Defend the Indefensible: Comic Sans Serif

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The Colin Hunt of fonts.

If something's worth saying, don't say it in an "Oooh, aren't I wacky" way.

Grrrr.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

IT'S FUNNY!!! "COMIC"!!!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

People who use this font should be shipped off to some island somewhere, perhaps Custos Island.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

And write their papers in this annoying typeface, then let's see how "comic" it is.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

"The comedian who knows no rule of law"?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

The people who use Comic Sans also wear comedy ties and socks

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I would like to pistolwhip everyone in corporations everywhere that actually uses this font in e-mail signatures.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

The Colin Hunt of fonts.

*dies giggling* love it.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:15 (twenty years ago)

"But what would you call a font like that?"

― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

I said to my adorable students this semester: "12 point, double spacing in any font that is not Comic Sans MS. It gives me a migraine and I mark more harshly when I have a migraine.".

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

People actually write their papers using comic sans serif?

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:24 (twenty years ago)

Ed: did anyone submit their work in Wingdings after that? =)

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

nobody will defend this. nobody.

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:26 (twenty years ago)

I always read GARU G's posts as if they're in Comic Sans.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

They haven't submitted yet. But last semester, about 20 of the 250 I had to mark were in it.

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Tom E is a big fan but he's on holiday.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Plz tell me you meant submitted in wingdings omg xpost

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

No, Comic. I actually like it for some things - I'm using it in some web designing I'm doing at the moment because it fits the colour scheme and such. It's just not very good for a LOT of text.

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe that. Wow.

I was about to come to this thread and say 'hey, Comic Sans has a [very limited] place, don't be the font fascists now'. But instead I am picturing the essays and crying.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

The creator of comic sans defends himself.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

there was a discussion about this before and apparently it's the best font for people with dyslexia to read!

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

Heh I'd be a terrible teacher cos I'd cry over all the essays for being shit grammar and suchlike.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

well that'd good trayce if you're teaching english

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

If it weren't grossly unprofessional, I'd scan one of them in.

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

oh wait haha i see what you've done there now

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

xpost

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

http://base58.com/ilx/fac1comicsans.gif

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

the guy's explanation is really funny for all the implied abuse he's taken over the years

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:38 (twenty years ago)

lol actually I didnt mean to write a bad sentence on purpose! haha bad wine! *smak*

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:39 (twenty years ago)

CSS reminds me of the sort of letters we had to copy when we were first taught to write at school, and I sort of like that. But not very much. Dunno about those weird cruciform lower-case 't's either.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)

if i ever bought a comic that used this font, i'd burn it.

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:47 (twenty years ago)

Yes it's a good font for dyslexics. They tend to find all caps difficult to read too.

― Zazas Zazas Nasatanada Katzenellenbogen by the Sea (noodle vague), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:48 (twenty years ago)

everyone finds all caps difficult to read. that's why it's rule #1 of the internet to never do it.

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:50 (twenty years ago)

I dispute that a little (all caps tends to work better for navigation menus if they're graphical - though you may well argue that graphical naviagtion menus should be avoided anyway).

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:52 (twenty years ago)

anything over two words is an eye-fucker.

― g-kit (g-kit), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

i think it depends on the menu steve (e.g. i don't think it'd work too well with the MS Word menu bar if all the text were ALL CAPS)

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

Haha, The Dark Knight Returns is responsible for Comic Sans!

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

I was just thinking about websites Kendog.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

Well if you mean that capitals are clearer than lowercase at smaller font sizes, then yes.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:15 (twenty years ago)

His brother is a world class bridge player, I think.

― Draw Tipsy, ya hack. (dave225.3), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

I was about to summon up some kind of defense just to be contrary but then I read that guy's story about why he created it. Indefensible!

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000AG9W.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Though I'm not 100% sure of this one, it still works.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:21 (twenty years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fastshow/wallpaper/images/colin_640.jpg

― Colin Hunt, Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Proof that you all hate fun. Er, wait.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

note that it's mostly the middle-aged women in your office who use this font.

Comic Sans: Official Typeface Choice of Your Aunts

― kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

I read that as Anus.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

No, that's the poster.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

My anus?

or your?

― kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

I shit better fonts than Comic Sans.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

That Factory parody is incredible and is going straight onto my desktop at work!

There was an edition of Crearive Review last year where they got designers to use Comic Sans to reclaim it - they mostly failed.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 9 August 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 148 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

This letter is so perfect. All caps, quotation mark hell AND comic sans serif.

― ô_o (Nicole), Friday, 9 July 2010 20:17 (fifteen years ago)

people are really feelin' it in akron/cleveland, though
yet another indignity for the people of NE OH: they respond positively to the use of comic sans :(

― ghee hee hee (La Lechera), Friday, 9 July 2010 20:24 (fifteen years ago)

six months pass...

Ugly fonts may aid comprehension

― Alba, Sunday, 16 January 2011 13:03 (fifteen years ago)

Oh man, this week at my work I came across an extensive history of our email correspondence with a prominent computer engineer, all of whose emails were in comic sans.

― kkvgz, Sunday, 16 January 2011 15:59 (fifteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Thank God for Mississippi

― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:43 (fifteen years ago)

at this point, i think it should be "Defend the Indefensible: Talking about Comic Sans"

― odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:46 (fifteen years ago)

The "wolf band" joke of typography dilettantes

― odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:47 (fifteen years ago)

agree with whiney tbh although we're both in the vortex of metasuck now

― acoleuthic, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 14:53 (fifteen years ago)

here, chris. I made this for u.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4791/wgas.jpg

― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 2 February 2011 15:07 (fifteen years ago)

lol

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 15:14 (fifteen years ago)

― odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 15:16 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/

― The all-jazz interpreter (Eazy), Monday, 7 March 2011 15:14 (fifteen years ago)

chief exec of my organisation sent an email in comic sans the other day. guy earns > £100,00 p.a.

― tending tropics (jim in glasgow), Sunday, 20 March 2011 00:04 (fifteen years ago)

lol £100,000 even

― tending tropics (jim in glasgow), Sunday, 20 March 2011 00:04 (fifteen years ago)

OK, someone just told me about this:

Search "helvetica" in Google.

― jaymc, Friday, 1 April 2011 14:34 (fifteen years ago)

arrghh! It's everywhere!

― Lee626, Friday, 1 April 2011 14:36 (fifteen years ago)

he, he, helvetica

― tangelo amour (elmo argonaut), Friday, 1 April 2011 14:37 (fifteen years ago)

I'm bummed to learn the Google thing was just an April Fool's joke

― Lee626, Wednesday, 6 April 2011 23:36 (fifteen years ago)

i am studying an engineering degree. my college papers get handed out IN THIS FUX0RING FONT

also i called in sick this morning to slack on ilx all day.

― jumpskins, Thursday, 7 April 2011 09:39 (fifteen years ago)

it's kind of fun to say "comique sans" in an exaggerated accent. that is my one and only defense

― bernard snowy, Thursday, 7 April 2011 10:18 (fifteen years ago)

i am studying an engineering degree. my college papers get handed out IN THIS FUX0RING FONT

Ouch! This also makes me think of how many student hand in papers in Comic Sans (though there are some things I'm just better off not knowing).

― EDB, Thursday, 7 April 2011 19:59 (fifteen years ago)

nine months pass...

a couple wks ago i was watching one of those disturbing shows on discovery id. anyhow at one point they are showing a homicide detective standing in front of a filing cabinet and opening up a folder, and the folder says said "<something i can't remember> HOMICIDES 1997" or whatever. in comic sans.

the f...

― dell (del), Monday, 9 January 2012 17:36 (fourteen years ago)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_IMGjq3rRTeg/TBl9Ki8nN9I/AAAAAAAAEEg/au2IgSxCtt8/Comic%20Sans%20Mofo.png

― hooked on ebonics (Pillbox), Tuesday, 10 January 2012 03:51 (fourteen years ago)

five months pass...

rofl

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rxgIZieo9mQ/T_QwijARdgI/AAAAAAAAAPE/BRKWK0UlWMY/s1600/higgscomicsans.jpg

― PSOD (Ste), Wednesday, 4 July 2012 12:02 (thirteen years ago)

Can it possibly be used "ironically"?

― Tom Crucifictorious (Leee), Wednesday, 11 July 2012 18:30 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

after just looking at a bunch of lol-memes I realized that few fonts are more effective at making something less funny than Impact

― signed, J.P. Morgan CEO (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 18 December 2013 22:12 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

love it or leave it witchey warlock

― Brian Eno's Mother (Latham Green), Friday, 14 February 2014 21:54 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

http://comicneue.com/

― polyphonic, Monday, 7 April 2014 18:17 (twelve years ago)

...not bad?

― Doctor Casino, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:05 (twelve years ago)

I like the concept of taking something that is bad but popular and making it less bad. And I think he accomplishes that pretty well for the most part. Is there a way to improve Papyrus or other similarly awful fonts? Or is the essence of it too shitty to be salvaged?

I dunno, I guess this is the kind of dumb shit I like to think about.

― polyphonic, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:50 (twelve years ago)

to me, comic neue is charles schulz lettering from 1956 and comic sans is charles schulz lettering from 1999

― I made a grave mistake with my balloon at the end (forksclovetofu), Monday, 7 April 2014 20:57 (twelve years ago)

hating comic sans is the liking bacon of boring type designers

― Mordy , Monday, 7 April 2014 20:59 (twelve years ago)

I have no idea why people hate comic sans and papyrus. I've even heard people hate Arial! Don't know what you have to do to get to that point.

― take a piece of mr. baxter's hand (how's life), Monday, 7 April 2014 21:46 (twelve years ago)

five months pass...

discovered this the other night at a friend's place.

http://s8.postimg.org/qhddaxfj9/new_makers_mark_bourbon_bottle_42_ABV_768x1024.png

― Treeship, Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:06 (eleven years ago)

some say it is one of the better typefaces for people with dyslexia to read and understand

― King Clone (Crabbits), Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:34 (eleven years ago)

ok mentioned before but ... people with dyslexia deserve to read labels based on u.s. regulation of spirit branding??

― King Clone (Crabbits), Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:36 (eleven years ago)

Dyslexic.com weigns in: " Some dyslexic people find that Comic Sans is one of the more readable of the commonly-available Windows fonts, and we have used it on this web site in the past. Others find it too bold, too childish or too informal."

http://www.dyslexic.com/fonts

― King Clone (Crabbits), Tuesday, 23 September 2014 02:37 (eleven years ago)

Yesterday a company we've been dealing with at work sent its first official status report on a 12-week project they're doing for us. The headlines were in Comic Sans and the body was in a font similar to this:

http://schoolfonts.com/printnew/_ZWriting.gif

They're a fairly niche company, but are highly recognized within our industry as basically the only people who do what we need them to do. Still, we're going to have words with them about the fonts.

― how's life, Tuesday, 23 September 2014 10:47 (eleven years ago)

one year passes...

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SF-qJ4dpP6s/hqdefault.jpg

― Treeship, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 04:20 (ten years ago)

I have no idea why people hate comic sans and papyrus.

My wife likes papyrus. I have informed her that some people hate it. She was also puzzled as to why this would be so.

I suspect that it is too often associated with people who think crystals are particularly good rocks for healing stuff that needs to be healed. And those who like to talk about angels as if they were the Good Witch from the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie.

― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Tuesday, 24 May 2016 05:08 (ten years ago)

i think the hatred for these fonts has to do with how often they are used. they are kind of goofy and poorly designed to begin with and seem to be used whenever people want to add a bit of pizzazz to lame documents. they just connote laziness and dumbness.

comic sans has sort of taken on a life of its own though. it's so widely reviled that it's become a widely acknowledged visual shorthand for unseriousness, which is kind of a weird thing. typography used to be one of those elements of graphic design that average people didn't attend to very much.

https://andrewbusch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/comic-sans-tombstone.jpg

― Treeship, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 05:26 (ten years ago)

http://comicsansproject.tumblr.com/

― Treeship, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 05:35 (ten years ago)

four months pass...

Still hatin'

http://i.imgur.com/gdJu9Yd.jpg

― pplains, Saturday, 8 October 2016 02:51 (nine years ago)

I dint think this thread revive could modify, nice job pp.

― wishy washy hippy variety hour (Hunt3r), Saturday, 8 October 2016 04:28 (nine years ago)

omg

― qualx, Saturday, 8 October 2016 05:19 (nine years ago)

what a fun night we're going to have bradley

― qualx, Saturday, 8 October 2016 05:19 (nine years ago)

me [m, 37] started dating a great/funny/smart girl [f, 33] but the font she uses on her smartphone is comic sans

― johnny crunch, Saturday, 8 October 2016 14:03 (nine years ago)

Sat here in Emergency, w Amber and her twisted ankle.

there is a similar sign to the just above. She remarked as we came in 'oo, It'll be proper A&E not children's'

I said that children's would probably be quicker.

anyway, I remembered the sign, we lagged.

ok, back to waaiting.

― Mark G, Sunday, 9 October 2016 19:17 (nine years ago)

five years pass...

i think i unironically like comic sans now, like i unironically like 'live laugh love' signs

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Monday, 7 March 2022 22:36 (four years ago)

As a teacher, I find comic sans fairly useful. I use it sparingly, but it comes in handy to make slides look more kid-friendly, or to suggest the idea of handwriting without actually using a handwriting font that kids can't read. Like, if I'm telling them to write something on a notecard, I might give them an example sentence in comic sans to emphasize this is the part that you write.

― Lily Dale, Monday, 7 March 2022 22:50 (four years ago)

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