What's the weirdest job someone you know does?

[BowerOfBramble]

I mean the ones that you'd never heard of until someone you met/a friend of a friend said "oh yes I run a bat sanctuary/teach maths to prisoners/paint portraits of dead hamsters".

I met a chicken sexer once.

@Midlander88

My dad's a chimney sweep, and he offers a "I'll come shake your hand in your wedding day for good luck" service on his website, but so far no one's ever booked him for it.

Awww this is really sad bless him!

@Santahasjoinedww

A fab dm at our school is a train driver.!!

The most amazing thing I found out later in life was that my mother flew Spitfires in WW2. I must have been about 14 and something was on TV about WW2 and she casually said to Dad Well when I was flying Spitfires we did that all the time. Once I stopped laughing at the idea I found that she was one of the women who delivered the planes around the country!

A Thunderbirds puppet maker.
Bull stud ie analysis & dividing bovine sperm into cow or bull & quality control. Load of wank🙂
Chalk Teeth model maker for dental students to practice on.

At least four different people have mentioned bats. Are there lots of people working with bats or do you think they all know of each other?

Punch and Judy Professor (the proper title apparently)

Our next door neighbour at the time was responsible for the Olympic torch at the 2012 opening ceremony lighting at the right moment and not going out (he was a gas engineer really).

@BearSoFair

Writes the little summary paragraphs for TV guides

How does this work? Do they get sent a summary?

A Tudor.
As in dresses up as a member of the Tudor Royal family and does various events at castles, goes into schools and talks to the children..... pays well apparently but then as the costumes are upwards of 2k and are custom made they do it as a sideline to their main job.

My friend is a professional mermaid. 🧜‍♀️

These are awesome. I am among other things a professional mermaid and I know a surprising number of others with the same job, quite a few do it full time.

Friend of a friend knows the Bean Queen who is an expert in removing hardened deposits from stallions boy bits that really is a job I didn't know existed!

Gets dead bats in the post and tests them for rabies.

Lots of bat related work out there!

@Livingmybestlifenow ha cross post! Waves at your friend

Now I have ‘My Lovely Horse’ running through my head

To paraphrase John Lennon, you're not the only one

Clown in the circus

I am not sure of her actual title, but someone I know supplies a large amount of animals for TV shows, for example Mossy in Topsy and Tim

Bodyguard for National Lottery.

A friend won £10M and got married soon after. It was a small reception and I was seated near a well-dressed couple who were quite vague about how they knew the bride and groom. This seemed strange, so I asked my friend about them afterward. He said the National Lottery provided protection for a little while after his win was publicised.

I know several monumental masons aka they make grave stones, occupational hazard, I also know a copse makeup artist

My grandma was a pattern setter in a carpet factory.

I have a couple of friends who are marine archaeologists.

A friend’s wife is a world leading kidney specialist.

And I once went to a party and chatted someone who worked on the Bollywood song selector for a well known music streaming service.

@Atla

A parapsychologist.

A paid one? Who pays them?

I know someone with a dc who plans to be a tree surgeon.

Coypu trapper.

Although, I am qualified for that whistleblowing job and it sounds great. Where do I interview?

@FourChimneys

Dendrochronologist. Works out how old eg a wooden beam in a cathedral is by studying the tree rings.

Professional theorbo player. Look them up, such a cool instrument.

I know a whole bunch of theorbo players and to me it seems like a pretty normal job, so I found it quite funny that it showed up on this thread! If we're talking unusual instruments, let's add "serpent player" to this list.

I also know quite a few horse dentists and bean removers (often united in the person of an equine-specialist vet).

How about "cat physiotherapist"? TBF, the animal physio that I'm thinking of also does dogs and horses, but I imagine convincing cats to engage with physio is quite challenging.

I met a palaeontologist whose job it was to identify microscopic fossils in the sea bed to help identify potential oil wells.

Teaches tiling to prisoners

My sister works in a US government lab, and has training in how to deal with a major biological weapons attack. That isn't her main job, but she'd get pulled in if there were a huge incident. I'm dying to know all the details, but she can't tell me!

Poultry husbandry.

Forensic photographer