Rachel’s Team Pick:
I think we’ve all had the experience of typing out something really just hilariously deadpan and witty on the internet, be it blog post or Facebook status update or Autostraddle comment, only to have an enraged and/or deeply hurt person write an essay-length response about how callous or inappropriate or mean it was. What if you could use the same system you use to let people know you are speaking with emphasis or REALLY LOUDLY to let them know you’re being sarcastic?
A company called Twitterblitz (started by three interns in NYC, which endears it to us already) wants to change that by bringing you Sartalics, a left-slanting “sarcasm font” that allows people who read your writing to know that you’re just kidding when you say that you just can’t wait to throw your own Pants vs. Pumps party because they’re, like, totally sweeping the nation. And they’re asking for your help to make it happen — if a sarcasm font sounds like something you want in your life, they’re asking you to follow them on Twitter as a kind of virtual petition signature. If they get 10,000 people, the creators will go to Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, Tumblr, Yahoo and Apple with their pitch.
What do you think? Tell us how you really feel. Or the ironic opposite of how you feel. Whichever.
Well this is a stupid idea.
YOU’RE BEING RACIST AGAINST TWITTER!!!!11 I AM SO OFFENDED THAT I CAN’T REMEMBER HOW MANY PUNCTUATION MARKS ARE APPROPRIATE TO SHOW MY RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111???\\\…#(q^u#q
RIGHT, AL GORE ALREADY INVENTED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MY SUBTLE SARCASM DEMANDS MORE ATTENTION AND EMPHASIS!!!!!onetyone
Why would anyone want this
I am going to get this right away, I am just SO excited about it.
OMG really? This is like nirvana for me. Is in spanish?
I need this in spanish
BTW is today the day of feminine orgasm? Or is 31 of july?
I don’t think it’s a stupid idea. Nothing like wasting 10 characters on typing #sarcastic when all you want to do is tweet jokes that no one will get all abbreviated and stuff. Sometimes you just need those extra 10 characters!
Yeah I’m a twitter addict so what? #notsarcastic
i kind of like when i get outraged/disbelieving responses to my sarcasm on the internet. it helps me weed out which of my friends have low reading comprehension skills.
i am glad i am not the only one who is this kind of asshole
Count me in ;)
Seconded. Being a sarcastic bitch to total strangers is why the internet was invented, right?
or as a great way of figuring out which of your high school friends you need to now unfriend on facebook because they don’t understand ANYTHING EVER
My solution to this previously was to respond to enraged commenter with: *rings dan’s sarcasm bell*
The sarcasm bell has saved me many an essay length response
When I deadpan in real life I lean to the left so everyone knows I am, in fact, deadpanning. It’s a useful strategy for those days when I forget to bring my hashtag signs that say #deadpan and #itsajokeyoumoron.
does this mean that right-handed people whose handwriting have a severe left slant will now be seen as sarcastic jerks? while left-handed people with severe right-slanted handwriting will become aggressive emphasizers? I don’t want to be aggressive, I want to be sarcastic! good thing I’m ambidextrous…
damn internet speak is taking over and seeping into the real world. we must rebel.
sarcasm has no place in todays society.
Won’t somebody think of the CHILDREN!?!?
If I am worried my sarcasm won’t translate on the internet I will just use a “~”
Usually though I have faith that where I am commenting, or who I am talking to is someone that will understand that I am being sarcastic without any indicators.
Me and sarcastic people have an interesting relationship where I would put these people on a scale 1 to 10. 1 is tolerable and 10 is insufferable and I need a drink-vodka chilled. Those I know on the insufferable side use flat uninterested tone of voice to everything said and are usually my teenage cousins and teenagers. Those who are on the tolerable end of the scale, have a mutli layered use of their sarcasm which includes word play, hyperboles and the tonal and more animated voice. I notice that my older teen cousins use it this way because they read..books! Fun times.
I am sarcastic at times but lately I just feel I am being too passive agressive with it and I took a vow to be a person of action. So when I say something chances are I am very literal and I will suck/love/punch you in the face in real life.
With great use of sarcasm comes great responsibility not to always piss people off.
Dude, that wall paper in the video. They’re basically living in a forest. Jealous. #notsarcasm
“If you can’t say something nice…”
Say it passive-aggressively with sarcasm, no?
I honestly thought this said “*statistics* lets you be just as witty on twitter as in real life.”
you guys. what is the proper way to respond to sarcasm (on the internet)? because all i can imagine right now is when someone makes a sarcastic comment, there is only silence in response, or just pissing off the person you’re making the remark to. i’ve had my share of bitterly sarcastic friends, and it’s really draining sometimes because I JUST DON’T KNOW HOW TO RESPOND. i mean, i’m sarcastic too, but not all the time (and i don’t like it when it verges on passive aggressiveness!!!111!!1! hahaha.)
i need this in my life yesterday.
I don’t like it because I think left-slanted text looks apprehensive.
You could probably use these for anything which comes out of the keypad of an Australian. Unposted sarcasm is a key part of our idiosyncratic humour. But I think italicising it, marking it out as sarcastic, takes away part of the joke. Jokes inherently alienate, ultimately, every joke is an inside joke, whether it is shared by the people who know that Bob trips over his feet constantly or a nation or all people fluent in English.
Yes, this! I used to unintentionally offend/confuse people with my sarcasm when I lived in the States, but that doesn’t happen in Australia! I’VE FOUND MY PEOPLE!
whenever i need to be sarcastic on the internet or across text i just add this ~*
all my friends and people i know understand this
is thing a thing?
I’m actually kind of excited for this. It irritates me to no end when I can’t properly convey my sarcasm.