If you've been around Bored Panda long enough, you know we have a soft spot for signs.
From Australian artist Michael Pederson to the legendary El Arroyo restaurant, we cover pretty much everyone who knows how to send a message. Or doesn't!
There's a Facebook group called 'The Absurd Sign Project' and, as the name implies, its members are sharing the funniest sign fails they can find.
We're talking brutal spelling mistakes, contradictory statements... you know, the good stuff. So join us and let's take a look at some of the most popular posts on the group.
More info: Facebook
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We contacted the group's administrators and moderators and one of them, Craig Hey, was kind enough to tell us more about this amusing corner of the internet.
"The community is fantastic," Craig told Bored Panda.
The gang is approaching 100,000 members but the predecessor of 'The Absurd Sign Project' had 166,000 before Facebook decided to ban it.
However, when it comes to content, numbers aren't the most important thing.
From time to time, bigger Facebook groups attract toxic users who want to litter all over them but Craig said they don't have this problem.
"Sometimes we have to take down a post we think Facebook won't like, but we don't get too many trolls. We have a dedicated admin and mod team who love seeing the group thrive and grow. Our most common issue is people not being happy over the posts we have to take down so we don't get shut down."
As you can see, the signs that get featured on the group come from a variety of places but there are a few leaders.
"The biggest provider of entertainment, I would say, are restaurants and supermarkets," Craig said.
The representative of 'The Absurd Sign Project' thinks the main reason why there are so many funny signs isn't incompetence. Rather, it's our desire to make each other laugh.
"We are the biggest absurd sign group I've found and we are the original group," Craig added.
"If anyone has any absurd signs of their own and wants to share, we would love to keep growing as a community and we want to see them!"
If you also have to make a sign, whether it's for your kid's lemonade stand or a business of your own, it might be worth remembering a chat in our earlier piece on funny and clever signs with Adrian Geach.
Geach, who has been a signwriter since 1980, told Bored Panda that "a good sign should be eye-catching, easy to understand and not too wordy with enough negative space around the text or logo, and have a good color scheme."
Stay in drugs, eat school, and don't do vegetables. Sounds reasonable to me....
And then the man went wee wee wee wee wee, all the way home 😉
Geach has been successfully involved in all areas of signage and graphics for decades but not that long ago, he went back to his roots and now concentrates on traditional signwriting.
With the current resurgence of interest in signwriting and hand-rendered work, he utilizes his skills to offer clients a more personal, unique, environmentally friendly, and organic signage solution using old-fashioned materials and techniques.
"A sign might only be looked at for a few seconds so it needs to leave an impression within this time frame, hence the less is more approach," he said.
Where else am I supposed to do my competitive dog grooming? In the elevator!?
"There are many factors to take into account when designing a sign, but the most important thing is to make sure it doesn't get lost in its surroundings," Geach revealed.
"A bad sign is too much lettering, not enough space around or in-between text and logos, and bad color choices."
But after seeing a few more posts on 'The Absurd Sign Project', we'll become experts on those by ourselves!
Watch someone take the table and leave all the rest of the stuff on the ground, untouched.
Big difference between "Let's eat, grandma" and "let's eat grandma"
Load More Replies...due to the lack of punctuation it sounds like you have to be a disabled elderly pregnant child to use the bathroom
Load More Replies...Clearly I need to get out more, because I've never met anybody who fitted that description before.
Ok, Some would consider me elderly (65), I am disabled, I just had a cat scan that looks like I am pregnant with an alien child. I find out when I am due on Monday. I do live in Florida, so anything is possible, you know.
I’ve never seen a disabled elderly pregnant child before . Interesting .
That's very specific. What if you're not a disabled elderly pregnant child? Can you use the sink?
I think it means disabled, elderly, pregnant, and children...... still very funny
Should also be, for people with IBS, or do we fit in disabled category for that reason??
It's 2023, I identify as a DISABLED, ELDERLY, PREGNANT, CHILD-EATING twinkie. :p
I've seen this before, with a picture to answer all the questions: a one-legged child who was both elderly and pregnant.
i read this as if ur a Disabled, Elderly, Pregnant, Child then u may use this toilet
How u be elderly and a child at the same time!? Also children can't be pregnant... Can they?
Damn, I’m disabled & elderly, but not a pregnant child. Man, hope I can hold it til I get home.
I've yet to see a disabled, elderly, pregnant child. I think their ! key got stuck.
How can a child be disabled, elderly, and pregnant? (I know what the sign is supposed to mean)
elderly and children might not be achieved but someone could go under three!
How many children are able to use the toilet? I doubt if many qualify.
I've never seen a disabled, elderly, pregnant child and I'm glad that they have a separate toilet.
And thats why we dont call all pregnant people 'women', sadly some are children (or non binary people or trans men)
I love EVERYTHING about this. Especially the voodoo dolls being made while you wait 😂
The fact that they probably had to write the sign based on some persons actions is unreal
For those of you not familiar, Rocky Mountain Oysters are bull testicles...
The missing closing quotation marks is what bugs me the most about this...
This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen/read in my whole life without a doubt
Quite a few of these pictures would also qualify for "You only had one job" kind of list.
But it's so FUN to down vote them into oblivion!
Load More Replies...why is always the place to find job offers? and why are they always spam?
I once went to this great Amish restaurant called 'Old Buggy Buffet ' Imagine what I thought when I first saw that on their sign.
Nope, you just drew more attention to it. Downvote and move on, don't do this c**p
Load More Replies...Quite a few of these pictures would also qualify for "You only had one job" kind of list.
But it's so FUN to down vote them into oblivion!
Load More Replies...why is always the place to find job offers? and why are they always spam?
I once went to this great Amish restaurant called 'Old Buggy Buffet ' Imagine what I thought when I first saw that on their sign.
Nope, you just drew more attention to it. Downvote and move on, don't do this c**p
Load More Replies...