Where There’s A Will… Here Are 30 Of History’s Weirdest Wills In One Fascinating Video

Have you made out your will yet? Nothing may be certain in life, as the saying goes, but death and taxes — and while some of us do our best to beat the latter of those, no one avoids the former. But even though everyone dies, here in the United States of America, we don’t like to think about dying. In fact, we dislike contemplating our own inevitable deaths so much that according to one recent poll, six of every 10 Americans refuses to make out a will.

We find the very idea of making a will so unpleasant, that in the same poll, about 33 percent of Americans said they would rather get a root canal or stop having sex for a full month than sit down and make out a will.

Too bad, because what all those people fail to realize is that while no one likes to face the certainty of death, creating your will can be fun. There are pretty much no laws or regulations governing what you can or can’t put in a will. And some people take full advantage of that latitude with a variety of bizarre posthumous demands.

This Mental Floss video featuring John Green — yes, readers, the same John Green who wrote the bestselling novel The Fault In Our Stars — lists 30 of the weirdest, funniest, and in some cases, most twisted wills of all time.

Some of the bizarre requirements include a man who willed his estate to both of his sons — as long as neither ever grew a mustache. The moment one son let his upper lip foliage flourish, his half of the inheritance would go to his clean shaven brother.

Then there’s the millionaire who loathed his daughter’s son-in-law so much that he willed his son-in-law just 50 cents — and demanded that the man use it to buy a rope to hang himself.

Or the creepy will of magician Harry Houdini, who willed that his wife would hold an annual seance to attempt to contact him beyond the grave. Houdini’s will contained 10 secret words that would tell Mrs. Houdini that her husband was calling, if a seance was successful.

Green lists 27 other bizarre examples of wills gone wild in this video. So check it out. It just might make you want to create your own will, at last. Come one. We promise it’ll be better than a root canal.