I did an event for a national association for deaf people at which they did every presentation in ASL. I am an audio engineer, who specializes in live sound and concerts. I did nothing for 5 days of show, $450 a day

$175 to do some kind of user study at Netflix, I show up in the lobby and then they go, “actually we got the data we needed from the studies earlier today, you’re free to go!”. Still got paid!

I was paid $50 to assemble some brand new gym equipment for a friend because her husband had been dragging his feet for months. I open up the box, pulled it out, and made the easiest $50 of my life because it was pre-assembled. I just took 10 seconds to unfold it and was done. She was furious with her husband, and still paid me to spite him.

I’m a Hobbyists Wood turner. It’s more of a passion. Once as a joke, early into my hobby, I made a wooden buttplug and posted on my Instagram, again, as a joke. I immediately had an acquaintance message me asking if I could make her one that was obviously safe for the human body and various other… Uh… Business that such an item would interact with. So I did. Totally safe for the human body. She paid me well for it. Later, her followers were messaging me asking I could make them some… And… Now… That’s… Something I do often…

I was paid $300 to move my car for a movie that was filming by my apartment

Got paid USD 40K to not show up at work. It was the financial crisis and there was a hiring freeze right before I was due to start work. The company I was to work for couldn’t honour the employment contract we signed, but it was all very sudden and my would-be bosses felt bad enough about the situation that they offered me half a year’s salary as a gesture of goodwill.

My friend asked me to clean out his Guinea Pig cage because he couldn’t be bothered that day. In payment he gave me his copy of Zoo Tycoon 2 for PC.

I was paid to be a kind of server for a fancy outdoor dinner party, they wanted me to go around with a plate of drinks and food and offer it to people. When I get there they tell me the person they hired to cook on the grill never showed so they wanted me to make that my priority – but I told them I didn’t know how to grill anything (I was 17). The woman told me to look helpless and some man would come do it, “every man thinks he’s the grill master and wants to show off”. So I did…and it worked. I basically got paid to stand next to this guy and thank him every so often, and get him drinks. I got paid over 100 for just a few hours, it was pretty awesome.

I made $10/hr (2006) to open soda cans, pour them out and throw them away. I was working at a Pepsi plant through this temp agency. When the cans come out of the machine, all of the defected cans get kicked out into these side compartments. I had to keep the side compartments clear so that the defected cans wouldn’t end up mixed in with the regular ones. I was instructed to open the cans, pour them on the floor, and throw them in the trash. OF COURSE I DRANK SOME.

$1325. The guy wanted a drawing of his pony having sex with a bunch of balloons shaped like various cartoon characters in a massive collage. My rate charges per character per fetish, and he came to me fully prepared to dump $1500 on the complete commission after adding it all up himself. I gave him a discount since even I felt like it was insanity. I probably should have charged the full amount since it did end up taking me 2 weeks to do on and off just from burnout at drawing the same style balloon over and over just in different shapes, but that was definitely the most silly/dumb commission I’ve ever had, or at least the most I’ve been commissioned for something dumb/silly.

When I was like 20, got hired to be an assistant for some event in Hollywood. I carried one box of liquor into the place and they gave me a walkie-talkie and said they’d let me know when they needed me for anything else. Waited a while with no calls and found that next door they were holding a yoga class for AA members. Poked my head in the door, and they invited me to join them, so I did. After the yoga, I went to return the walkie-talkie and the guy says, “Ah we didn’t use you at all, did we?” Got 60 bucks.

Security guard for 8 hrs. Keeping people from walking on, or writing in the fresh concrete. I was paid to watch cement dry.

About 20 years ago when me and a bunch of my friends (we were 11 years old) were camping in the woods near a fjord two guys in their early 20’s approached us and asked if we wanted to sink a boat. 
They gave us a pack of cigarettes if we helped them sink the boat. We gladly accepted and followed them down to the water and went crazy on said boat. They gave us some axes and petrol to smash it up and light it on fire. 10/10 experience, we had a lot of fun and didn’t question the shadyness of it before later that evening, tho we had no regrets.

Computer repair person. Have been paid several times to push the power button.

I got paid $300 to pretend to dance at a crowded party for a Verizon commercial.

I once burned a coworker with a spoon dipped in the deep fryer on the neck to cover up a Hickey he got from a waitress. $5. There was some sort of love triangle involved… I’ve done dumber I just wanted to share that story because that was pretty stupid on his part and I got to be part of the memory.

Hang a TV. Then make sure that TV worked the following day and then take the TV down the day after. Made $1k.

I worked as a part time gopher for this wildly rich artist for about a year. Circa 2017. Did all sorts of random – and I mean fucking random – jobs for the guy. By far my favorite is he once paid me $350 cash to drive to Downtown LA to find him “the perfect piñata”. Aka a “donkey that looks like a unicorn”. Aka “an ugly unicorn”. He was also VERY color specific. Had to be a specific mix of every color, but no red. I’m expecting an all day hunt. But, if you haven’t been to Downtown Los Angeles, let me tell you: it must be the Piñata Mecca. Massive warehouses back-to-back taking up whole blocks where you can browse any possible variant of piñata. Buzz Lightyear piñata? Got it. Sex doll style piñata? Got it. Giant snow globe piñata? Got it. I found the piñata I was looking for within 10 minutes, browsed some more for my own curiosity, then brought the piñata back to this guy’s house. Whole thing took maybe an hour and a half. Got paid in cash. Then had the pleasure of watching this guy hang the piñata in his living room where he wanted to wack the shit out of it alone. His reasoning: no clue. But I got paid, baby!