History Main / SillyWill

** Another Wimsey story has the eccentric uncle leave his fortune to the (Conservative) Primrose League, just to annoy his Communist niece. There's a covering note, explaining that there's a later will leaving the* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Bilbo Baggins isn't dead, but is going to live with the Elves and disposing of some of his possessions in the Shire. His directions for settling them (that the reader sees, anyway) are all snarky comments on how his family and friends treated his property when he ''was'' around, like giving his bookshelf to someone who kept borrowing his books and not returning them. Later in the passage, it's stated that while a significant number of his bequests were in this vein, many more of them were actually aversions, where items were given to those who actually would appreciate them and use them. money to her, if she can be frivolous enough to find it.

* The plot of ''Film/ScavangerHunt1979'' involves, well, a ScavengerHunt for all sorts of outrageous items arranged by late game inventor Milton Parker (Creator/VincentPrice), the grand prize being his estate and the $200 million contained in his will.

* In ''Film/WhatACarveUp'', not only does Gabriel Broughton [[PassedOverInheritance leave absolutely nothing to his family in his will]] (and make them all travel to his OldDarkHouse to hear this), but he bequeaths his nurse Linda all of his medicines, syringes and empty medicine bottles. Linda, at least, sees the funny side of this.
* In ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', the aged Baron Beaufort von Frankenstein leaves instructions that his estate shall be given to his distant great-grandson rather than shared among a cadre of mooching relatives, if said great-grandson has become a respected doctor of his own accord. One of the relatives tries to pass this clause off as insanity but the executor reminds her that civilization is based on law and so it shall be followed. The scene was [[DeletedScene removed from the final film]]. Said Baron also wanted the will not to be revealed until 100 years from when he was born, meaning Frederick had to meet the terms until then. The other relatives didn't like having to wait until then to either get the estate or learn they wouldn't.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** ''Literature/BlackWidowers'':
*** "Literature/ToTheBarest": 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. To raise the stakes, if the riddle wasn't solved, the money would go to the American Nazi Party.
*** "Literature/TheOneAndOnlyEast": The members have to help a friend whose eccentric uncle required him to solve a riddle in order to receive an inheritance. If he fails, the fortune will go to charities that the uncle knows his straitlaced nephew will disapprove of.
** "{{Literature/Sally}}": In the BackStory, the rich Samson Harridge decides to leave his entire estate to his car after his death. While the newspapers mocked it at first, sending your AutomatedAutomobiles to Farm for Retired Automobiles after you died became almost normal. The people who didn't tended to have children or grandchildren who would take care of it.
* Subversion: Dumbledore's will in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' seems to be this at first, but each item proves to be very significant later.
* In ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'', Lazarus Long tries to put together his will so that all his assets will be left to Prostitutes, Panhandlers, and other undesirables beginning with 'P'. When someone points out that probably won't survive legal arbitration, he decides to leave it to a cat shelter instead.
** Though he has a fairly good reason for the silliness: it's to keep his assets out of the hands of his less scrupulous relatives in case his preferred heir is unable to inherit for some reason.
* In ''Film/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 has to complete 12 separate assignments within a year.

** Another Wimsey story has the eccentric uncle leave his fortune to the (Conservative) Primrose League, just to annoy his Communist niece. There's a covering note, explaining that there's a later will leaving the money to her, if she can be frivolous enough to find it.
* The ''Literature/HerculePoirot'' short story, "The Case of the Missing Will", has an eccentric old man write a will which gives his niece a month to "prove her wits", after which the estate goes to charity. She interprets this, correctly, as meaning she has to find a second will dated after this one in which she's the beneficiary.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Bilbo Baggins isn't dead, but is going to live with the Elves and disposing of some of his possessions in the Shire. His directions for settling them (that the reader sees, anyway) are all snarky comments on how his family and friends treated his property when he ''was'' around, like giving his bookshelf to someone who kept borrowing his books and not returning them. Later in the passage, it's stated that while a significant number of his bequests were in this vein, many more of them were actually aversions, where items were given to those who actually would appreciate them and use them.
* In the Nora Roberts book ''A Will and a Way,'' the dead rich man's will primarily focuses on giving almost all of the money to two relatives who are always fighting [[OnOneCondition if they can learn to live together]], and most of his other relatives he leaves some minor and/or ridiculous bequests (of which only the Marie Antoinette Mirror is appreciated by said heir).
--> To my son Carlson, whose mediocrity was always a mystery to me, I leave my entire collection of magic tricks in the hopes he can develop a sense of the ridiculous. To my nephew Monroe, who has the first dollar he ever made, I leave the last dollar I ever made, frame included. To my niece Patience I leave my cottage in Key West without much hope she'll have the gumption to use it. To my grand-nephew Biff I leave my collection of matches in the hope that he will, at last, set the world on fire. To my pretty grandniece Ginger, who likes equally pretty things, I leave the sterling silver mirror purported to have been owned by Marie Antoinette. To my grand-nephew Hank, I leave the sum of $3,528. Enough, I believe, for a lifetime supply of wheat germs.
* In ''The Witches Of Chiswick'' by Creator/RobertRankin, Hugo Rune's last will and testament is this. It's self-aggrandizing and obnoxious, tries to bequeath Rune's ''debts'' to various people, and then goes on to present the elaborate and ridiculously expensive funeral arrangements he had planned out (something more suited to royalty or an Egyptian pharaoh than the conman he was), with the expectation that someone else would pay for it all.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Mr. Casey's Will", Angela Devon has a will written on behalf of her late beloved cat Mr. Casey. Mr. Casey bequeaths his most valuable possessions; a ball of yarn, a chewed up tennis ball and an empty milk cartons, to Walter Denton, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin respectively.
-->'''Mr. Conklin''': What kind of bovine jest is this?
** Miss Brooks, on the other hand, is bequeathed the contents of Mr. Casey's treasure chest. This turns out to be his widow Mrs. Casey and their five kittens.
--->'''Miss Brooks''': Contrary to public opinion, [[Literature/CaseyAtTheBat Mighty Casey]] did not strike out!
* In ''[[Series/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.
* ''Series/SlingsAndArrows'' has Oliver, who asked to have his head severed upon his death so it can be stripped of flesh and used in a production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}''.
* On ''Series/{{Titus}}'', when Creator/ChristopherTitus's mother [[spoiler:committed suicide]], one of the apparently many oddities in her will was for Christopher to eat Apples. The catch? Apples was her own mother's pet dog when she was little. The lawyer then gives him a frozen (enveloped in silver foil) dog corpse.
* On ''Series/TheITCrowd'', a VideoWill contained a long sequence of the deceased [[FruitOfTheLoon eating an apple]] for no apparent reason. It also contained some incriminating evidence about accounting irregularities.
* Back when the title character of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' was still married to Joy, Earl's will consisted of a very brief recording (made on a stolen video camera, taped over a home movie of an elderly woman's birthday party) of Earl drunkenly stating how much he loved Joy and that everything he owned would be hers if anything happened to him, before the couple proceeded to have drunk sex on TheCouch. This causes problems for him later, seeing as she tries to kill him in order to get the lottery money he won and claimed ''after'' she divorced him for Darnell. [[spoiler:Earl gets a real, legitimate, sober will drawn up while Joy waits for a background check on a handgun, ensuring that even if she did kill him, she would get nothing.]]

* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': The reading of the Will of Barbara Reynolds (Frank's Wife and the Mother of Dee and Dennis) is regarded by Frank and Dee to be a conversation with the deceased that the lawyer is somehow mediating. The increasingly-exasperated lawyer attempts to explains that he is merely reading the works of the will and Barbara can not respond to any objections as she is still dead.
* In ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'', a millionaire leaves a VideoWill to tell his relatives he's leaving them absolutely nothing. (And also tell [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech them exactly how he feels about them]].) He also leaves Jennifer (who he had been dating, and said relatives had accused of being a GoldDigger) exactly one dollar, the special [[NumberOneDime first dollar]] he ever made, along with instructions for what to do with the rest of his belongings, which she starts to arrange later.
* On ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'', Rose mentions her late husband Charlie set up a gag will that left everything to the family cow. Unfortunately, some lawyer managed to get a hold of the will and tried to make sure the cow got everything. Rose explains she had to testify in front of what is implied to be a jury of farm animals. Thankfully, Rose won the case, and celebrated... with a steak dinner.

* ''Series/CrazyLikeAFox'': In "Turn of the Century Fox," a friend of Harry dies and leaves behind several cryptic items, along with a challenge for Harry to discover the key of his success.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', Granddad's old war frenemy leaves him an [[SchmuckBait unspecified "something good"]] in his (video) will in return for Granddad delivering a kind and respectful eulogy, which he knows Granddad will hate. The inheritance turns out to be [[spoiler: [[{{Zonk}} deez nuts]], nyiggah! ([[VisualPun As in a literal jar of nuts]]). Heartwarmingly though, it is shown that Robert did keep them.]]

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See also OnOneCondition and BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie, which often overlap with this. The SpitefulWill ''can'' be silly but is more often PlayedForDrama rather than laughs.

* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance'': In the second game, Leon Roachburn turns out to have cut all three of his children out of his will, and left his whole, considerable estate to Creator/PamelaAnderson.
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Miss Brooks, on the other hand, is bequeathed the contents of Mr. Casey's treasure chest. This turns out to be his widow Mrs. Casey and their five kittens.
-->'''Miss Brooks''': Contrary to public opinion, [[Literature/CaseyAtTheBat Mighty Casey]] did not strike out!

->''"And finally, to my Lawyer, who has helped me on this will, I leave not a boot to the head, but a rabid Tasmanian Devil, to be placed in his trousers?!...AAAUUUUUUGH!"''

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "The Honking" begins when Bender is left a haunted castle, belonging to his uncle Vladimir, on the condition that he spend one night in it (Vladimir also stipulated that Bender only inherited the castle if he wasn't responsible for the former's death). The will also contains the clause 'To my loyal butler, [[HeyYou You There]], for his decades of service, I leave a pittance, to be paid in 20 equal installments of one-twentieth of a pittance each.'

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons:'' "Bart the Fink" begins with the Simpsons at the reading of their late Aunt Hortense's will, which stipulates they will receive one hundred dollars each on the proviso they spend a night in a haunted house. When Marge [[LampshadeHanging questions this]], the executor just replies it's a standard clause. The rest of their aunt's money is sent to Ann Landers.
** Marge's Aunt Gladys left a video will which allowed for Homer to fast-forward through a poem and for Lionel Hutz to attempt to dub-over the video in an attempt to assign himself several thousand dollars (which apparently works often). Glady's genuine bequeathments are notably bizarre including a collection of potato chips shaped like celebrities and her pet iguana

* In the ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' episode "Test of Wills", an eccentric millionaire leaves a will which says he leaves his son and daughter-in-law his contempt, his daughter and granddaughter his pity, his only friend nothing because he already squandered one fortune, and his servants all the money they've already stolen from him. Everything else (i.e. everything) goes to Jessica, much to her bewilderment.

** [[spoiler: Pierce himself]] also inserts OnOneCondition into his will twice. First, his friends must all answer a series of questions while hooked up to lie detectors. This is ostensibly to determine if they played any part in his death, but is mostly an excuse to mess with them one last time. Secondly, [[spoiler:Troy must sail around the world in Pierce's yacht to receive the bulk of his fortune.]] He also gives them all a ''container of his sperm''. This makes a tiny bit of sense for the first person, but less and less until the end when it's listed as "obligatory sperm."

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* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'', Granddad's old war frenemy leaves him an [[SchmuckBait unspecified "something good"]] in his (video) will in return for Granddad delivering a kind and respectful eulogy, which he knows Granddad will hate. The inheritance turns out to be [[spoiler: [[{{Zonk}} deez nuts]], nyiggah! ([[VisualPun As in a literal jar of nuts]]). Heartwarmingly though, it is show that Robert did keep them.]]

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Bilbo Baggins isn't dead, but is going to live with the Elves and disposing of some of his possessions in the Shire. His directions for settling them are all snarky comments on how his family and friends treated his property when he ''was'' around, like giving his bookshelf to someone who kept borrowing his books and not returning them.

* An anonymous alumnae of Wellesley College left an endowment to the small women's college so that up to seven flavors of ice cream be available to students at all times of day and night.