1Court Dwarfs
Some of the first dwarfs to have their histories recorded were employed as court dwarfs. They were owned and traded amongst people of the court, and delivered as gifts to fellow kings and Queens. With dwarves, Royals appeared much larger and they visually enhanced their powerful position.
2. America recruited 29 Navajo-speaking men during World War 2, who later came to be called Navajo code talkers. They had created a brand new set of code words in the Navajo language, which even if intercepted could not be translated by the enemy forces.
3. Ancients measured long distances by hiring "bematists." They were trained to count steps while walking between locations and could measure hundreds of miles with more than 95% accuracy. Eratosthenes used one to accurately calculate the circumference of the Earth within 15% in 240 B.C.E.
4. American coal breakers up to the 1920s relied on breaker boys aged from 8 to 12 who separated impurities from coal.
5. There is a profession where you can become a professional cuddler, where customers will pay to have someone to cuddle with in a platonic manner.
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6Farts Blamer
Some Japanese noblewomen of the Edo period had servants who were employed to take the blame for their farts if they passed gas in front of others. This was done by the servant 'confessing'/verbally proclaiming it was her at the moment.
7. There is a service in Japan where you can rent middle-aged men for ¥1000 (9$USD) an hour. The men, who have previous or current experience in a range of professions from engineers to marketing managers, meet up with their charges in person to offer everything from life advice to music lessons.
8. The job of a “Chicken Sexer” is to check a chick’s anus to determine its sex.
9. It was the job of a Town Crier in Germany to remind the local populace not to defecate in the river every time its water was drawn for brewing beer.
10. There was once a profession called being a "donkey puncher" whereby a man would operate a steam-driven winch in logging or mining operations, called a steam donkey.
11Barber-butchers
In medieval Europe "barber-butchers" were barbers that practiced surgery as well, a profession ranging from amputations to haircuts. The red and white “barber swirl” in front of most barbershops today signifies blood and bandages which was common in their trade.
12. From about 1600 to 1914, there was a profession known as a "Funeral Mute." Their main purpose was to stand around at funerals with a sad, pathetic face.
13. Devil's advocate was a real job within the catholic church. The devil's advocate was called upon to deliberate on behalf of the devil for any claims of sainthood and would argue for why someone should not be made a Saint of the catholic church.
14. Scotland Yard has a team of “super-recognizers.” These people are so good at remembering faces, even after a fleeting glance, that law enforcement employs them.
15. It was the job of a ‘Gong Farmer’ to remove human waste from a pit underneath a castle. The gong farmer was dangled from a rope tied around his waist, while he emptied deep pits filled with human excrement.
16Senate Sergeant at Arms
The original job of the Senate Sergeant at Arms was not to protect the senators, but rather to make sure that the senators could not leave the chamber while business was being conducted.
17. "Porn Judge" is an actual Chinese government job title. Judges such as Wang Dong are paid $32,000 per year to view porn and “have the sacred task of returning the Internet to a clean and safe state”. Most are employed within the police system.
18. Before alarm clocks were invented, there was a profession called a knocker-up, whose job involved going from client to client and tapping on their windows (or banging on their doors) with long sticks until they were awake. This job lasted into the 1920s.
19. Divers working on deep-sea infrastructure such as oil pipelines live in a pressurized chamber for a month, taken between the chamber and their worksite by a pressurized diving bell. That way, they only need to be decompressed once, at the end of each 28-day job. This is known as Saturation diving.
20. The “Groom of The Stool” was a role created for the first time for Henry VIII to “monitor and assist” in king’s bowel movements. Due to the proximity to the king, the royal wiper often became wealthy and powerful.
21Radium Girls
Between 1917 and 1928, clock dial painters (mostly women) were told to lick the brushes to get a fine point. They were also told that the night-glow paint was harmless in spite of the fact that it was radioactive radium that made it luminous. Later, when sued, some employers tried to discredit workers by blaming cancer and jaw rot on syphilis.
22. George Aldrich has worked for NASA for over 40 years, and his job is to smell things. This is to ensure that there are no unpleasant smells on ISS and the shuttle. His nose also gets calibrated and tested every 4 months.
23. In 2014, the Indian government employed 40 people to impersonate monkeys, to scare off real monkeys causing havoc around the parliament in Delhi. The men made screeching noises similar to those of black-faced langur monkeys, imitating their whoops and barks, to frighten red-faced macaque monkeys.
24. Some Cuban cigar factories used to employ a "Lector" who would read newspapers, political treatises, and classical literature aloud to help break the monotony of the cigar roller's work. Thus even illiterate cigar-rollers would be well-informed and familiar with great literature.
25. There is only one person registered as a "Rectal Teaching Assistant" in the United Kingdom, who travels the country offering his anus to be examined by trainee doctors. He has since lost his job to a robot anus.
