History Main / SillyWill

* In ''Literature/BrewstersMillions'' (1985), the plot of the movie is the Silly Will condition: Brewster inherits $30 million, 10% of the estate, and he must spend all of it within a month. The hurdle is that he can't acquire assets, donate, or simply throw the money away, and nobody else may know what he's doing. He spends the movie hiring assistants, renting hotels, and baffling his friends who think money drove him insane.

** In ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', Topsy Lavish has an ''apparently'' SillyWill that is actually a very clever way of keeping the bank out of the hands of her greedy, incompetent and in one case actually ''insane'' family. She leaves her dog Mr. Fusspot to Moist von Lipwig, and [[PetHeir leaves fifty shares in the bank to Mr. Fusspot]], who already owned one, thereby making him the Chairman and Moist his "interpreter." Additionally, a contract is lodged with the Assassins' Guild to kill Moist ''if'' he fails to take care of Mr. Fusspot, meaning ''nobody else'' can have Moist Assassinated.

* IsaacAsimov's Black Widowers short story "To the Barest". When Ralph Ottur (the founder of the Black Widowers club) dies, he leaves a will which requires the members to solve a riddle in order for one of the members to receive a bequest.

* On ''Series/{{Titus}}'', when ChristopherTitus' mother [[spoiler:committed suicide]], one of the apparently many oddities in her will, was for Christopher to eat Apples. The catch? Apples was her mother's pet dog when she was little. The lawyer then gives him a frozen (enveloped in silver foil) dog corpse.

* In ''TheUltimateGift'', when his rich granddad, Howard "Red" Stevens, died, Jason thought he was going to inherit a piece of the old man's multi-billion dollar estate, but it came with a condition. In order to get his share of the willed inheritance, Jason must complete 12 separate assignments within a year.

* ''TheHouseOnHauntedHill'' is about a millionaire who leaves a fortune to be shared among some stock horror-film victims if they can spend a night in his haunted house and still be alive the next day.

** Giving every practicing minister in three towns a share in another nearby jockey club...which shares turned out to only be worth half a cent each.

** Giving three men known to despise each other lifetime joint tenancy together in his vacation house in Jamaica.[[note]]Joint tenancy is a form of ownership giving the "tenants"--owners, really--equal rights to it, and grants the last of the tenants to die a right of survivorship: i.e. the survivor takes the property outright.[[/note]]
** Giving each of three known opponents of horse racing $25,000 worth of Ontario Jockey Club stock.
** Giving a group of prominent Protestant prohibitionists $700,000 worth of shares in a Catholic brewery--on condition that they participate in the brewery's management and draw on its stock dividends.

** Giving a group of prominent Protestant prohibitionists the profits from a Catholic liquor distillary (which the caveat that they are only given the money if their actions were deemed to be beneficial to the company's profit margin)
** Saying that his estate was to be converted to cash 10 years after his death and given to the woman in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} who gave birth to the most children in that time. This became known as the "Great Stork Race".

** Saying that his estate was to be converted to cash 10 years after his death and given to the woman in Toronto who gave birth to the most children in that time. This became known as the "Great Stork Race".

** Saying that his estate was to be converted to cash 10 years after his death and given to the woman who gave birth to the most children in that time. This became known as the "Great Stork Race".

** Giving three men known to despise each other lifetime tenacy together in his house in Jamaica
** Giving each of three known opponents of horse racing $25,000 worth of Ontario Jockey club stock.

* In ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', the aged Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein leaves instructions that his estate shall be given to his distant nephew rather than shared among a cadre of mooching relatives if said nephew has become a respected doctor of his own accord. One of the relatives tries to pass this clause off as insanity. The scene was [[DeletedScene removed from the final film]].

** In ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', Topsy Lavish has an ''apparently'' SillyWill that is actually a very clever way of keeping the bank out of the hands of her greedy, incompetent and in one case actually ''insane'' family. She leaves her dog Mr. Fusspot to Moist von Lipwig, and [[PetHeir leaves fifty shares in the bank to Mr. Fusspot]], who already owned one, thereby making him the Chairman and Moist his "interpreter." Additionally, since a contract is lodged with the Assassins' Guild to kill Moist ''if'' he fails to take care of Mr. Fusspot, meaning ''nobody else'' can have Moist Assassinated.

A will that contains ridiculous bequests, strange conditions and other weird oddities. This type of will often contains demeaning, cumbersome tasks to earn the fortune and might openly insult the inheritor. The inheritors are usually people you wouldn't expect the inheritance to go to, such as strangers, unknown relatives or even [[PetHeir pets]]. The will may also contain bequests that no one would ever want or need. Sometimes, however, a twist will be used to make the bequeathed gift only look useless at first but turns out to contain something more valuable.

[[folder: Film ]]
* In ''Literature/BrewstersMillions'' (1985), the plot of the movie is the Silly Will condition: he inherits 30 million dollars, 10% of the estate, he must spend all of it within a month. The hurdle is that he can't acquire assets, donate, or simply throw the money away, and nobody else may know what he's doing. He spends the movie hiring assistants, renting hotels, and baffling his friends who think money drove him insane.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Subversion: Dumbledore's will in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' seems to be this at first, but each item proves to be very significant later on.

* In ''TheUltimateGift'' when his rich grandad, Howard "Red" Stevens died, Jason thought he was going to inherit a piece of the old man's multi-billion dollar estate, but it came with a condition. In order to get his share of the willed inheritance, Jason must complete 12 separate assignments within a year.
* Discworld/UnseenAcademicals: One of the bequests requires that the wizards engage in hunting the Megapode: carried by University porters, they chase a man with a big bird-shaped hat. The one that sets off the plot, however, requires that the wizards play football (they're not required to ''win'', but try getting Archchancellor Ridcully to understand that).

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* In [[TheFallAndRiseOfReginaldPerrin The Legacy of Reginald Perrin]], Perrin leaves a fortune to be shared among his friends, on the condition that they each do something sufficiently absurd.

* When ''Series/{{Titus}}'' mother [[spoiler: commited suicide]] one of the apparently many oddities in her will, was for Titus to eat Apples, the catch? Apples was her mother's petdog, when she was little, the lawyer then procedes to put a frozen (enveloped in silver foil) dog corpse.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* Part of Dunkelzahn's Will from Shadowrun was like that. Of course, the rest was such a massive pile of [[ThanatosGambit assorted]] [[XanatosGambit gambits]] that it basically turned the megacorporate Status Quo inside out, caused a war or two and may have ended up saving the world.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* There's a ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode where Bender is left a haunted castle on the condition that he spend one night in it. The will also contains the clause 'To my loyal butler, You There, for his decades of service, I leave a pittance, to be paid in twenty equal instalments of one-twentieth of a pittance each.'

[[folder: Real Life ]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Vance_Millar Charles Vance Millar]], Canadian Lawyer. His will included things such as:
** Giving three men known to despise each other lifetime tenacy together in his house in Jamacia
** Giving three known anti-horse-racing advocates $25,000 worth of Ontario Jocky club stock
** Saying that his estate was to be converted to cash ten years after his death and given to the woman that gave birth to the most children in that time. This became known as the "Great Stork Race."

* TheHouseOnHauntedHill is about a millionaire who leaves a fortune to be shared among some stock horror-film victims if they can spend a night in his haunted house and still be alive the next day.

A will that contains ridiculous bequests, strange conditions and other weird oddities. This type of will often contains demeaning, cumbersome tasks to earn the fortune and might openly insult the inheritor. The inheritors are usually people you wouldn't expect the inheritance to go to, such as strangers, unknown relatives or even [[PetHeir pets]]. The will may also contain bequests that no one would ever want or need. Sometimes, however, a twist will be used to make the bequeathed gift only look useless at first but turns out to contain something more valuable.

[[AC:Film]]

[[AC:Literature]]

* In ''TheUltimateGift'' when his rich grandad, Howard "Red" Stevens died, Jason thought he was going to inherit a piece of the old man's multi-billion dollar estate, but it came with a condition. In order to get his share of the willed inheritance, Jason must complete 12 separate assignments within a year.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* When ''Series/{{Titus}}'' mother [[spoiler: commited suicide]] one of the apparently many oddities in her will, was for Titus to eat Apples, the catch? Apples was her mother's petdog, when she was little, the lawyer then procedes to put a frozen (enveloped in silver foil) dog corpse

[[AC:{{Tabletop Games}}]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

** Saying that his estate was to be converted to cash ten years after his death and given to the woman that gave birth to the most children in that time. This became known as the "Great Stork Race."