The Rise of the Sarcasm Mark (Point)
I often have a propensity for “smart assism.†And while “smart assism†is really just a detrimental, ego-friendly, bad habit that can often get a person in unnecessary trouble and conflict, it is nonetheless often a valid means of humor, communication, and thus expression (even if it increases your chances of getting slugged in the face). To facilitate better written communication, I have often wished I could end sentences I’ve written in a sarcasm mark. But, there is no button on my keyboard for sarcasm, nor is there really a standard symbol for sarcasm. The French have an irony mark (point d’ironie, ؟ a mirror image question mark), which is close to the idea of a sarcasm mark, but in English there is nothing.
There have been attempts to make and use sarcasm marks, such as in online communities, but no one thing has really caught on. Of all the basic ideas out there though, I like the idea of using a tilde ~ as a sarcasm mark the best. “Ya, like that would really be something people would start using ~†The tilde is already there on the keyboard, underutilized, and it looks like an S for sarcasm.
The absence of a sarcasm mark is just the very tip of the iceberg though in what accounts for the inefficiency of communication in conventional writing. Yet, thanks to technology, there is a huge untapped potential for improving written communication. But that subject will have to wait for another article.
“I can’t wait ~†or “I can’t wait!â€
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11 Responses to “The Rise of the Sarcasm Mark (Point)”
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I agree with you that it is desirable to use some method of labeling humor or sarcasm in online communication. The way I handle this is to add after anything I believe might not be seen as humor by the clueless!
Gene
A traveler on the journey!
You should just not be a smart-ass in email. Rein in your urges. I know it’s hard; I face the same issues. If you really feel the need to be a smartass online, go hit up some public forums like offtopic.com or the World of Warcraft forums and go to town. You’ll fit right in.
As a French user, I didn’t even know this so-called “point d’ironie”… We don’t have it on our keyboards, and we never – really, never – use it!
The use of a ~ could be a good idea, but as nobody knows about it…
William: Ya controlling smart-assism is the simplest solution. However, since I can’t control what other people do, it would be nice if I was sure they were being sarcastic or not with simple punctuation.
Alvin: I wondered how widely used that “point d’ironie†is. It is at least in the database of puncuation, even if not on keyboards. We need to spread the word about the “~†— I’m trying.
There already is a way to convey sarcasm, that is the (!). It’s already used in the media or books, so we could just continue using it.
Trin: Ya, good point. (!) or (?) is used in places like closed caption. It isn’t really a mark though; it is 3 marks. Plus most people are as clueless about (!) as anything else.
Hate to be the spelling police, but I’m just doing my job:
“ice burg” : a town made of ice (!)
“iceberg” : a large floating block of ice, most of which is hidden.
I’ll let you off with just a warning this time, but don’t let me catch you again.~
Yeah, right
Oh, it stripped my tag. Bracket Sarcasm closebracket
Years ago, a punctuation mark denoting sarcasm was introduced to academia (the organization that proposed it escapes me), but it fell flat and was never adopted, in part because of the need to educate the public in its use, but more so because conventional typewriters and linotype machines did not have such marks already on them.
The mark itself was called the Deltasarc, and was represented by a Delta (inverted V) with a small ‘happy mouth’ crossing it. It was the same height as a conventional cap, and therefore had some ambiguity in hand printed documents with a capital A.
Personally, I prefer the use of the tilde, as a ‘snark’.
The tilde seems odd to me. I prefer the Ethopian sarcasm mark, which was so elegantly used in an article by Slate¡
http://slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2111172&
Of course, Mac users will have a much easier time typing it than in Windows. Alt-1 does the trick. Windows, as with every other special character, requires a convoluted process that I care not to remember.