History Main / TheIllegible

* In ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Blackadder pretends that this trope is in play in order to save his own skin. He receives orders to advance on the enemy but claims not to be able to understand them, because they're addressed to someone whose name appears to be "Catpain Blackudder".

* Doctors are notorious for having illegible handwriting. There are studies that show doctors do not write any more or less legibly than other professionals, but the consequences for illegible writing are much more severe. A popular alternative explanation is that it's an extension of skills learned in medical school, where students must take a lot of notes very quickly. The illegible handwriting is an unfortunate side effect. In any event, illegible handwriting is one of the reasons why there's a strong push for computerized medical records, charts, and prescriptions.\\\
Of course, the prescription probably wouldn't make a ''lot'' more sense if it was professionally typeset, because physicians used a lot of Latin abbreviations. Pharmacists, who understand these, have a much easier time making it out, because while you're thinking "What the heck is this supposed to be; it looks like potid", the pharmacist knows that it ''is'' po tid, which means "''per os'' (by mouth), ''tres in diem'' (three times a day)". Medical schools have begun recommending against the use of most of the Latin abbreviations (and, more stridently, against the use of archaic units of measure like grains, drams, scruples, or minims, for some of which the abbreviation is more of a squiggle than a letter), so to some extent this is going away.\\\
Just to illustrate, the following is entirely intelligible to a pharmacist: glycerin 0.3% and propylene glycol 1% OTC soln 1-2 gtts OU q4-6h PRN #3 Refill 3 DAW. Even in electronic text, it looks like gibberish. [[note]]A particular type of artificial tears over-the-counter solution, 1-2 drops in both eyes, every 4-6 hours, as needed, dispense three bottles, refill up to three times, dispense as written. Seriously, that's it. A doctor might prescribe an OTC medication just to prevent a patient from being confused by the number of products on the shelf. Dispense as written is a formal note to the pharmacist that the physician is not allowing substitution for whatever reason, so the prescription in this case would not let a pharmacist grab another type of artificial tears and sub out.[[/note]]

* Anyone who starts to fall asleep in class while still trying to take notes has probably ended up with this.
* This is a fairly common argument for allowing laptops in class, even in classes where laptops are not required for activities. Of course, not every instructor is in favor, arguing that students could distract themselves with social media, games, and the like instead of paying attention in class.

%%* It is said that Creator/ThomasAquinas had the worst handwriting in the Middle Ages. Example [[http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Eaversa/thomas_aquinas_littera_inintelligibilis.jpg here]]. (Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples)
* The Asian [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive_script_(East_Asia) cursive script]]. The Chinese name for it, ''cǎoshū'', literally means "sloppy script".
%%* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/7jsq7l/russian_cursive/ This example of Russian cursive.]] Based on the decipherment in the comments, it's notes written by a doctor about a checkup. (Administrivia/WeblinksAreNotExamples)

* UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler had notoriously illegible handwriting, and one of the reasons why the now-discredited historian David Irving became respected in the first place is that he is one of the few people who can decipher it.[[note]]Irving was shown in a British court to have falsified historical records in his works, in order to minimise German guilt for the Holocaust. So, Irving knew what Hitler had written, he just pretended that Hitler hadn't written it.[[/note]]

* The military explicitly tries to avoid this trope by requiring servicemen to write in print and in all capital letters.

* The French comic ''ComicBook/MammouthEtPiston'' has the main character receive a postcard from a friend, but it's so illegible no one in the cast can make out more than three words (and one of them is wrong). A EurekaMoment occurs when one complains that "he writes like a doctor", and they take it to the local pharmacist who reads it with no trouble.

* Justified in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'', where Twilight Sparkle has to write something without using magic after being transformed into a human. How can someone be legible if they barely even know what hands are, let alone how to use a pen? She starts off writing with the pen in her ''mouth''.

* Kermit the Frog, according to [[Recap/TheMuppetShowS4E8 the Arlo Guthrie episode]] of ''Series/TheTheMuppetShow''. At the start of the episode, Scooter addresses said guest star as Arthur Godfrey. When he's corrected, he notes that he wishes that Kermit would learn how to type, since his handwriting's terrible.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'': This is StudentCouncilPresident Robert Chestnut's biggest character flaw. Vallejo jokes that he used to be called "Officer Chickenscratch" while he was a Safety Patroller, and the autograph he gave O'Farrell is read as "Romblo Chmangey". [[spoiler:This was also his motivation for committing the crime of the episode: His poor penmanship botched an order for some novelty foam "We're #1" lobster claws so they instead read ''"We'ne #7"''. To avoid staining his perfect image and shaming his family's legacy, he discreetly disposed of the faulty shipment and made it look like they'd been stolen by a rival while he quietly ordered a replacement.]]

* The military explicitly tries to avoid this trope by requiring servicemen to write in print and in all capital letters.

* One of the main difficulties invoked by Caryl Chessman to appeal his death sentence for kidnapping was that the trial transcripts were written down by an alcoholic recorder related to the prosecutor. On 1957, the Caluifornia Supreme Court had to conduct a full review of these before certifying they were accurate.

* From ''Literature/TheHallowedHunt'':

* ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'': It has been pointed out by Sophie and other characters that Howl cannot write in a way that another human being could read.

* According to Lobsang in ''Literature/TheLongEarth'', attempts to understand Willis Linsay's notes on alternate Earths have fallen foul of the man's handwriting as much as the fact he was inventing his own mathematics as he went along and then writing that in code.
* In one of Betty Neels' romance novels, her heroine is very frustrated while trying to read the hero's writing and claims it looks like a spider fell in the inkwell and walked across the paper. Yes, the hero is a doctor.

* ''Literature/WorldOfTheFiveGods'': Learned Hallana in ''The Hallowed Hunt''. Learned Lewko, trying to decipher what she's written, comments that he pities the spy who tried to decipher it. Notably, as a sorceress-healer, she's one of the setting's most-advanced medical professionals.

-->"Look, it is perfectly simple. No mobiles. No walkmans. ''(long pause)'' None of that! Or any of the others!"

* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'': In "Marinated Hearing", Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton struggle to read Bones Snodgrass' essay.
* On ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'', the Tom Arnold character Arnie is PutOnABus and Roseanne shows his note to Dan.

'''Roseanne:''' '''Aliens''', Dan, from '''outer space'''.\\

* Chris Kattan's recurring character Suel Forrester on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' is TheUnintelligible, so people sometimes ask him to write down what he's saying, but his writing is no more comprehensible than his speech.
* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Jerry once woke up from a dream laughing about something, he scribbled down on a note and went back to sleep. He couldn't read it in the morning and kept asking practically anyone he met what it said, and each person was certain it said something else. In the end, [[spoiler:it turned out it read "[[ItMakesSenseInContext Sigmund’s flaming balls]]". At this revelation, Jerry exclaimed, "That’s not funny at all!"]]

* In ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', Blackadder pretends that this trope is in play, in order to save his own skin. He receives orders to advance on the enemy but claims not to be able to understand them, because they're addressed to someone whose name appears to be "Catpain Blackudder".

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Letter to the Education Board", Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton struggle to read Stretch Snodgrass' essay.

* In the final case of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'', Larry Butz's bad handwriting turns out to be a plot point.

* A meta-example: Some earlier games by Creator/{{CAVE}} and Creator/{{Atlus}} had a copyright notice written in [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish perfect English]], except for the last sentence which read "Violator and subject to severe penalties and will be prosecutedt to the full extent of the jam." Over a decade later, CAVE's current CCO Tsuneki Ikeda conjectured that this was due to someone on their legal team having bad handwriting, since "law" ''can'' look like "jam" if the handwriting's messy enough.

* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' Mr. Edward Verres [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-01-31 has]] "{{ink blot|Test}} handwriting". It's not exactly illegible, but everyone who reads it thinks it says something different. On the next page, Justin offers another potential interpretation.
--> '''Justin:''' Maybe it's a ''map''?
* When Sally needs help in class during chapter two of ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'', Undine says she'd offer her notes but Sally always makes fun of her handwriting. Sally replies that it's less "make fun of" and more "legitimately can't read". [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-2-page-4 When shown]], Undine's writing is improbably fancy.

* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' goes back and forth on this. Various characters have stated that Dan's handwriting is horrible, yet any time his writing actually shows up, it's [[InformedFlaw perfectly legible]]. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] (probably) in "The Salvation Armed Forces," where Chris reads a letter from Dan, including the illegible parts ("...even thrumyurg betrayed me, with your cowardice and flurgle..."), only for the letter to show up on screen, with the "illegible" parts clearly written out.
** It's possible that it's only visible to the viewer because we're seeing the show's universe from Dan's perspective, and he can read it just fine.

* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} once lost his diar--''[[InsistentTerminology journal]]'' in which he writes the events of every episode. It's picked up by [[TheBully Roger]], seemingly the worst person who could find it, but Roger gives it back unread, simply because he can't make out a word of Doug's cursive handwriting.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E25ShadowPlayPart1 Shadow Play]]", Star Swirl the Bearded's "hornwriting" is so bad, Twilight remarks that it's "almost like another language". Starlight's is stated to be even worse, though this allows her to actually understand Star Swirl's writings.
* TJ in ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' once got himself allowed to chew gum at school by presenting a fake doctor's note that was intentionally illegible, allowing him to fast-talk his way into having gingivitis and being prescribed medicinal gum.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson. In "Bart The Genius", Principal Skinner showed him an "obviously fake" parental note that Bart had turned in, but discovered that [[http://springfieldfiles.com/albums/notes/0244.JPG Homer's handwriting really was that poor.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', Buff Frog has extremely poor handwriting, which becomes a plot point when he sends Star a letter warning her of [[BigBad Ludo's]] return, but since she couldn't read it, she was completely unprepared. When confronted about it, he says he never went to school.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'': Carver's terrible handwriting is a RunningGag throughout the series. One episode featured Carver attempting to send notes to their favourite band, Chum Bukkit, in various ways. The band interpreted every one as some bizarre new lyric suggestions.
** Another time, he wrote Tish an anonymous note about her new, unflattering hairstyle, and she understood most of it... except for one word -- she ended up misreading "hair" as "frog". When confronted on his earlier statement that his handwriting had improved, Carver retorted that it ''had'', because at least the other nine words in the note were legible.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'': This is StudentCouncilPresident Robert Chestnut's biggest character flaw. Vallejo jokes that he used to be called "Officer Chickenscratch" while he was a Safety Patroller, and the autograph he gave O'Farrell was read as "Romblo Chmangey". [[spoiler:This was also his motivation for committing the crime of the episode: His poor penmanship botched an order for some novelty foam "We're #1" lobster claws so they instead read ''"We'ne #7"''. To avoid staining his perfect image and shaming his family's legacy, he discreetly disposed of the faulty shipment and made it look like they'd been stolen by a rival while he quietly ordered a replacement.]]

* Doctors are notorious for having illegible handwriting. [[http://www.bmj.com/archive/7072ww3.htm There are studies]] that show doctors do not write any more or less legibly than other professionals, but the consequences for illegible writing are much more severe. A popular alternative explanation is that it's an extension of skills learned in medical school, where students must take a lot of notes very quickly. The illegible handwriting is an unfortunate side effect. In any event, illegible handwriting is one of the reasons why there's a strong push for computerized medical records, charts, and prescriptions.
** It's not really the handwriting, or at least, it's not ''just'' the writing. Originally, your prescription probably wouldn't have made a ''lot'' more sense to you if it was professionally typeset, because physicians used a lot of Latin abbreviations. Pharmacists, who understand these, have a much easier time making it out, because while you're thinking "What the heck is this supposed to be; it looks like potid" the pharmacist knows that it ''is'' po tid which means "''per os'' (by mouth), ''tres in diem'' (three times a day)." Medical schools have begun recommending against the use of most of the Latin abbreviations (and ... more stridently ... against the use of archaic units of measure like grains, drams, scruples, or minims, for some of which the abbreviation is more of a squiggle than a letter), so to some extent this is going away.
*** Just to illustrate, the following is entirely intelligible to a pharmacist: glycerin 0.3% and propylene glycol 1% OTC soln 1-2 gtts OU q4-6h PRN #3 Refill 3 DAW. Even in electronic text, it looks like gibberish. [[note]]A particular type of artificial tears over-the-counter solution, 1-2 drops in both eyes, every 4-6 hours, as needed, Dispense 3 bottles, refill up to 3 times, dispense as written. Seriously, that's it. A doctor might prescribe an OTC medication just to prevent a patient from being confused by the number of products on the shelf. Dispense as written is a formal note to the pharmacist that the physician is not allowing substitution for whatever reason, so the prescription in this case would not let a pharmacist grab another type of artificial tears and sub out.[[/note]]

* It is said that Thomas Aquinas had the worst handwriting in the Middle Ages. Example [[http://www.u.arizona.edu/%7Eaversa/thomas_aquinas_littera_inintelligibilis.jpg here.]]

* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/7jsq7l/russian_cursive/ This example of Russian cursive.]] Based on the decipherment in the comments, it's notes written by a doctor about a checkup.

* WesternAnimation/{{Chowder}}, in the episode "Gazpacho Stands Up". Mung tells him to practice his penmanship, and after doing so, congratulates him... for somehow making it ''worse''.

->''"Let's see, Mosquito's [=ABLs=]... Jesus Christ... Are these even in a human language?"''

A character depicted with terrible handwriting. Not just a couple of words that can't be made out here and there, but almost every word will be impossible--or almost impossible--to read.

Aino put her hands on her hips - which are not very prominent - and glared up at me. "Are you trying to be funny?" she asked.\\

* In ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'', Endou Daisuke's handwriting is outright ''shown'' to be completely illegible, and at least one character initially mistakes it for some elaborate secret code. The only other person who could read it is his grandson Endou Mamoru, and even this comes as a big shock to everyone else at first. Later, [[spoiler:Kudou Fuyuka]] comes along and can also read it; this turns out to be foreshadowing another plot point much, ''much'' later down the road.
** In ''Inazuma Eleven GO Chrono Stone'', Fei and Wondeba mention in their time (200 years in the future), there's a famous artifact book known to the people of the future as the "Holy Book of Champions" and stored in a museum under the tightest security. It's thought that the information contained in it was so powerful that it had to be written in code lest it fall into the wrong hands, and nobody had ever been able to decode it. Upon seeing it, several characters comment that it doesn't even look like writing at all. Turns out it was just extremely bad handwriting - [[spoiler:belonging to Endou Daisuke]], no less.
* Kuroh says this about Shiro's handwriting in ''Anime/{{K}}'', which gives them an excuse to call Kukuri and ask her what she told them to buy [[spoiler: and find out her memory has been altered when she doesn't remember them]], but it also foreshadows that Shiro [[spoiler: might not be used to writing in Japanese]].
* In ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' this is a characteristic of Happōsai. His handwriting (in Japanese, of course) is horrible and barely legible. So much that once, even he couldn't read his own handwriting.
* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': Kenshin. Seeing as he was born to a family of farmers, spent about a year as a slave, was raised by a hermetic swordsman from ages six to thirteen, and then left to join a militia, there probably wasn't much opportunity to work on handwriting. In fact, being literate is already an achievement for someone of his social class.
* TheNineties' Canadian dub of ''Anime/SailorMoon'' badly {{Bowdlerize}}d the series as a whole, including calling the Japanese symbols written by Sailor Moon herself "squiggly handwriting" in one instance where the viewers got to see what she'd written (when it wasn't shown, characters would instead comment that she couldn't spell very well or used horrible grammar). This is partly due to a LostInTranslation issue since not too many people are familiar with Japanese writing. In a way, this is actually a brilliant adaptation: a way to convey a similar concept in English. In the original Japanese, Usagi is known to be academically inept, so her writing, while mostly legible, has lousy grammar: namely, she either avoids using Kanji or uses the wrong ones. The Viz dub takes a different but still-quite-adaptive approach: changing the focus from the lack of Kanji to the idea said lack demonstrates that Usagi has the writing aptitude ''of a kindergartner''.
-->'''Minako''': ''(displaying the letter)'' It looks like ''a child'' wrote it!
* In ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'', Yugo's terrible handwriting is based on the fact he grew up an orphan and borderline homeless, so he obviously didn't have much of an education.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': There is an ''Uncle Scrooge'' comic that had Scrooge finding an old IOU and being unable to make out the signature (it didn't help that he had broken his glasses). He starts tracking down people he thinks it could be but finds that he owes each of them money. He eventually realizes that the signature is his own and it was an IOU he wrote to himself.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', the police are unable to tell whether Rorschach's journal is written in some elaborate code or it's just that his handwriting is totally illegible. That said, the newspaper he mails the backup copy of his journal to doesn't have any trouble reading it, and Rorschach affixes a footnote saying that he did his best to make it legible, so it seems that he ''can'' write neatly, but it requires more effort on his part than just scribbling quick notes to himself.

* ''ComicStrip/BigNate'': Nate’s handwriting is usually decent, but in one strip, he gives the School Picture Guy the name of their band so that he’ll know what to call them when they’re about to perform. Unfortunately for him…
-->'''School Picture Guy:''' “Ladies and gentlemen… Engorge the Mullet!” Kid, that’s the worst name of all time.\\
'''Nate:''' It’s ''Enslave'' the ''Mollusk''!\\
'''School Picture Guy:''' Kid, that’s the worst handwriting of all time.

* This was a ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' strip once. Hagar, who's illiterate, wishes he could read the prescription a doctor gave him. So does the pharmacist (or whatever he is, since he's in the Viking age[[note]]Probably an apothecary[[/note]]).

* ''Fanfic/ACertainDrollHivemind'': Aino Sumiko, as noted in [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9805735/2/A-Certain-Droll-Hivemind the second chapter]], and is given to a ThirdPersonPerson, that have a habit of NarratingThePresent:

* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': Discussed in chapter 7, the fourth story, ''The Diplomat's Life''. As in canon, Starswirl's hornwriting in his journal is pretty bad, but Starlight's seen worse and can actually understand it (and later, she starts copying it over to give the others an easier time of reading it). Meanwhile, Spike notes that one of Fluttershy's chickens could probably write clearer, and Tempest asks how Starswirl himself could understand it.

* In another Harry Potter fic, ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/4710065/chapters/10756880 Run that by me again?]]'', Hermione knows that Harry didn't enter himself in the Triwizard Tournament because the handwriting on the note is legible.

* Justified in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'', where Twilight Sparkle has to write something without using magic after being transformed into a human. How can someone be legible if they barely even know what hands are, let alone how to use a pen? [[spoiler:She starts off writing with the pen in her ''mouth''.]]

* Etienne Macdonald, a French general who served under UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte, wrote an account of a journey to Scotland he made in the 1820s; in a preface to a modern edition of the account, historian Jean-Didier Hache thanks Macdonald's granddaughter for making a copy of it, saying that "[Macdonald's manuscript] is hardly legible but by a confirmed archivist or paleograph, for it must be said that, in comparison with the Marshal's handwriting, [[https://scontent.fcdg2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/41299976_10217341959162875_9086427846435405824_o.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=ZQ4MSI1pcJUAX9AhWSy&_nc_ht=scontent.fcdg2-1.fna&oh=d7c9e72b24a74f1b656f9533f4c44d42&oe=6039F7C3 the average doctor's prescription looks like an exercise in calligraphy]]."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson. Principal Skinner showed him an "obviously fake" parental note that Bart had turned in, but discovered that [[http://springfieldfiles.com/albums/notes/0244.JPG Homer's handwriting really was that poor.]]

* This was a ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' strip once. Hagar, who's illiterate, wishes he could read the prescription a doctor gave him. So does the pharmacist (or whatever he is, since he's in the Viking age[[note]]Probably and apothecary[[/note]]).