Sarc attack, a work of genius

By Paul Flower on Jan 21, 10 04:27 PM

Sarcasm: often referred to as the lowest form of wit, but those of us who use it would counter that it is the highest form of intelligence. Of course we were probably being sarcastic.

The problem with sarcasm, like its sister irony, is that a lot of people don't appreciate it. They probably don't understand it and subsequently consider it rude. Naturally it was possibly intended that way, though I confess to being a fan of lighter, inclusive sarcasm myself.

In the written form it can be harder to perceive, tone is a tricky trick to master and I am frequently surprised when people read sarcasm in my words when I was intending to be sincere. Possibly it's all in the way we're perceived as individuals; maybe you would expect me to be sarcastic even when I'm not. As a huge believer and ardent supporter of ambiguity in language I wouldn't want it any other way - even thought it has caused me a few problems in my business correspondence.

Luckily help is at hand, in the form of a brand new punctuation mark being sold by an American website. You can now download a symbol that looks a bit like this @ but with a dot where the a is, the point being that you use it to easily signify when you're being sarcastic. Obviously I'll be rushing out to buy it, I'm a huge fan of emoticons and love to pepper my sentences with smiley faces, winks and other txt-speak. (As I have yet to download the punctuation point, perhaps I should add that yes, I was)

Nuance is non-existent in our language these days; it seems that people have to be blatantly obvious. Abbreviation is the main problem: yes we're all writing more but not in long-form, it is all clipped and mangled. I may be the exception to that rule, being more likely to write a hundred words when ten will do. Since I'm handsomely paid by the word for this you'd naturally expect it (and again).

In the real world polite society is disappearing. I may hold open a shop door for someone because I believe in chivalry, but most people would probably have to reach for their dictionary to understand that - and less than 50% of them will thank you for holding that door. Similarly in the car, if I give way to allow someone to squeeze through a gap, I'd estimate that around 1 in 3 people will acknowledge that you've even done them a favour. I tend to have a few symbols and words that I use in these circumstances, but I'll spare your sensitive souls from reading them.

The virtual world is quite the opposite - we're all clicking the 'like' button on other people's facebook status updates (there's no dislike button), frequently we may be sharing links and comments and applauding others, we may even LOL. It almost seems that life online is infinitely more polite than real life. What a great achievement this is. (I'm sure you're with me by now, otherwise you'd have stopped reading).

My main issue is probably that I would think it polite to anticipate a level of intelligence in the people I correspond with. I'm applauding their intelligence by using sarcasm, generally in a way that any offence caused would've been almost entirely unintentional. Am I really supposed to temper my language and tone to treat people as if they're simple? This would be an incredible advance in society, wouldn't it?

I think I'd better download that ridiculous punctuation mark, and quickly.

The Guardian originally wrote about this, here

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