Flunked: 14 Signs of a Deficient Intellect

1. God help us.

(Photo by Laura Kicey).

2. Furst kum, furst surfed.

(Photo by Kuminiac).

3. From a politically astute second-grader.

(Photo by Lettuce1).

4. Nice try but no cigar.

(Photo by Tiny_tear).

5. Now hiring: police officers. Minimum educational qualifications: none.

(Photo by Xetark).

6. In love with all things domestic.

(Photo by 4rank).

7. Sorry, we can't not point out how retarded you sound.

(Photo by C.A. Shields).

8. And we all so clearly see who flunked remedial grammar.

(Photo by Steph Tichenor).

9. Someone paid for this?

(Photo by Cloudasmoke).

10. Boat and mast sold separately.

(Photo by The Real Devil Doll).

11. You!! are!! a!! moron!!

(Photo by Touchmenots).

12. Harry Potter's country hideaway.

(Photo by Zach Krugler).

13. Yum.

(Photo by Stephee).

14. At least there are no spelling mistakes.

(Photo by Seth W.)

Comments

[Derrick]

Nice collection you have there. Thanks!

[Christopher]

Maybe the last one is a failed attempt at a haiku?

[Tom]

"At least there's no spelling mistakes."

Let's spell that out and see how it sounds. At least there is no spelling mistakes? Perhaps you meant: "At least there're no spelling mistakes." I'm not usually a Grammar Nazi, but in an article where your entire purpose is to point out the mistakes others make, I thought it fair to point out your own. We all make mistakes, get over it.

[Jim]

Tom, you is gay.

[Tim]

Oh my god. I'm so glad this got done. No joke there was actually a car for sale, just like on the side of the road, and it's been there forever, probably because it reads "4 Sail!"

[peter guszti]

sorry we are closed, due to water problems. that is the best one, I also posted some great ones on my blog, www.opentopix.com/topic/comedy/top-14-most-idiotic-signs

[Gregory]

Way to go Christopher!
Just because a person is a poor speller doesn't mean they are dumb.

[Nathan]

You missed the irony whether it was wrong or not...

[eric y]

well i know for a fact that jay whitlow can find humor in these misspellings and is tempted to stop and do a quick literacy lesson with the writers but he has to thank those taskmasters that learned him to spell back in alimentary school but somehow he missed the lesson on the it's and the its thing. whitlow is considering continuing his spelling lessons in nite school.

[frater mus]

Here is one I took with a cellphone in McKinney, Texas:
http://tinyurl.com/yqdpr7

In case you're wondering he's trying to sell a small, fur-bearing animal.

[Edward]

Poor spelling does not necessarily signify a poor intellect as much as it does poor education and a lack of exposure to literature. More often than not, these are not one's own fault.

[XXXiana]

There are many mistakes like that everywhere...
http://www.spymac.com/details/?2328755

[tdave365]

First one is actually kind of clever *if* it was done due to a shortage of the proper letters and someone was just trying to compensate...

[TChaney84]

Bravo Christopher. A hippocrit like the author shouldn't be doing this if he can't even get his grammar right.

And it was grammar, not spelling.
"There is" and "There are" are different verb forms. "Is" is singular and "Are" is plural. By the way, while "There's is accepted, there're is usually not, though it isn't technically wrong.

[oral seymour]

this is why I keep telling the young kids I mentor that you write the way you speak. they speak so much slang they can't make the transition from IM to a professional letter. And when they read it aloud it sounds correct to them because it is what they are used to

[Lonni]

I agree that being a poor speller does not make you dumb. These signs could have been done by people who speak English as a second language. Belief in God doesn't make you stupid either.

[Lonni]

I agree that being a poor speller does not make you dumb. These signs could have been done by people who speak English as a second language. Belief in God doesn't make you stupid either.

[xamox]

Theez pix are hullhairyus

[J]

I agree with the posters above about poor spelling being a lack of experience. However, this IS your fault. Tell me how many bookstores and libraries you have around your house here in America, or how many books you have available (a Bible in the Bible belt for instance), then tell me why you can't sit down and read for once.

[speedeep]

http://photo.transmit.net/picture/px8745-med.html
Pike Road, AL
and
http://photo.transmit.net/picture/px7580-med.html
Clear Lake, IA
and
http://photo.transmit.net/category/c1389-9-1.html
Miscellaneous Alabamania (things you'll only see in Alabama...)

[Jeff]

I think the first one is obviously "creatively" working around the lack of an "X" in his limited collection of letters.

[Erik]

Spelling poorly does ruin the message, especially if the reader is Obsessive-Compulsive. But I find that people who spell perfectly all the time take so much time trying to be perfect, they get almost nothing done. So yes, a big advertisement, someone needed to take an extra second to make sure they had the spelling right, but people who freak over any misspelling have bigger issues than a poor speller.

[Jayson Barclay]

Excellent article. I sure wish I had taken a photograph of the "YRAD SALE" sign on my street two weeks ago. Believe it or not, my department head sends out weekly emails with multiple spelling errors in spite of having spell check. Some people just don't get it.

[Angelo]

Deficient intellect?
Why should correct spelling have to be an intellectual feat? I ascribe this more to the fault of our complicated and ridiculous language. Most other languages are so much simpler.

[Dave Nofmeister]

Wow, some of these people didn't even take 5 seconds to think what they were writing. Amazing.