfaction and the fear that one’s work goes underappreciated through a plotline about NASA sending Homer to outer space where he saves his crew from a horrific disaster that he nearly caused himself.
To Buzz Aldrin, the Simpson family and the viewer, Homer is, of course, the hero of the story, but to the rest of the Simpsons universe, the noble carbon rod that Homer uses to wrench the hatch shut is more deserving of a medal and a parade for its efforts.
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Matt Groening famously feared that “Deep Space Homer” was too unrealistic for viewers to find it believable – but little did he know that, in some parts of the world, governments regularly bestow civilian awards on utterly inanimate objects, probably because a carbon rod would have a much harder time trying to defect to the South than a human being.
As anyone who has ever seen a line of pudgy North Korean generals observe a missile test on the evening news can probably infer, state honors, medals and awards are a big deal in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In order to engender the kind of hyper-nationalism necessary to run a totalitarian dictatorship, the Supreme Leader constantly doles out honors to his subjects, including the coveted Hero of the Republic award.
According to World History Edu, the North Korean government created the Hero of the Republic award during the Korean War. “Initially awarded for battlefield courage, it now recognizes various acts of valor, including posthumous deeds, even outside combat scenarios.” In fact, the criteria for winning the Hero of the Republic has expanded so much since the 1950s that even inanimate objects have earned the honor.
The Orders & Medals Society of America recalled an instance in 2001 when North Korea, and, presumably, the Supreme Leader himself, gave both the Hero of the Republic award and the Hero of Labor award to a 15-ton pneumatic hammer at a railway factory. The hammer earned the medals following thirty years of service and “contributions to producing many parts necessary for railway transportation and the industrialization of the country,” according to the North Korean state-run media.
It’s not hard to understand why the Supreme Leader doles out state honors to his own citizenry like a third-rate comedy club promoter passing out fliers, as morale in the country must be diligently preserved to withstand the regular famines they suffer as an economically and politically isolated dictatorship. However, team spirit must have been especially dire in 2001 if Kim Jong-il was out there slapping medals on machinery and making the news apparatus cover it.
But, on the plus side, Homer would have had a much easier time earning the workplace appreciation he craved if he worked for North Korea. Although, if Pyongyang’s medals are anything like their fortune cookies, Homer might want to leave it to the rod.
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