Sarcasm Mode: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

{{quote|'''Homer:''' Oh, look at me! I'm making people happy! I'm the Magical Man from Happy-Land, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane! ''[leaves, slamming the door. [[Beat]]. pokes his head back in]'' By the way, I was being sarcastic. ''[slams door]''<br />

'''Marge:''' [[Captain Obvious|Well, duh.]]|'''''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'''''}}

Simply put, marking online text to indicate sarcasm.

Even verbally, sarcasm doesn't always carry over well. [[Sarcasm Blind|Some people just can't recognize it.]] [[Cannot Convey Sarcasm|Some people just can't express it.]] On the Internet it's worse. While it's bad writing practice to [[That Makes Me Feel Angry|act out an emotion by merely stating that you feel that way]], on the Internet it is sometimes necessary to indicate emotions such as sarcasm. Here is one way to mark it up:

{{quote| ''sarcasm mode on'' You mean you can't hear voice inflections in text? ''sarcasm mode off''}}

This is also seen in [[Faux HTML Tags]]: <sarcasm> </sarcasm> form. Usually with this kind of sarcasm tag, only the closing tag is used. It's not as much fun, and might even be [[Viewers Areare Morons|insulting,]] to announce in advance that you're being sarcastic, and oh, how the world weeps when ''you're'' insulted, right? </sarcasm>

[[Scare Quotes]] or [[TradesnarkTradesnark™]] may also be regarded as examples of this. Ditto for using capitalization to mock-assert that some type of [[Serious Business]] is being discussed.

[[Roger Ebert]] has a rather comprehensive essay on this very subject, titled [https://web.archive.org/web/20130224050056/http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/09/this_is_the_dawning_of_the_age.html "This is the Dawning of the Age of Credulity"], written after people [[Sarcasm Failure|completely failed]] to appreciate the sarcasm behind an 'interview' he gave regarding Creationism. This, however, was due to [[PoesPoe's Law]].

Sarcasm mode is [[Older Than Radio]]: the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark:Irony mark|irony mark]], <big>'''؟'''</big>, was proposed in the 19th century.

On [[Wikipedia (Wiki)|Wikipedia]], people have unsuccessfully tried to outlaw sarcasm, eventually culminating in [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/:Wikipedia:Sarcasm_is_really_helpfulSarcasm is really helpful|this essay]].<ref>Ironically, this essay is against sarcasm, and it gets this through by being entirely sarcastic.</ref>

Users both here and on [[TV Tropes]] tendhave been known to mark sarcasm in what they write by makingpotholing the sentencesarcasm in question and [[Pothole Magnet|potholing it to this page]]. '''Do NOT do this.''' It's a much better idea to just write in a way that makes the sarcasm clear. Limit the potholes to when it's actually necessary, like for showing the sarcasm in a quote whose sarcasm isn't apparent without the pothole.

[[Category:TropeSelf-Demonstrating Article]]