The Irony Mark

[Mr. Picklesworth]

We're always having issues where people don't pick up on sarcasm when it is written, which are always followed by discussions about how written language sucks for that unless the writer is a master such as myself⸮

"Woah, what was that?! I felt an incredible ray of coherence with that clearly ironic statement!"
That, friends, was the irony mark! A French poet, years ahead of us as usual, realized this problem in the late 19th century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_Mark

Alas, his proposal died. Now the problem is bigger than ever as the idea of writing in casual language has become common place! What's more, the Internet has proved a fantastic tool for people to spread their will on the universe. (For example, the muzak at London Drugs - a large department store chain in Canada - is about 50% internet memes, including Rick Rolls and the theme song for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air).

Let's apply this incredible persuasive power for good: to implement a new language standard!
So, everybody, keep that mark ready and use it! :)

[rudihawk]

Hey I learnt something new today! Thanks Mr. Picklesworth!

[23meg]

You might as well enclose your sentences meant to be ironic in <irony></irony> tags.

Good irony is never overt, and the point is lost when it's made so. It's only effective when the party it's intended for can grasp it without you having to make it too obvious. Moments when "the irony is lost", apparently due to cultural differences, lack of tone due to remote written communication etc. tend to be moments for which irony was not fit in the first place.

In other words, a view of irony based strictly on the orthodox model of communication where there's a fixed message, a transmitter and a recipient does not compute. You don't produce irony in your brain, push it outwards and hope the recipient is going to catch it. It's implied in the situation itself, and only tastefully uncovering it through delicate, well placed wording will work. When it's not going to work, it just isn't going to. Punctuation marks or statements of "that was meant to be ironic" aren't going to help.

I'm reminded of a somewhat related gem: the song "Ironic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_(song))".

[jimi_hendrix]

how do you type it

[azredwing]

I'm reminded of a somewhat related gem: the song "Ironic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_(song))".

Ironically, nothing in that song is truly ironic.

[jimi_hendrix]

Ironically, nothing in that song is truly ironic.
i remember analyzing that in an english class one time

[Barrucadu]

Everything is so much better; however did we cope withour one⸮

[Tomosaur]

If you need to illustrate when you're trying to be ironic, then you're probably doing it wrong anyway.

[mkendall]

I always assume that every post or blog I read in the intertubes is written ironically. Makes life easier and more entertaining.

[jwbrase]

You might as well enclose your sentences meant to be ironic in <irony></irony> tags.

Good irony is never overt, and the point is lost when it's made so. It's only effective when the party it's intended for can grasp it without you having to make it too obvious. Moments when "the irony is lost", apparently due to cultural differences, lack of tone due to remote written communication etc. tend to be moments for which irony was not fit in the first place.

Irony and sarcasm tend to be marked by a very overt and recognizeable tone of voice. I don't see how anything is lost by using a punctuation mark to indicate that tone.

[Bölvaður]

Irony and sarcasm tend to be marked by a very overt and recognizeable tone of voice. I don't see how anything is lost by using a punctuation mark to indicate that tone.

no one I know changes her voice when being sarcastic. Sarcasm should be recognized by the context, and it it isnt eay to spot it.. no one cares -.-

[benj1]

is it ironic that the irony mark won't actually display for me?

on a less ironic note maybe we could request an ironic smiley???

[JoshuaRL]

I always assume that every post or blog I read in the intertubes is written ironically. Makes life easier and more entertaining.

And now we have a workable Dao of tha intarwebs. Makes everything easier.


is it ironic that the irony mark won't actually display for me?

on a less ironic note maybe we could request an ironic smiley???

Nah, it doesn't work for me either. And I found it DELICIOUS.

As far as irony and sarcasm goes, I agree with the camp of the muted. I'm not an expert, but I dabble in the dark humorous arts. For me, sarcasm and irony are best delivered as if they aren't there. In simple terms, the joke goes


statement -> change

So, irony and sarcasm fit that equation. But they, like all good jokes, do it best when the change is as abrupt and large as possible. Thus, subtlety.

[bryncoles]

is it ironic that the irony mark won't actually display for me?

...only if you're advocating its use.

[Sealbhach]

is it ironic that the irony mark won't actually display for me?


That's because you're not using IE6.


.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

That's because you're not using IE6.


.

The real reason is because you're either using an inferior font or an inferior operating system ;)

I, for one, have become far too used to being able to see every character automatically.

[forrestcupp]

This is reminiscent of those crazy symbols that LaRoza got everyone using for the different sounds of "th". A bunch of people got on a kick of writing things that way and everyone else who never read that one specific thread didn't have a clue what was going on.

[JoshuaRL]

The real reason is because you're either using an inferior font or an inferior operating system ;)

Heh, I actually was in Vista when I first read this and couldn't see it. How precient Mr. Picklesworth.

I love how that last sentence made me sound like a James Bond villian.

[mips]

Karl Marx used (!) to indicate sarcasm.

[insane_alien]

not sure if it's ironic or not but it seems windows doesn't support it by default :P