The French have vaguely introduced an irony mark into their glyphs and there is a dormant sarcasm mark in the Ethiopian language. Both marks are simply a backwards question mark.

There is a need for a mark to clear up irony and derisive irony in the English language. As instant messaging, text messaging, and emailing have emerged as powerful forms of communication, we also see new forms of miscommunication. There is no easy way make the backwards question mark on a QWERTY keyboard, and virtually no way on most, if not all, cell phone keypads. Some use < sarcasm > at the end of a sentence, others use a rolling-eye emoticon, and the most reasonable to date is an exclamation mark inside brackets [!]. However, writing out the word sarcasm or even adding brackets to an exclamation mark seem extraneous within the flow of natural communication.

I propose we make the pound sign (or number sign) (#) [shift + 3] the representation for sarcasm and ironical bantering. It’s on every keyboard, it’s an easy key command, it’s next to $ and not far from ! and won’t cause confusion as long as it is used to mark the end of a sentence. We don’t use the # sign after words or sentences, except to represent lbs in a recipe, and that is rare.

In the beginning it might seem a little superfluous, especially when used improperly. It’ll be like one of your friends getting braces, it’s weird at first but the awkwardness soon becomes normal.

If you’ve experienced the pain of trying to explain to someone that you weren’t being sincere in a textual dialogue but you in fact mean the complete opposite. If you ever want to respond to someone quickly and without further interrogation but you find yourself reluctant to throw out the ironic reply. Spread the word of the #.

Pledge your official support at [shift+3] saves lives

Sarcasm

by: Scott Starrett

Tags: communication, internet, symbols

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under communication, the rathaus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.