Poll: Sarcasm/Irony Punctuation Mark

[TomLikesGuitar]

Wikifailia says thusly:
"Subtitles, such as in Teletext, sometimes use an exclamation mark in brackets to mark sarcasm: (!). The tilde "~" is also sometimes used to indicate sarcasm. Likewise, Karl Marx uses the exclamation mark in brackets repeatedly throughout Das Kapital Volume 1."

Perhaps you could just use some of those if you feel indicating your sarcasm is so very important because your biting wit and observations would be misconstrued by the masses otherwise.

Wow, way to be a dick for no reason whatsoever at the end there.

... This is by far the silliest reaction I've ever received to a post here, and I'm quite glad you got put on probation for losing your temper because you couldn't read before firing off at the mouth. Read the topic title again, follow the trend of posts in this thread, and try not to fall behind. If you don't want to be part of the thread you started, don't post in it.

1. It's my thread.

2. The fact that I misconstrued your post only proves the need for an ironicon even more.

3. I read your whole post like 3 times before I decided that you were using sarcasm to be a jerk.

See, sarcasm works in levels, and the lack of an effective method of identifying sarcasm means that statements can be "read into" an infinite number of times. Not to mention you only really said one sentence, making it all the more difficult to discern your intent. On the first level, you referred to my (or at least someone's) "wit and observations" as "biting" (antiquated slang for smart/witty) (Side note: Through this, however, you have shown me that uncommon and/or extreme adjectives are a great way to portray sarcasm in text. E.G. "Oh sure, your futon is EXTRAVAGANT."). On the second level (aka. the first level of sarcasm), you would be saying that the general public could absolutely understand said wit and observations, and insinuating that my proposal of a sarcasm punctuation mark is a stupid idea (This is the stance I assumed you were taking, and thus called you a dick.). However since you claim you didn't intend any dickery but did intend sarcasm, I have to assume you took it to the third level.

This is where it gets complicated, but it's the only level where you could have been both sarcastic and not a jerk. Basically, the third level is where you say the sarcastic "biting wit and observations" comment to be sarcastic about being sarcastic (which is only barely comprehensible due to the subject matter).

So, you can easily see how I could come to the conclusion that you were being a jerk.

Either way, thank you for helping me prove my point a little better with this exercise in linguistics, and I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I'm of the mindset that effective sarcasm is the kind that doesn't need such an indication. I'd rather leave it to the contents of the message to make clear the sarcasm as opposed to the way those contents are presented. If you need to show that you were being sarcastic, you failed at sarcasm.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

I reckon that putting this little beauty "¡" at the start of a sarcastic statement would be a great way of denoting it.

¡Oh yes, I can see you put a lot of thought into that didn't you. If you weren't me I'd applaud you for being so clever..

See?

The code for such a wondrous creation is alt+173, for anyone who didn't know.

 

[Eumersian]

A simple punctuation mark for it? Let's have a conference. The Escapist PunctuaCon! The place where people like you and I can discuss and make developments on how people should denote certain things through new and innovative punctuation! Heinz Convention Center, Boston on April 1, 2011!

[/sarcasm]

EDIT: But really, it could be handy. Especially when people like myself try to make jokes on the internet. Most of the time, they don't go over well, because of a lack of defined sarcasm within.

 

[Sneeze]

I like the irony mark but it's not standardised enough for everyone to know what it means so I never use it, I tend not to bother really and just make sure it's as obvious as possible I'm being sarcastic, failing that, I fall back on (!), occasionally /sarcasm.

 

[Anarchemitis]

It is due to the fact that it is expensive and time consuming to come up with an upgrade or change to universalized text formatting systems, such as Unicode 5 (which you are reading right now, or typing in, as the case may be.)
Many other characters, and in fact entire languages, wish to be included into subsequent versions of ASCII or Unicode, however as the grammatical systems get more and more complicated, it becomes more and more taxing on computer systems to register, display and interpret them.
For example, This version of Unicode must be able to support English, German, Russian and Japanese characters, as well as Arabic characters *which must be read and displayed from right to left, opposite of English*

 

[Fleaman]

I motion for "Sarcastimark" instead.

I tend to start talking like the Quantz T-Rex when I'm being sarcastic. Otherwise I say it as straight as possible, "Yes, I agree completely." and then when they start to go do it I say "WAIT I WAS JOKING".

 

[Snake Plissken]

Nope, totally against this idea. I actually much prefer seeing people flip their shit when they read something that they didn't try to take the time to understand.

Also, it would just cheapen sarcasm. Understandably, however, sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, but ending your statement with "Note: This was not to be taken seriously. I was instead hoping that everyone would bow down before my insurmountable wit because everything that just preceded this punctuation was comedic gold. Also, it was a lie. I don't really, truly believe that microwaving your testicles is a great idea." would suck out ANY humor that was once present. If people get their panties in a wad because of what you have to say, then they probably shouldn't be on the internet.

Note: I don't believe that you really wear panties. Unless you're female, but that's totally cool. If you're female and don't wear panties, I support you in whatever you decide to wear. Furthermore, if you are a male who actually does wear panties, I meant no insult by my statement. That's totally cool with me.

See? I know that "panties in a wad" isn't really a form of sarcasm, but if you had to add a postscript to everything you said online the fun would be sucked out instantly.

 

[Vitagen]

I think that it would hinder most forms of irony somewhat, and a specific symbol for sarcasm is unnecessary. It's not really a sentence form unto itself.

Although I do occasionally find myself wanting "subtitles for the irony impaired."

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

Nope, totally against this idea. I actually much prefer seeing people flip their shit when they read something that they didn't try to take the time to understand.

Also, it would just cheapen sarcasm. Understandably, however, sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, but ending your statement with "Note: This was not to be taken seriously. I was instead hoping that everyone would bow down before my insurmountable wit because everything that just preceded this punctuation was comedic gold. Also, it was a lie. I don't really, truly believe that microwaving your testicles is a great idea." would suck out ANY humor that was once present. If people get their panties in a wad because of what you have to say, then they probably shouldn't be on the internet.

Note: I don't believe that you really wear panties. Unless you're female, but that's totally cool. If you're female and don't wear panties, I support you in whatever you decide to wear. Furthermore, if you are a male who actually does wear panties, I meant no insult by my statement. That's totally cool with me.

See? I know that "panties in a wad" isn't really a form of sarcasm, but if you had to add a postscript to everything you said online the fun would be sucked out instantly.

If you take any statement to an extreme you will give off a slightly sarcastic vibe. Plus, everyone pretty much knows you would be kidding about microwaving testicles.

However, there are situations in which you would say something sarcastic using normal words, and would portray the sarcasm through changes in your tone of voice. (For example, "Wow, you look great in that shirt." could be either sarcastic or not sarcastic if said in person. Online, however, it would almost always be read as a stated fact, assuming there are no outlying factors that would sway it to either side.) This is why special punctuation exists, to indicate tonal or rhythmic changes in text.

 

[loc978]

*punches you*
Ironically, though.

 

[Naheal]

Spoiler: Image related

What is sarcasm? Everyone should be serious all the time.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

It is possible to convey sarcasm in a written form in the most general sense but it requires the reader to have a fairly detailed understanding of the writer and the situation. Since we rarely have the benefit of such things, I'd say that some formalized marking might be useful but it is ultimately unnecessary. The places where it would be useful are not constrained by the silly rules of writing and grammar and simply outright saying that you are being sarcastic would suffice.

Of course, part of what I like about sarcasm is that, even when well executed people still might not understand.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Nope, totally against this idea. I actually much prefer seeing people flip their shit when they read something that they didn't try to take the time to understand.

Also, it would just cheapen sarcasm. Understandably, however, sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, but ending your statement with "Note: This was not to be taken seriously. I was instead hoping that everyone would bow down before my insurmountable wit because everything that just preceded this punctuation was comedic gold. Also, it was a lie. I don't really, truly believe that microwaving your testicles is a great idea." would suck out ANY humor that was once present. If people get their panties in a wad because of what you have to say, then they probably shouldn't be on the internet.

Note: I don't believe that you really wear panties. Unless you're female, but that's totally cool. If you're female and don't wear panties, I support you in whatever you decide to wear. Furthermore, if you are a male who actually does wear panties, I meant no insult by my statement. That's totally cool with me.

See? I know that "panties in a wad" isn't really a form of sarcasm, but if you had to add a postscript to everything you said online the fun would be sucked out instantly.

If you take any statement to an extreme you will give off a slightly sarcastic vibe. Plus, everyone pretty much knows you would be kidding about microwaving testicles.

However, there are situations in which you would say something sarcastic using normal words, and would portray the sarcasm through changes in your tone of voice. (For example, "Wow, you look great in that shirt." could be either sarcastic or not sarcastic if said in person. Online, however, it would almost always be read as a stated fact, assuming there are no outlying factors that would sway it to either side.) This is why special punctuation exists, to indicate tonal or rhythmic changes in text.

Understandable, but phrases like "Wow, you look great in that shirt," really ARE comedic gold if the person on the other end doesn't GET it. It would be funny to me, at least. And, c'mon, you know you'd find it funny, too...

 

[Christopher Roberts]

Ahh, yes. Pobation for pointing out the truth, I remember why I stopped using this site again.

Wikifailia says thusly:
"Subtitles, such as in Teletext, sometimes use an exclamation mark in brackets to mark sarcasm: (!). The tilde "~" is also sometimes used to indicate sarcasm. Likewise, Karl Marx uses the exclamation mark in brackets repeatedly throughout Das Kapital Volume 1."

Perhaps you could just use some of those if you feel indicating your sarcasm is so very important because your biting wit and observations would be misconstrued by the masses otherwise.

Wow, way to be a dick for no reason whatsoever at the end there.

... This is by far the silliest reaction I've ever received to a post here, and I'm quite glad you got put on probation for losing your temper because you couldn't read before firing off at the mouth. Read the topic title again, follow the trend of posts in this thread, and try not to fall behind. If you don't want to be part of the thread you started, don't post in it.

Ahh, yes. Pobation for pointing out the truth, I remember why I stopped using this site again.

 

[secretsantaone]

No.

Please no.

The subtlety and ambiguity make sarcasm and irony what they are.

If you have to spell it out to the reader, it loses it's effect tenfold.

It's like having to explain a joke, it suddenly loses all it's humour.

 

[havass]

I polled to punch you, just because.
But i'm for it. We need some form of identification for sarcasm. Or maybe we shouldn't. It makes some statements more funny. heh.

 

[Srdjan]

If you can't recognise sarcasam you are not entitled to recognise it.

I am against that tags, also you deserve to be punched

 

[Flames66]

I personally would not use one because it lacks subtlety.

 

[siddif]

Against this - especially after some company tried selling one (cant find link) I've always used (!) when its not obvious or =P for being cheeky.

I know with text it can be hard to tell sometimes but usually its gonna be taken the way you imply if done right (just think about the other meanings before you post)