Sarcasm for beginners

Doctors locate irony nodule in brain (not a joke)

DESIGNERS LAST WEEK launched a sarcasm mark (an upside-down ‘e’ with a dot in it). Search for “Sarcmark” on the internet and you can download it to your computer’s font files. But you have to pay US$2. Paul Sak, one of the guys behind it, said that it had “serious potential applications”.

Yeah, right.

Who’s going to pay cash for a bit of punctuation!?
*
Not that we don’t need it.

The most disastrous love-affair I ever saw was between a comedian and a literalist. Jeremy was unable to say anything that was not sarcastic, and Lai-kuen was totally blind to sarcasm, even at point blank range.

After a relationship full of misunderstandings, she cut to the chase. “So, you going to marry me, then?” she asked.

He rolled his eyes and replied: “Marry YOU? Yeah, right.”

Now you can see the problem here. To him, “yeah right” meant “no wrong”. But to her, it meant “yeah, right”.

She was euphorically happy for the rest of the evening until he asked her why.

“You agreed to marry me,” she explained.

He was genuinely baffled. He objected loudly, by exclaiming: “Me? Marry YOU? Yeah, right.”

You can see the problem.
*
This IS actually quite a serious matter. Had Lai-Kuen been a lawyer, she could have sued him in several jurisdictions for crimes such as “breach of promise” or “being a typical slimeball male jerk” (an offence which I predict will soon appear in the law books of most politically correct nations).
*
In Asia, you have to be really careful with sarcasm, and its sister irony. For example, if a first language English speaker says “Thanks a lot” it ALWAYS means you have done something absolutely terrible and he is angry with you.

But if a second language English speaker says “Thanks a lot”, it ALWAYS means you have done something good and he is happy with you.

At least once a month I get an email (the most recent example was from a sender called Lightsabre85) saying: “Regarding today’s column: Thanks a LOT.”

I had no idea whether to respond graciously or apologize profusely. After wrestling with the problem for ten minutes on the most recent occasion, I had the genius idea of writing back to him with the words, “Yeah, right”.
*
Anyway, I suggest that you DON’T download the Sarcmark. Let’s all just learn Ethiopian, a language which already has a symbol for irony.

After thinking about Jeremy and Lai-kuen, I wondered if it was possible to have medical inability to understand sarcasm?

I emailed a couple of doctor friends to ask. I was astonished to learn that medical experts have discovered that some people ARE physically unable to handle irony.

You can only understand it if you have an “irony nodule”. It is located in the “right parahippocampal gyrus”, which is roughly behind your right ear lobe.
*
I told Jeremy that if had this part of his brain surgically removed, he will be able to communicate in an irony-free way. Unfortunately, his career as a comedian would be over.

If Lai-kuen has this part of her brain enhanced, then she will finally be able to understand sarcasm.

I asked him if he was willing to take the risk.

He nodded.

“Yeah, right,” he said.

Tomorrow: Why sarcasm fails to cross cultures.

 

Technorati Tags: sarcmark,sarcasm,humor,irony

Comments

[Foxlore]

Having worked as a freelance artist, I can understand wanting to get recognition for design work, but to pay US $2 for a single character!?!...is this guy a loon? You can go out and get entire font sets for free at various websites. And there are various packages of font creation software out there (some free) that would allow anyone with 5th grade design skills to just create that character on your own. It’s like trying to copyright a new form of punctuation or emoticon.

Copyright Police: “Excuse us sir, that letter you wrote to your friend that said you were ‘ecstatic about your mother-in-law moving in’. Well, you used an unauthorized Sarcmarc. We are here to take you to jail and you will be fined US $2million.”

Sarcasm? Oh yeah....Sarcmarc will be a BIG success. -_-'

...psst, hey buddy, wanna buy a question mark?...how about a clue? ;-)

[Julie]

I've thought of another problem with the sarc mark - how on earth are schools going to teach children how to use it?

Given that most teachers are encouraging and not sarcastic and that some of the population are genetically unable to learn where to put it . . .

And just imagine how many you'd need to write a young adult novel . . .

[TS]

The people who need a symbol for sarcasm and irony are the very same people who wouldn't "get it" even if they saw the symbol at the end of a sentence^

As the "Crazy Frog" ringtone have proven, there's plenty of "OMG!" halfwits about to make it a succes^

"^" is my newly invented way of expressing "No bullshit, sarcasm or irony, I really mean what I say here".

[Jason]

At first glance I thought Nury's column was going to be about me and my posts here on this forum. Jerome - Jason...the names have been changed to protect the snarky!

[Mahjuja]

Finally something that really hits home! I'm like Jeremy and here at home in Bangladesh I'm treated like the subversive.Nobody can take a joke!Sheesh.

[farah]

i think either my mom's irony is missing or not working and my dad's on overdrive but they did manage to stay together for 27 years. of course my mom never gets the jokes my dad says and some of them are way too corny even for us.

for them opposites attract syndrome worked i guess.

[farah]

Mahjuja i hear ya. if i am being funny and hyper then i'm either labelled as crazy or grown-up-trying-to-act-like-a-kid. on the flip side if i'm sober i am called moody.

[Jason]

I've just been told I need a sarcmark to make my point clear. I posted this story on my facebook:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/25/china.online.dating/index.html

with my comment: "Legions of materialistic Hong Kong 'kong nui' wannabe tai tai's stampede website and crash the server"

Apparently my readers thought this actually happened and were posting comments about web crashes. When I pointed out the sarcasm, I was informed I should get a sarc! C'est la vie.

[sej]

I wonder how much the State Library here in New South Wales paid for their new logo (http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/images/layout/slnsw_logo_animated.gif)?

I've also been told the symbol has a rather unsavoury meaning... "WTF".

[fardel]

wow
I see that our international truck driver made the front page again.
She must be famous

Among sarcastic expression I really do not know how to handle those:
Americans like to say "good for you": In France it is really not.
Italians like "You are gentle": does it mean ,you fool, like across their western border?

about the article presented by Jason:
Why do you think that worldwide, people turn to same sex relationships?
Is it a natural balance of a species , reducing its offspring so that it regulates itself?
Imagine the Earth in a century from now .There will be so many homosexuals that human reproduction will be regulated..............by bankers and financers
People will have to pay for baby making...
The poor will not be able to participate and will be left out.

That was a sarcasm
-the poor are already left out,even the pretty , intelligent ones
-Already , In the west a lady can go to a sperm bank and choose an offspring.( but Sometimes there is a mix up in the storage and the baby pops up in the wrong color )

[Mike]

My dad was an international purchaser and he would tell me about negociating with the Japanese. He would offer a deal they would nod their head and say "hai". He thought they had an agreement. They would mean yes I understand what you are saying let me ponder that.

[Mike]

Growing up in Kentucky they had a opposite scarcastic phrase. Meaning you could say the most rude blunt statement then soften the comment. As in " Oh Susie, she is as dumb as a bunch of bricks...bless her heart" or "Tom, he is fatter than a county fair pig...bless his heart"

[Tom Napolitano]

I'm not being sarcastic, I'm being sardonic.

[Carly]

Just read your column in The Standard about Sarcasm and I must say 'you're right(!)' about people who speaks English as a second language can't always get sarcasm due to different language signals.

As a linguist myself, I can't see how expressing sarcasm in different intonation would result in misunderstanding... in my opinion, people who can't get sarcasm is purely because they are not listening carefully the sentence from start to finish and deduce the true meaning behind what people has to say, or simply put it- due to stupidity! (sorry folks!)

[Mahjuja]

@Farah: I can relate completely to both your comments. Funny thing is that all the people I meet who are like us have the same complain. This makes me wonder, is society domninated by sarcastically-impaired people? Why are they in-charge? What gives them this special power to repress the witty?

[Retired teacher]

Carly let me explain how people miss sarcasm not due to stupidity but due to wrong language signals. As a linguist you are probably aware that sentences have intonation as a factor.
For example, for adults, a rising tone in a sentence in English implies a question: "THIS is all you've done?"

But for teenagers, a rising tone in a sentence is often used in a statement, so it sounds like a question. "Madonna, you know, is my favourite singer?"

Thus intonation changes the meaning of sentences. An adult might hear a teenager's statement as a question. I hope this is helpful.

[Chamin]

My immediate response to the NSW state library logo ( (http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/images/layout/slnsw_logo_animated.gif )was WTF :-p