When it comes to signs, there are endless possibilities out there. And no, I’m not talking about signs from the universe. (Although, some of the signs featured here might be equally as cryptic and unintelligible.) We’ve got road signs, signs outside of businesses, billboards, stop signs, yard signs outside of people’s homes and more. Signage is a part of our everyday lives, whether we like it or not. But lucky for us, it can sometimes be hilarious and entertaining.
To learn more about this topic, we reached out to Chuck Darling, an admin of Absurd Signs (Not Absurd Rules), who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. According to the group’s description, Absurd Signs (Not Absurd Rules) is “for posting absurd signs, letters, banners, labels, and tee shirts.” The community also welcomes “any use of the English language you find awkward,” such as product labels and more.
As far as how this group came about, Chuck shared that his friend Phil (also known as "Denton Vale") created the group. “He made it as a result of his dissatisfaction with what he felt were pointless rules in other large popular signage groups (not naming any names),” Chuck explained.
“He asked me to help him with it, as I have a history of helping moderate other large groups like ‘a group where you get banned for saying the magic word’ and ‘Weird Meme,'" he added.
We’ve actually featured Weird Meme at Bored Panda before; feel free to check out that piece here!
The Absurd Signs group was created in September 2022, and it’s clearly had plenty of success, as it currently has over 32K members. And it seems to only be going up from here, as over 3,600 Facebook users have joined the group in the last week.
But thankfully, Chuck says being an admin isn’t too tough. “I don't really have to do a lot of moderating with this group, mostly just making posts and removing spam,” he shared. “[And] kicking out bigoted hateful people that might show up, every now and then.”
As far as why so many of us are amused by these bizarre signs, Chuck says, “I think people like subversions of expectations, seeing memes and signs that don't make sense right away, as well as ones that just make you wonder what the sign maker was even thinking.”
We also asked Chuck if he could share any of his favorite signs that have been shared in the group. One of which is what he referred to as “party dog,” which features a sign of a dog who appears to be skateboarding, smoking and drinking wine all at once that’s “banned” from a park. His other personal favorite was a sign for “The Unbelievable Mystery Hole” in West Virginia.
If you’re looking to design a sign of your own, for your business or personal use, it’s important to remember that it’s pointless unless it actually grabs people’s attention. To do so, you might want to include a funny joke, an eye-catching image or a clever pun. Target Print & Mail recommends making sure your sign has a purpose and focusing on that first and foremost. For example, are you trying to make those passing by laugh, draw in customers, educate readers, inspire or inform?
