Punctuation mark for sarcasm a brilliant idea

DigiDave says:

12:51pm | 14/01/10

A US company invents an emoticon for sarcasm.

Which in itself, is irony.

Rod says:

12:52pm | 14/01/10

The problem with the ad is most of the comments aren’t sarcastic, they are just derogatory. Not surprising that the Americans would use a sledgehammer to push a subtle tool of humour like sarcasm.

Rod says:

12:53pm | 14/01/10

The problem with the ad is most of the comments aren’t sarcastic, they are just derogatory. Not surprising that the Americans would use a sledgehammer to push a subtle tool of humour like sarcasm.

Nola James says:

12:58pm | 14/01/10

Um. He wasn’t being very sarcastic (and I do mean that, I’m not trying to be sarcastic).

Perhaps an “I’m just insulting you, but if you think I’m being sarcastic you’ll be less offended” punctuation mark?

Mr Pastry says:

01:00pm | 14/01/10

Now that is clever, not sure all the statements in the clip deserve a sarcmark though.

Chase Stevens says:

01:07pm | 14/01/10

No. Just no.

Budz says:

01:07pm | 14/01/10

I like the idea. I absolutely hate it when I am sarcastic and no one pics it up.

I guess Im just too smart for everyone (damn I need it now)

Louise says:

01:29pm | 14/01/10

they don’t even manage to get sarcasm across in the ad

DocBud says:

01:30pm | 14/01/10

To paraphrase the Simpsons:

Ooh, a sarcasm emoticon.  Oh, that’s a really useful invention.

SM says:

01:30pm | 14/01/10

The ad reminds me of the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” - where most of the situations mentioned in the song weren’t actually examples of irony

Bob says:

01:33pm | 14/01/10

Brilliant<insert $2 emoticon here>

DG says:

01:38pm | 14/01/10

It’s should work in theory but to quote he who is most quotable (Mr Homer J Simpson) “even Communism worked in theory”.

However, some of the best (spoken) sarcasm is done so delicately that you have to be on the same wavelength as the speaker to appreciate the humour and that’s why it works so well.

Dave says:

01:50pm | 14/01/10

Wow, what a great idea.

Jack from Perth says:

02:36pm | 14/01/10

What’s wrong with “[!]”? You don’t even have to pay for that it.

jim says:

02:53pm | 14/01/10

For once everyone agrees that this is good. Thats quite rare

Stefano says:

03:44pm | 14/01/10

Trouble is, a lot of beautiful sarcasm is verbal.

I had a useless staff member years ago, well down the food chain in the organisation, whose surname was Vail and I named and called him Noah. For years. Without a solitary tiny sign of the name registering any apparent significance in his grey matter. There was also a similarly blessed young woman in the workforce called Naomi who became Noami.

May I offer the suggestion that we coin a sound a la Victor Borge’s phonetic alphabet/punctuation to be appended to the sarcastic comment that will leave listeners in no doubt as to the caustic wit contained therein. Something along the lines of Victor’s short, sharp raspberry to denote a full stop.

H of SA says:

04:36pm | 14/01/10

Your being sarcastic Paul - but I bet you wish you had the marker for the title of this piece

TimT says:

05:44pm | 14/01/10

What if people start using the sarcasm mark sarcastically?

Sam Chowder says:

08:25pm | 14/01/10

Alanis Morissette would mistakenly use the sarcmark for the ironic

pete says:

07:01am | 15/01/10

What, have they given up on trying to have a patent on DNA? !!!!!!!!, then again the americans tend to think they can walk on water and everyone knows that I’m the only one that can do that, well, at least until we had a drought

bob says:

08:16am | 15/01/10

nothing beats lano from lano and woodley, when woodley asks him if he’s being sarcastic:

“oh yeah, i’m being reaallly sarcastic”

Rich says:

10:20am | 15/01/10

Like Jim, my circle of friend has been using {!} since 1996.

It’s free and easy, and doesn’t need a new keyboard.

Although, I must admit that video was pretty damn sweet {!}.

E says:

01:03pm | 15/01/10

Nola James : Perhaps an “I’m just insulting you, but if you think I’m being sarcastic you’ll be less offended” punctuation mark?  ROFL great comment.

To those who are saying some sarcasm is verbal, I think this is intended for online communication where sarcasm is easily missed/confused.

Its a good idea. And I looove the idea of paying for punctuation [!]

Sue says:

02:06pm | 15/01/10

Perhaps instead of “sarcasm…punctuate it”, the catch phrase should be “sarcasm…learn what it is” - where was the sarcasm in this ad?  Seriously - do they really think that by adding an emoticon to the end of a sentence they will be able to master the art of sarcasm.  Hardly!

6clegs says:

12:53am | 17/01/10

Some of my Yank friends excitedly emailed me this days ago… meanwhile, my REAL Yank mate - the agnostic-Texan-rugby-maniac sent it with “rolling-eyes” and a ‘look what they’ve done now that they think is hilarious’ title.

poor Lar, I give her kudos daily for not killing herself or her Countrymen, LOL…

papachango says:

12:24pm | 19/01/10

There are already plenty of acceptable ways of showing sarcasm in the written form. Try emoticons like and the ‘rolling eyes’ one or even a /sarc tag if you’re geekisly inclined.

Even inverted commas can do the trick, so that we don’t need this ‘incredibly useful’ invention…