Crowdfunding has proved to be a great method for funding supplies and shipments to countries in need and acting as a dream-maker for those that lack their own resources, but this innovative form of raising money has also served up some laughable (though creative) products. You’ll love these crazy crowdfunding stories—just try not to think about how much money people were willing to drop to make them happen.
Kurt Braunohler’s Cloud Project

Kurt Braunohler

Kurt Braunohler’s Cloud Project on Kickstarter was clearly stated as a campaign to “hire a man to write stupid things with clouds in the sky.” Kurt seemingly launched the campaign just for kicks, but when his crowdfunding campaign found success, he was able to see his sky-high dreams come to fruition in a big, big way. Some of his most notable messages: Clouds 4 EVA, God’s Fartin’, and How do I land?

Goal: $4,000
Raised: $6,820
Potato Salad

Kickstarter

Recently landing among the most notorious of wacky crowdfunding campaigns, Zack (Danger) Brown’s Potato Salad Kickstarter project exceeded his expectations. The campaign’s goal was ambiguous. “Basically I’m just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.” But that didn’t stop the public from pushing Zack’s stretch goals which included inviting the “internet” to the potato salad party and giving more than a thousand people a bite of the salad. Almost six hundred backers contributed an ingredient to the potato salad, so the end result must have been quite the spectacular side dish.

Goal: $10
Raised: $55,492
The Menurkey

Menurkey.com

Anthony Weintraub’s Menurkey was launched on Kickstarter when he chose to create a menorah and turkey combination celebrating the “once in an eternity event,” on November 28, 2013 when Hanukkah and Thanksgiving overlapped. Though Thanksgivvikuh has passed, the Menurkey is still available for purchase.

Goal: $25,000
Raised: $48,345
Combat Kitchenware

Kickstarter

Combat Kitchenware was made possible by James Brown’s Kickstarter campaign, complete with the slogan, “Fighting Man Frying Pans! Epic kitchenware to make your meals legendary!” Morlock Enterprises sought as many backers as possible to equip every combat chef with one of these warrior pans. Because, sure. Why not?

Goal: $7,000
Raised: $46,261
Pi Pie Pans

Kickstarter

Garrett H’s Kickstarter campaign for Pi Pie Pans ran for only 30 days. Garrett reportedly had long awaited the day he would bake a pi-shaped pie but could have never anticipated the public’s reaction to his campaign. Turns out, brownies were surprisingly good in a pi pan because there’d be plenty of crunchy edges, but  Garrett has also made cornbread, and of course the classic cherry pie, pictured above. If you’re into baked goods—or math—you must invest in your own multi-purpose pi pans.

Goal: $2,000
Raised: $17,542
Inman Park Squirrel Census

Squirrel Census Live

Jamie Allen created the Inman Park Squirrel Census Kickstarter campaign to fund posters for visualizing Easter gray squirrel data and stories compiled by a community-based urban wildlife count in Inman Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The crowdfunding project would allow Jamie and his team to create high-quality posters reporting info on the squirrel population. The profits from the posters would pay for future squirrel census pursuits.

Goal: $7,500
Raised: $8,982
Jeffery Self Needs a New Tooth

Indiegogo

Jeffery Self Needs a New Tooth was an Indiegogo campaign initiated by Jeffery Self after he broke off half of his front tooth. The painful and experience caused him to really, really miss sandwiches—and without dental insurance, the price of a new tooth would be more than $3,000. He begged his YouTube followers to spare even just a dollar, and he ended up surpassing his goal, successfully funding a new tooth for Jeffrey Self!

Goal: $3,400
Raised: $3,650
Crystal Bacon

Kickstarter

Greg Kiesow loves bacon, and he knows America loves bacon, too. His Crystal Bacon Kickstarter campaign was his “sculptural tribute to the most delicious of all meats, bacon.” The high quality acrylic plastic has the appearance of fine crystal and can be made into jewelry, Christmas ornaments—and beyond.

Goal: $2,000
Raised: $2,786
Miley Cyrus Shirts

Kickstarter

Daniel Bañaga created a Kickstarter for twerking Miley Cyrus Shirts. Daniel was inspired by what a wise man once said, “Somewhere in America, Miley Cyrus is twerking.” While the project was part of an initiative to boost his clothing brand, SEAMED, the shirts were also supposed to serve as encouragement that dreams can happen, especially when wearing a twerking shirt… Inspired yet?

Goal: $300
Raised: $528
Bug-A-Salt

Indiegogo

The Indiegogo campaign, Bug-A-Salt, was created by Lorenzo Maggiore as a miniature shotgun for killing flies and other pesty insects using table salt for ammo. The Bug-A-Salt gun has an accuracy range within three feet for a clean shot that will keep the bugs intact for easy clean up. No batteries or toxic chemicals are required for this easy-to-use and stress-free solution to getting rid of those annoying critters. We’re in.

Goal: $15,000
Raised: $577,636