40 Times People Failed To Understand Instructions And It Resulted In Hilarious Mishaps

To find out what a design expert had to say about such hilarious mishaps, Bored Panda spoke with Laura Vanagaite, a Portugal-based graphic designer. Laura explained that such unfortunate printing situations that occur during the process always depend on both sides.

“When presenting the final file to the person in charge of a printing procedure, it is better to leave exact notes, as well as tell them the instructions face to face, if it's possible. It will leave no doubts in case they have some and you can always ask how it will look in the end,” Laura said.

Laura argues that such misunderstandings are the result of miscommunication. “Sometimes there can be confusion if the text is not clear enough or the description reveals too much information. For example, if a present is for a surprise birthday party, it is better to write everything in the notes, leave your contacts and tell them that if there is any doubt, they can call you,”

“So, it depends a lot on both sides and good communication is the key in this situation. Sometimes, if it is possible, ask if they can send the final image of the cake which contains text as decoration, just to check in case there are any mistakes left.”

Moreover, Laura suggests preparing some easily understandable files with clear notes to hand to the person in charge of the order, and everything should go smoothly.

To find out more about this miscellaneous Reddit community called “Peanut Butter Is One Word,” we spoke with its moderator GrahamfieldShip who happily shared some insights. The mod explained that this quirky name of the subreddit originates from the TV show Bojack Horseman.

“On the show, a character called Mr. Peanutbutter frequently buys signs from a company, but they always put his instructions on the sign. The first use of this was in season 1, with 'CONGRATS DIANE AND MR. PEANUT BUTTER. PEANUT BUTTER IS ONE WORD'.”

GrahamfieldShip added that “it became a running gag throughout the series and is the origin of our sub's name.”

When asked why so many people find the mishaps so hilariously funny and somewhat cringefully relatable, the moderator said that it’s probably because it’s so unexpected. “If there's a human reading the instructions, they should know what needs to be printed and what doesn't. So it's funny when they completely miss the mark,” they told us.

According to GrahamfieldShip, it’s also “worth mentioning the difference between peanutbutterisoneword and lipsum, as there's a lot of confusion between the two!” The mod explained: “Lipsum is 'dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs'. For example, if you receive an email that says 'good afternoon <first name>', that would be lipsum.”

When asked about the mod’s favorite entries shared on the community, GrahamfieldShip said this one is one of their all-time favorites, “because I know if my iPad came back like that I would laugh every time I saw it.” The second favorite is this one, “because they didn't even include the stars and sprinkles.”