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Comic Sans

Last posted Aug 26, 2010 at 06:33AM EDT. Added Aug 18, 2010 at 08:55AM EDT
13 posts from 11 users

I was thinking--shortly after using it as a joke--that hatred for Comic Sans is potentially a meme. I have no idea how one would do a writeup if it is, though.

This has potential.

College Humor's "Font Conference" stars Comic Sans as a hero: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766

Time McSweeney's Comic Sans monologue: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html

Passive aggressive office note: http://gizmodo.com/5592503/just-dont-use-comic-sans-ok

Interview with Vincent Connare the creator of Comic Sans: http://www.manic.com.sg/blog/archives/000118.php

When good people pick bad fonts – Ignite presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULb_xtz_SE0

Could we also include Times new Roman? It's the default font for microsoft office, so most dislike it. I'm not sure if it's as well known as comic sans.

Roster teeth made a comic on fonts, mocking times new roman. I'll try to find it.

There's a similar hatred for Papyrus.

http://www.ihatepapyrus.info/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6065261542
http://twitter.com/IHatePapyrus
http://www.flickr.com/groups/papyrussucks/

This intrigued me (not exactly related to Comic Sans hatred, but still interesting):

The researchers set up two survey web pages, one of which looked very official: it had the Carnegie Mellon University seal, and referred to a "Carnegie Mellon University Executive Council Survey on Ethical Behaviors." The other, well… Comic Sans featured heavily in the site design, and the survey page was entitled "How BAD Are U???" In a pre-test, far more people rated the official-looking page as a safer option for transmitting personal information.

When put to the test, however, the exact opposite occurred. Depending on the question, participants who used the How Bad ARE U version admitted to unethical or embarrassing activities at a rate of 1.74 to 1.98 times that of those who were given the professional version. In a separate survey, participants rated the same questions as less intrusive if they were presented in Comic Sans--even though there was no difference in the ratings of the activity's social desirability between the two survey populations. In short, an unprofessional-looking interface seemed to loosen participants up in the same manner that approaching a question indirectly did.

But like I said, that's unrelated.

This, on the other hand, is related:

Excerpt from "The 5 Most Ridiculous Parts From ESPN’s LeBron James Announcement."http://www.bestweekever.tv/2010-07-09/the-5-most-ridiculous-parts-from-espns-lebron-james-special/

Alright, this wasn’t technically part of the ESPN broadcast, but after the announcement, Cavaliers Majority Owner Dan Gilbert issued an open letter to Cavs fans on the team’s website (click pic for full size, to get the total Sans Experience):

It’s already insulting to be told that your team will be fine after losing LeBron James; being told this information in Comic Sans font, well…that just goes way past ‘depressing’ and into ‘almost perversely amusing’ and then past that even further into ‘utterly hypertragic’.
I feel truly sorry for all my Cleveland-fan friends today, and I don’t say that as a sarcastic Pittsburgh fan (I’m indifferent towards the Cavs anyway), this pretty much sucks any way you look at it. At least ESPN handled the announcement with the level of attention-whoring and self-aggrandizement truly befitting LeBron James himself. Maybe that was ESPN’s meta-point this whole time? WHOA. Literature.

And here's them making fun of it again.

Last edited Aug 26, 2010 at 01:22AM EDT
Skeletor-sm

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