Professional bridesmaid, real-life mermaid, and pornography historian: Ridiculous jobs that really do exist

PROFESSIONAL mermaid, stand-in bridesmaid and pornography historian. Yep, you can really get paid for these jobs.

Ridiculous jobs that really exist

IS THE nine-to-five grind getting you down? Do you feel as if you spend all your time at a desk staring at the computer screen?

Well, you don’t have to subject yourself to a lifetime of corporate drudgery. There are ridiculous jobs out there people actually get paid to perform.

Here’s a little inspiration if you’re looking for a career change, which according to research from Seek Learning, more than half of you are.

PROFESSIONAL MERMAID

Want to be part of Ariel’s world? Pull on some fins.

Yes, you can be paid to be professional mermaid, like Californian woman Linden Wolbert. And not just dressed up in an Ariel costume at Disneyland. Professional mermaids slap on a shiny tail and are pimped out for movies, TV shows, kids’ parties and other events. Even if you don’t have a pool, you can still have your very own mermaid. Some pros will bring their own glass tank to lounge around in.

To be a mermaid, it probably helps if you can hold your breath long enough to perform a graceful underwater dance.

STAND-IN BRIDESMAIDS

If you don’t have enough girlfriends, you can pay for someone to be your bridesmaids.

Maybe you’ve just had a massive falling out with your bridesmaids three weeks before the wedding (this does happen, too often) or maybe you just don’t have as many close girlfriends as your partner has bros. Either way, you can hire a stand-in bridesmaid to make sure those oh-so-important wedding photos are balanced.

Stand-in bridesmaids, according to this Weird Jobs blogspot post, should be personable, easy on the eye and pretty good actor to fake their way through the proceedings.

An ad listed on Craiglist, as reported by The Huffington Post, saw a bride-to-be searching for bridesmaids who are “hot, but not hotter than me”.

PORNOGRAPHY HISTORIAN

You could be an expert on everything that happened on Boogie Nights.

Depending on your proclivities, being a pornography historian is either the best or worst job in the world.

Self-styled porn historian Bill Margold was a former porn actor and director, so if you’re done with those two, where next? Putting his journalism degree to some use, he started writing articles, columns and other musings for newspapers, magazines and website. He’s now a defender of the adult entertainment industry and is a go-to guy on all things pornography.

TEEN EXORCIST

The teen exorcists will rid you of a demon for a cool $200.

Want a demon expelled from your home? You can call on teen exorcists Savannah, Tess and Brynne. Though to be fair, Savannah is not a teenager anymore, but that’s a minor point. The Christian home-schooled trio met at a karate class several years ago but after they mastered defensive arts, they decided to give thwarting the dark arts a turn. Trained by Brynne’s father Reverend Bob Larson, the women supposedly do battle with evil spirits in public exorcisms and TV shows. A one-on-one exorcism will set you back a couple of hundred bucks.

DOG FOOD TESTER

These pooches’ bowl won’t be filled until a human has tested its contents first.

How can you tell if dogs will really go wacko for schmacko? Feed it to a human.

Pet food testers really exist and their jobs are to taste test food usually reserved for our furry friends to make sure it’s up to standard.

Pet food testers don’t actually swallow what they’re trying — they’re looking for taste and texture. After all, don’t you want your pampered pooches to only have the best? You certainly pay through the nose for it.

Originally published as Professional bridesmaid, real-life mermaid, and pornography historian: Ridiculous jobs that really do exist