trying to cut sarcasm from my vocabulary
Feb 2, 2021 0:41:55 GMT -5
Post by 40oz on Feb 2, 2021 0:41:55 GMT -5
I did some thinking and realized sarcasm really is not funny even when I get it. Whenever someone says something sarcastic in conversation, I catch myself laughing as an acknowledgment that I get it, but I never really find it funny. The context is always haha you said something that a more ridiculous person might say if they were being serious. *yawn* It's pretty much the same tired format every time.
If I don't get it, it's usually on the person making the sarcastic comment to explain that it was just a joke. And you can already imagine how funny that situation must be. When they say something that isn't funny and have to explain the funny part about it. You usually don't get standing ovations for that.
People laugh at sarcasm but it's never really sincere. It's the unofficial dialect of workplace banter at any job that is miserable. I don't really find laughter as a good measurement of things being funny. Villains have evil laughs, condescending people laugh at your expense, shy people laugh if they're nervous or embarrassed. There's many reasons to laugh. I know forced laughter when I hear it, and im fairly sure authentic hearty belly laughs never come from any number of layers of understood sarcasm.
It's just not funny in it's purest form. It also has alterior use cases for being being exclusionary, or the more pathetic approach which is to say something random as a means to secure a positive response because if people laugh at it it's because they got the joke, have a negative response is because they're too stupid or sensitive to get the joke, or have an affirmative response, it's because you totally meant it. That kinda inauthenticity really grosses me out. Just say what you mean. Stop making me have to figure you out.
I'm definitely not claiming to have never used sarcasm in any of these ways because I have in all of them in different moments of my life. I don't think very highly of myself in any of them. And when I think of the funniest people I know, they are generally funny in ways that far supersede any sarcastic comments they've made. They're usually funny because their cadence, their storytelling abilities, and reactions to situations are completely sincere. I've known millions of people who reflexively say sarcastic things and I don't remember any of them as funny people in my mind. Not even when I laughed at their sarcastic comments. I just did it because... well. what else are you supposed to do when the person just stalls a thread of dialogue by saying something they don't actually mean? Is there really anywhere to go with this than to just laugh so they don't feel like I received their comment as them being serious? Just because they're not funny doesn't mean I want them to have anxieties about me having the wrong idea about who they are.
I feel like it kinda perpetuates a deadly cycle of *sarcastic comment* > *receive laughs* > "people must think I'm funny!" It gets especially hairy if the person has a propensity to use their newly acquired confidence to utilize sarcasm in the aforementioned alterior use cases. I'm just going to work on cutting out sarcasm altogether, even as a harmless nonchalant attempt at humor because I don't really want to entertain this as a fun way to talk. It's more of a weird mask and often as the adverse effect of making people needlessly muse about whether what is being said is a troll or not. And that's just bad in an era where the internet is really oversaturated with bad and deceptive information. I don't see any use out of saying things that make people think "what does he mean by that." There's better ways to make people laugh. I'm just gonna say what I mean. If I want people to laugh I'll find other ways to do it.
If I don't get it, it's usually on the person making the sarcastic comment to explain that it was just a joke. And you can already imagine how funny that situation must be. When they say something that isn't funny and have to explain the funny part about it. You usually don't get standing ovations for that.
People laugh at sarcasm but it's never really sincere. It's the unofficial dialect of workplace banter at any job that is miserable. I don't really find laughter as a good measurement of things being funny. Villains have evil laughs, condescending people laugh at your expense, shy people laugh if they're nervous or embarrassed. There's many reasons to laugh. I know forced laughter when I hear it, and im fairly sure authentic hearty belly laughs never come from any number of layers of understood sarcasm.
It's just not funny in it's purest form. It also has alterior use cases for being being exclusionary, or the more pathetic approach which is to say something random as a means to secure a positive response because if people laugh at it it's because they got the joke, have a negative response is because they're too stupid or sensitive to get the joke, or have an affirmative response, it's because you totally meant it. That kinda inauthenticity really grosses me out. Just say what you mean. Stop making me have to figure you out.
I'm definitely not claiming to have never used sarcasm in any of these ways because I have in all of them in different moments of my life. I don't think very highly of myself in any of them. And when I think of the funniest people I know, they are generally funny in ways that far supersede any sarcastic comments they've made. They're usually funny because their cadence, their storytelling abilities, and reactions to situations are completely sincere. I've known millions of people who reflexively say sarcastic things and I don't remember any of them as funny people in my mind. Not even when I laughed at their sarcastic comments. I just did it because... well. what else are you supposed to do when the person just stalls a thread of dialogue by saying something they don't actually mean? Is there really anywhere to go with this than to just laugh so they don't feel like I received their comment as them being serious? Just because they're not funny doesn't mean I want them to have anxieties about me having the wrong idea about who they are.
I feel like it kinda perpetuates a deadly cycle of *sarcastic comment* > *receive laughs* > "people must think I'm funny!" It gets especially hairy if the person has a propensity to use their newly acquired confidence to utilize sarcasm in the aforementioned alterior use cases. I'm just going to work on cutting out sarcasm altogether, even as a harmless nonchalant attempt at humor because I don't really want to entertain this as a fun way to talk. It's more of a weird mask and often as the adverse effect of making people needlessly muse about whether what is being said is a troll or not. And that's just bad in an era where the internet is really oversaturated with bad and deceptive information. I don't see any use out of saying things that make people think "what does he mean by that." There's better ways to make people laugh. I'm just gonna say what I mean. If I want people to laugh I'll find other ways to do it.
