Font Fight! — The Clone Wars Of Type
Last summer College Humor posted the spoof Font Conference. It recounts the exploits of superhero Comic Sans who thwarts Ransom's bid for world… errr.. software domination. The protagonists are popular typefaces which are portrayed as actual people with characters referring to their name. The video is mildly funny – that is if you can get past the not very PC stereotypes. Let's say subtlety wasn't a prime concern for the makers. Wide Latin an overweight Latin American chewing down a fried chicken? French Script giving up his seat to a German Rage Italic when the latter throws a fit? Even if that was meant ironically it sure isn't for the easily offended. The only truly witty exchange is between Arial Narrow and Arial Black at the beginning, plus Courier New's deadpan reaction to Ransom's threat and Windings absurd interventions. All in all a decent effort which has some fun with type.
And now there's Font Fight!. This the follow-up to Font Conference appeared on College Humor last week. It follows the same recipe, but this time pits the Helvetica gang against Arial and her cronies; the Clone Wars of fonts as it were. Again a worthy effort which – depending on your familiarity with type and typography – probably will elicit some chuckles.