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
This post may include affiliate links.
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.
Yes, because being unnecessarily rude and calling names is so funny. Honestly, this is why our society is in the pits; people think it is so cool to "school" someone like this. Whatever happened to simple kindness? The sign could have easily read (and should have), "Check with the city as it is illegal to lockup your bike here." There is no need to humiliate someone while educating them. Just tired of the ugliness all the time. No need.
Load More Replies...The second person didn't need to humiliate while educating the person on something of which they were clearly unaware.
Load More Replies...Hopefully without the lock, and maybe by paing a fine
Load More Replies...And the ticket for chaining the bike to a handicapped signpost will probably be more than they paid for the bike & lock! As it should be!
In my locale the first fine *was* $75 and went up from there. Now I think the first fine is $150. And every now and then I still see idiots pull into a handicap space, hop out and walk into the store... and watch someone who does have a handicap tag or license plate have to park farther away from the entrance. What gets me if you say something to these Karens and Kens, they act like they did nothing wrong at all. Or they simply ignore you and leave with a look of indignation on their sorry faces.
Load More Replies...maybe it carries the sign which says disabled parking spot?
Load More Replies...These were both written by the same person 🙄 same paper and pen; upper case and lower case Y's match...
My guess is a handicapped person did this to teach others not to park their if you're not handicapped and not to park your bike where it's not allowed.
Load More Replies...The I's and O's are different its not hard to ask your mate to write the other half
I’ve seen this pic a number of times over the years and it never fails to get a chuckle out of me.
If i was a bike 🚴theif..... this message would not scare me one bit!! 🙄🙄🙄
Since the top sign is in all capital letters and the bottom sign is in lowercase, you very well could be right. I'd have to agree that they were written by the same person.
Load More Replies...My guess is a handicapped person did this to teach others not to park their if you're not handicapped and not to park your bike where it's not allowed.
Load More Replies...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.
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...