The nation hasn’t talked about plumbers this much since the Nixon administration.

Plumbers-as-superheroes is a story typically reserved for Thanksgiving – their busiest time of the year thanks to the annual flush rush.

History is clogged with famous former plumbers: Rocker Ozzie Osbourne, dance lord Michael Flatley and actor Lee Marvin all professionally wielded plungers.

A recent novel even featured the son of a plumber of modest means. Alas, the story needed better flow, reviewed as a “maladroit narrative that relies on clumsily withheld secrets for suspense and that encumbers the story of Corey’s coming-of-age with ponderous and unconvincing meditations on matters like noblesse oblige, the responsibilities of privilege and working-class resentment of the rich.”

But, for the next 15 minutes, no plumber carries more celebrity than Joe.

At the third and final presidential debate, the candidates finally got around to addressing America’s most pressing question: What does Joe Wurzelbacher want?

He’s the new American idol, according to the Guardian in the U.K.

… heroic pipefitting everyman Joe the Plumber … He’s on the early TV shows today; a reality TV series and a range of Joe the Plumber merchandise will surely soon follow. But if you’d booked him to fix your toilet in Toledo this morning, you can forget it.

Narrative can plumb great depths, showing that anything can become a story.

Update: [New York Times] – “A tug of war over Joe the Plumber.”

Update: [Comedy Central] – Joe’s not registered to vote?

Update: Forgot about Nintendo’s Mario and Luigi. And then there was Albert Einstein …