“Arial” is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts; an “aerial” is an antenna; “Ariel” is a mermaid character in the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid (1989). “Arial is a font.  Ariel is either a fairie or a mermaid, depending on your cultural touchstone.  Aerial is how you hunt wolves in Alaska” was posted on Twitter on October 20, 2008.
 
A joke was posted on Reddit—Clean Jokes on January 19, 2018:
 
“The font family changed their TV today… It wasn’t working with their Arial.”
 
     
Wikipedia: Arial
Arial /ɛəriəl/, sometimes marketed or displayed in software as Arial MT, is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Fonts from the Arial family are packaged with all versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 3.1 onwards, some other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X and many PostScript 3 computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982 by a 10-person team, led by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders, for Monotype Typography. It was created to be metrically identical to the popular typeface Helvetica, with all character widths identical, so that a document designed in Helvetica could be displayed and printed correctly without having to pay for a Helvetica license.
     
Google Groups: uk.tech.digital-tv
The humorous futility of spelling “Arial”         
Andrew Oakley
3/9/01
John Porcella wrote in message
<985mqf$rel$3…@plutonium.btinternet.com>

...
>Aerial= Rods (or other) for the reception of television and radio
>broadcasts
>Arial= A typeface that hardly anyone had heard of until wordprocessors
>and PCs became popular
>Ariel= Detergent
 
The word Ariel/Aerial/Arial first reached widespread use through Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”.

Ariel was the invisible flying singing spirit character from “The Tempest”. During a magical storm, Ariel tricks the shipwrecked Prince Ferdinand into the clutches of the exiled wizard Duke Prospero as part of Prospero’s plot to regain his dukedom.
 
Twitter
Ariel Waldman‏
@arielwaldman
Ariel Fact #23: She really hates it when people spell her name “Aerial” even more than when they spell it like the font “Arial”
12:53 PM - 18 May 2007
 
Twitter
Rowena Pelayo‏
@rgpelayo
Arial is a font.  Ariel is either a fairie or a mermaid, depending on your cultural touchstone.  Aerial is how you hunt wolves in Alaska.
2:16 AM - 20 Oct 2008
 
Twitter
Marc Tessier-Ashpool‏
@lastcyberpunk
Ariel is a washing liquid. Or possibly a mermaid. Arial is a font. Aerial is another word for antenna.
1:28 PM - 26 May 2010
 
Twitter
John Sidwell‏
@bigdishsat
Persuing a theme, on the roof is an aerial. Arial is an MS Font and Ariel is a soap powder or Shakespeare’s winged sprite. Where’s my gun?
3:18 PM - 9 Oct 2010
 
Twitter
Nidal‏
@NidalM
Please learn the difference:
Aerial = to do with the sky.
Arial = Font.
Ariel = Little Mermaid.
11:30 AM - 2 Nov 2012
   
Twitter
Scott Westerfeld‏
@ScottWesterfeld
Ariel: angel, mermaid, name.
Aerial: antenna, dance move, in the air.
Areal: adjectival form of “area.”
Arial: font.
Ariaal: tribe in Kenya
4:58 PM - 11 Mar 2013
 
Twitter
Mayor P (your friendly neighborhood mayor)‏
@punmagnate
“Your resume states that you have many aerial skills?”
*writes complex sentences in a sans serif font*
“Oh, Arial skills”
2:19 PM - 16 Sep 2014
 
Twitter
Tim Hodge‏
@BaldMelonTim
Nitpicky spelling lesson of the day:
Aerial means from above, like aerial view or aerial photography.
Arial is a font.
Twice in the last few days, I have seen professionals make this error.
11:01 AM - 12 Dec 2017
 
Reddit—Clean Jokes
The font family changed their TV today… (self.cleanjokes)
submitted January 19, 2018 by UnstoppablePhoenix
It wasn’t working with their Arial.
 
Twitter
keepingitcreel‏
@Keepingitcreel
The font family changed their TV today… It wasn’t working with their Arial.
3:47 PM - 19 Jan 2018