“What the hell are CAPTCHAs?”, you may be wondering. Or you may have actually clicked on the link I gave you and are now feeling especially proud of yourself for knowing. Odds are good that you have not only seen CAPTCHAs, but also been forced to type them out, presumably by some mad scientist with a spelling obsession.

They are usually words and/or numbers that you have to fill out when you’re submitting a form on a website. They ensure that you’re not a robot (as much as you may want to be) or an automated software trying to SPAM a website with product ads. These words and numbers always look like they’ve been drawn by a drunk 5 year old (that’s what happens when you let children near alcohol) or a serial killer composing threatening messages with letters cut out from magazine headlines.

After seeing these you’re normally required to either click on matching words in the box nearby, solve an easy math puzzle, or simply type them out in the space provided. The idea is that while humans can easily read these words (since we deal with drunks and psychos on a daily basis), automated software cannot.

Most of the time these CAPTCHAs are just a collection of disjointed letters without any meaning, or very ordinary words. Sometimes, however, the letters arrange themselves into secret messages waiting to be decrypted, or funny combinations of words. I now bring to you some of the latter CAPTCHAs I’ve  stumbled upon.

These guys are much less popular than the Dirty Dozen

I believe this was the tagline for “Inside Man”

Good thing it was just a stapler and not a nail gun!

I think you’ve misspelt “detective”

…but mostly hard wöerk! 

I’ll try. – Daniel

…but not know suck more! 

I know it’s necessary, but does it have to be nonsensical? 

Ooooh oooh, that’s how all totalitarian states start!

Seriously?! Fuck you, CAPTCHA!

Have any of you seen some fun or odd CAPTCHAs? Feel free to share in the comments…