The Strangest Jobs in History

You won't believe some of the jobs on this list.

Many of us have to contend with strange aspects of our jobs at least once in a while. Whether it’s an offbeat request from a manager or an oddball favor asked by a colleague, it’s very likely that we’ve been exposed to out-of-left-field strangeness at our place of work. We can be thankful that much of our employed life isn’t shrouded in the abnormal, or at least what we consider to be so.

Years ago, however, there were a host of jobs and even careers that would seem insane to our modern sensibilities.

Here are just a few:

Entertaining is never an easy business. One of the toughest gigs ever in the field has to be funeral clown. During the Roman times people believed that the spirits of the recently-departed were restless and could be most effectively placated by a living person acting like him or her. Fresh Roman ghosts would also, society felt, be satisfied if their mourners were sufficiently entertained during their burial. Funeral clown was a competitive position, with the best performers going on to work the death ceremonies of emperors.

[ALSO READ: What Celebrities Did Before Fame]

For the average Roman, that job probably wasn’t anywhere near as desirable as that of an orgy planner. Although such occasions seem as if they wouldn’t need much planning at all – meet, drink and copulate – they could actually be quite lavish and complicated, involving the arrangement of meals and entertainment throughout the life of the party for the, er, physically active revelers. Still, for many it was quite a rewarding job in terms of salary and, in particular, the perks often associated with the position.