As anybody who has ever worked as a graphic designer (or with graphic designers) knows, there are certain fonts that are not so much as forbidden to use but, rather, punishable by immediate death and professional blackballing upon use. They also tend to be the ones that first-time or amateur designers go for first, and so you see them pretty much everywhere. The penultimate font horror is, of course, Comic Sans.*

The font is so ubiquitous and corrosive to all good sense that ByDesign has dedicated a podcast to it:

In just 15 years, the casual typeface Comic Sans has become one of the world’s most ubiquitous fonts, popping up everywhere from street signs to porn sites. Now there’s an international campaign to ban it. We meet the type designer who started it all.

(ByDesign: Comic Sans, Font of Controversy)

(Check out this Anti-Comic Sans Font Hoodie)

* There is only one font which can trump the evil of Comic Sans. It is the indubitably wrong, though mercifully much less used “Sand” font.

I’m more offended by the overuse of Papyrus these days.  Anytime the client wants something a bit ‘new agey’ or ‘organicky’, or ‘ethnicky’, up it pops.  Love playing Papyrus spotting as I’m driving down the street.  I couldn’t believe they used it for the Avatar title logo.  Weirdly, I hardly see comic sans anywhere anymore.  Sod.

Party Letters. I see that font abused almost as much, if not more than Comic Sans.
I hate being asked to use a fancy, script-style font because it looks <i>“classy”</i>.
I also hate all the phony-looking eroded sans-serif fonts that just scream <i>Hot Topics poser-punk</i>.
Along the same lines - what font do you overuse - even though it’s wrong - but use anyway?
Me? Syntax. Fake cyrillic fonts. The Crass stencil font. I need an intervention.

I overuse Helvetica, which is ‘boring’, but I have an embarrassing love affair with it.  I justify its use by telling people it’s an invisible font which is both post-modern and modern, and it doesn’t invoke any sense of style, time or place.  Gill Sans is another I go to several towns with.  I put massive tracking spaces in it and it looks lovely.  Sad.  Not even ‘interesting’ fonts.

Kill Times New Roman

Yeah, I find the overuse of Helvetica dismaying. Also, “penultimate” means second-to-last.

Ken, that’s because Sand is the ultimate horror!

I used to work at a semi-large magazine and catalog printer. You know what gave us the most trouble? Helvetica. Beacuse there’s at least 100 different versions. (Maybe more.) And designers never gave us all the versions they used. All I can say is “Preflight, people!” It will make dealing with your printers much easier.

I agree with the Papyrus fatigue. Ya know who else over-uses that one? Church groups. Nuff said.

I’m firmly in the Helvetica camp. I find it endlessly useful, tasteful and ubiquitous to the point that it’s unnoticeable.
I’ve experienced the too-many-Helveticas syndrome, too.

Sadly - and that sign in the post is a good example - it seems at times that Comic Sans, by virtue of its ubiquity, has passed into a sort of universal acceptance somewhat akin to Helvetica.

We might hate it as designers, but it’s probably not going anywhere anytime soon.

I am also personally tired of the by-now tired ‘Reflection under type’ look popularized by Apple.
I want to make a font or Photoshop plugin for it and call it Cliche 2.0.
Its abuse rivals that of bevel and emboss and egregious drop-shadow over-usage.
Geez! We design nerds should get a forum!

My own personal fall back font is Impact - it’s simple and striking. And I agree about the Papyrus titles for Avatar - amazing how they spent so much money on making everything looks amazing except for the main title.