History Main / OddJobGods

-->-- '''Creator/EddieIzzard''', ''Dress to Kill''

* Creator/EddieIzzard has a bit about this which provides the page quote.

** Hermes was nearly as versatile, being the god of travelers, merchants, thieves, sports/athletes (though Apollo also seemed to be god of this as well), commerce, roads, boundaries, shepherds, and flocks. [[SmallReferencePools Though he's mostly known today as the messenger of the gods]] rather than a god of anything in his own right.

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Devils]] act as {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of just about every conceivable concept, with their level of strength scaling to how much people fear them. This means that while the most dangerous devils embody concepts like control, the future, darkness, knowledge, and various weapons, others get things like mold, tomatoes, sea cucumbers, and skin. [[spoiler:What truly makes them akin to gods is that the very existence of the concepts they embody is tied to their own, as ChainsawMan is able to use his RetGone power on Devils representing [[TokenHeroicOrc threats to human survival]] [[CosmicRetcon to rewrite reality]].]]

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', there exist devils of just about every conceivable concept, with their level of strength scaling to how much people fear them. This means that while the most dangerous devils embody concepts like control, the future, darkness, knowledge, and various weapons, others get things like mold, tomatoes, sea cucumbers, and skin.

* In one episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' G'Kar asked Zack Allan if Garibaldi's painting of WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck was one of his household gods. Zack called him the "Egyptian god of Frustration."

* There are some of these in ''LightNovel/TheDeathMageWhoDoesntWantAFourthTime'', being mostly lesser deities that serve major gods, like the god of records, goddess of maps, god of battle flags, and god of degenerate corpulence. Surprisingly the last one is rather easygoing.

** One interesting aspect of ''Elder Scrolls'' gods is that they seem to have overlapping roles and spheres, but that within each of these overlapping spheres they have very, ''very'' specific areas of responsibility. For example, Mara and Dibella are both gods of love, but they handle very specific aspects of love, with Mara being the goddess of affection and union between two beings, while Dibella is associated with passionate love and creativity. Similarly, Jyggalag and Peryite are both gods of order, but Peryite is the god of menial tasks and day-to-day activities (essentially the god of middle managers) while Jyggalag is [[SuperOCD a god of obsessive ordering and prediction of all things]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}''

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} of Creator/AAPessimal, nobody, especially in Ankh-Morpork, believes in Justice very much. not any more. Diké, Goddess of Justice, is on her way to small god status. Then a [[LesYay special interest group]] latches onto her and decides a Goddess with that name is too good to waste. Diké is all in favour of this, as stumbling around in a blindfold and a long dress with a sword in one hand and a set of scales in the other was no fun at all. Becoming Goddess of Alternate Female Gender-Expression means she can ditch the sword ''and'' she gets to wear more interesting clothes ''and'' meet more interesting people than bloody lawyers. Although - Diké [[BerserkButton is pronounced with TWO syllables, right?]]

** Such "modern deities" as television, the Internet, consumer culture, cancer, and the car gods (the recipients of the largest mass HumanSacrifice since the Aztecs.)

** The Hogfather, the god of [[YouMeanXMas Hogswatch.]] Oh, and the sunrise (more Spring than sunrise, as he is a Winter Solstice god).

* In any of the ''VideoGame/{{Neptunia}}'' games, the CPU goddesses (aka the [[PlayerCharacter Playable Characters]]) do quests, build a nation, and govern the people. [[spoiler: [[AndManGrewProud There's a reason for that first one.]]]]

** Cardea, goddess of doorways, hinges, and thresholds

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'':
** Gensokyo, being a FantasyKitchenSink, with a sizable emphasis on Shintoism, has a number of low-power goddesses. Including Shizuha Aki, the goddess of ''autumn leaves''. She turns them red by [[PaintingTheFrostOnWindows painting them by hand]] and [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway makes them fall to the ground by kicking the trees]].
** Okina Matara, being a Goddess who's been syncretized with a whole host of other deities, predictably has a long list of things she is a goddess of. The Earth, the Mountains, the Stars and Destiny? Common enough. Seasons, Noh theatre and that which is Hidden? A bit odd but still doable. Outcasts, the Disabled, Hindrances, Silkworm breeding and Back Doors? Now we're getting weird, and that last one is just abstract unless you've researched her source of inspiration.

* The deities of VideoGame/DwarfFortress are procedurally generated like the rest of its worlds and given several random spheres of influence out of a list. Spheres can range from the expected things like storms, luck, fertility, justice, and war, to stuff like rainbows, muck, poetry, jealousy, and salt. There's also an element of FlightStrengthHeart as it's totally possible to get a god of justice, strength, and pregnancy, or one of [[BreadEggsMilkSquick peace, love, and torture]].

* ''VideoGame/GunGodz'' and ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'' have Yung Venuz, the god of guns, who is a white [[{{Cyclops}} cyclopic]] triangle for some reason.

*** Zuggtmoy, the demon lord of fungus. She has a ''very'' hard time attracting worshipers because there isn't much she can offer mortals.

** St. Clare of Assisi, the Patron Saint of [[Wiki/TVTropes Television]]. Supposedly when she was too ill to attend Mass, she could see and hear the ceremonies on the wall of her bedroom.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'':

** the god of oil lamps, who nearly caused TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt because he wasn't being well cared for or worshipped.
** the god of ovens, who has the secondary job of spying on the household to report good and bad deeds (and would thus have to be bribed often with sweeties to keep his mouth shut). This is the Chinese kitchen god made well-known in the West through several literary works (such as the Amy Tan novel, ''Kitchen God's Wife'') and other media. He is somewhat of a Santa Claus figure, as he is supposed to bring gifts for good families (or good children) on the night before Chinese New Year's Day.
** the god(s) of doorways, occasionally said to be the spirits of ancient fearsome warriors. Specifically, the tradition started with two famous generals of the Tang Dynasty, Weichi Jingde and Qin Qiong, who served as physical gate guardians for Emperor Taizong. Supposedly, when the actual generals could not serve as the guardians for whatever reason, the emperor put up their pictures instead, which started the tradition.

** Iabet, goddess of the east
** Sopdu, god of the sky and eastern border regions

** Ihy, god of the ecstasy of playing the sistrum

** All of the above is just in the mainstream pantheon. There's also oddballs like P'Tang-P'Tang and Quetzovercoatl... or even ''think'' about Djelibeybi, which has a ContinuitySnarl of a pantheon.

** St. Sebastian is the patron saint of archers, athletes, and protection against the plague. He was commonly depicted as a good-looking, half-naked young man pierced with arrows[[note]]Despite this ''not'' being his actual cause of martyrdom - according to legend, he was nursed back to health by Saint Irene, then only later clubbed to death by the Romans.[[/note]], and his fit body brought in mind athletic preparation. As for the plague, he was apparently associated with Apollo, the Greek archer god who protected against epidemics too. The traditional representation of Sebastian also made him an unofficial patron saint for the homosexual community.

** A [[http://www.snopes.com/religion/chad.asp joke]] has named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_of_Mercia St. Chad]] a patron saint of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_(paper)#History disputed elections]]. Another refers to [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope John Paul I]] as the patron saint of temps.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koalemos Koalemos]], god of stupidity.

* In the {{Roguelike}} ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'', you can choose to worship one of your standard gods of magic, war, death, growth, healing, good, evil, etc. You can also worship Jiyva, god of slimes[[note]]who only is only worshipped by a single super-intelligent jelly, and, since GodsNeedPrayerBadly, if you kill that jelly you actually [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu commit deicide]][[/note]], and Cheibriados, god of slowness[[note]]who is actually something of a GameBreaker, since HeartIsAnAwesomePower[[/note]].

* ''WebAnimation/DarkMatter2525'': In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jClyinERY God of the Paradox]]", Yahweh was meant to be the god of pastries (since his major was Culinary Arts).

* Played with in [[http://partiallyclips.com/2002/12/27/canoe-in-storm/ this]] ''Partially Clips'' strip.

* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'' has an appearance by [[http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp09032008.shtml Google Crom]], [[OrcusOnHisThrone who judges your every action from his throne]] clutching his terrible skull mace. [[FlameWar Flame]] {{troll}}s and he rewards you [[TheInternetIsForPorn with comely wenches]]; [[{{Griefer}} grief lower-level players]] and camp their corpse, and he lowers you sixty levels with a bellow of "CROM'S WILL IS DONE!!!"
* ''Sverd Shelgr'', an ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'' webcomic that seems to no longer exist on the internet, featured a recurring character who was the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Urgal]] [[https://sverd.fandom.com/wiki/God_of_Bunnies,_Flowers_and_Miscellaneous_Soft_Pillows God of Bunnies, Flowers and Miscellaneous Soft Pillows]]. He was temporarily kicked out of the pantheon for being lame, then allowed back in when he started [[BewareTheNiceOnes smiting non-believers.]]
* ''Webcomic/TrueVillains'' has a god for [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2013-06-05-Long%20Winded-jpg.htm every aspect of reality]], but because GodsNeedPrayerBadly, only the ones with worshipers are powerful enough to bother with. None of the odd job gods made it into the top rank, although Lollywog the god of silly antics is a RunningGag.

* In the French site of [[http://pagesperso-orange.fr/aspexplorer/kalon5.htm ASP explorer]], in a series of short stories parodying the adventures of Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian, we are introduced to a newly ascended goddess:

** [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-6059 BOTULAE]], self proclaimed god of the pit, not of pits or any one mighty pit, but specifically the ball pit of a singular Chuck E. Cheese.

* In the ''Literature/ForgottenRealms'' crossover ''Finder's Bane,'' a god residing outside the Realms (which has, or used to have, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters Loads And Loads Of Gods]]) comments that "We wouldn't be surprised to find they have a god there with dominion over the tableware and ale mugs."

* In Paizo Publishing's D&D 3.5-edition ''retro-clone'' game ''TableTopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' meta-setting:
** Alseta, goddess of doorways.
** Ghlaunder, god of insects and parasites.
** Zarongel, goblin god of [[SeriousBusiness dog-killing]], fire, and mounted combat. Not entirely random, since Goblins do their mounted combat against dogs by using fire.

* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': In Steve Jackson Games' English language version, celestials can be assigned a Word, becoming the embodiment of a concept and in charge of encouraging its development on Earth. Demonic Words actually tend to be more logical than angelic Words, since anything that negatively influences mortals (Anorexia, Fast Food, Fine Print) is a source of demonic power. (On the other hand, Lucifer enjoys giving bizarre Words as punishments -- just ask Imbap, the Demon of Stale Bong Water.) Angels are much more likely to have strange Words when they reflect personal obsessions. Some of the weirder examples on both sides:
** Druiel, the ''Angel'' of Teenage Death
** Fulrick, the Demon of Pencil Shavings
** Jorek, the Demon of Goth Wannabes
** [[Webcomic/SluggyFreelance Kizke]], the Demon of Internet Comics
** Maigonigal, the Demon of Bad Art
** Thratch, the Demon of Snappy Comebacks You Only Think Of After It's Too Late
** Tomas, the Angel of Catchy Tunes
** Randolph, the Angel of Dictionaries
** Stander, the Demon of Embalming

* In ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', we meet Pharamond, from the Babylonian pantheon, who is now "in charge of transportation." He appears to be more or less a travel agent for the puissant. He, in fact, manages a massive transportation firm. With the fringe benefit of being able to count road traffic deaths as [[HumanSacrifice sacrifices]] in his name. He is quite happy with his new place in the order of things.

* In the short film ''A Case of Spring Fever'', our protagonist encounters Coily the Spring Sprite, a seemingly omnipotent being (or at least a high-powered RealityWarper) that has an odd preoccupation with springs.

* Fellow ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' subject ''Out of This World'' is about a bored angel and devil who work in an office tracking the sales figures of bread salesmen.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [[http://www.scpwiki.com/scp-3740 Ashur, God of the Wind]], who isn't ''quite'' an example of this trope -- but he is also one of the most credulous beings ever to exist, and the Foundation are able to convince him that various staff members are also gods, albeit with some very strange domains. Domains such as being able to lick one's own elbow, juggling, or turning on a light switch. He is also unable to believe that his good friend Suen is actually the god of the moon.