Sarcasm Quotes - Revisited

            I’ve had a change of opinion about my Sarcasm Quotes idea. I’m still a fan of using a superscripted S in place of quotation marks to denote sarcasm, but I also suggested that regional accents should be included in this system. That was a terrible idea. It was brought on by my poor ability to write phonetically, and was basically a tool for laziness. It wouldn’t even work very well since having to write all of a foreign characters dialog with the same quotes would be tedious and wouldn’t carry any more meaning that just establishing an accent once, then using normal quotes. The plan was probably just to use them when making movie references and what not, but the accent is typically implied if the reader is familiar with the quote, so what’s the point?

            My new idea is to stay closer to the idea of sarcasm quotes, and use quotes to show other expressive forms of dialog. I made a new list using single letters that can be found on my Quotes List page.  It now includes quotes like A for Angry, M for Monotone, S for Sarcastic, and W for Whiney. I tried to find an elemental style of speech for each letter, since in my new system the styles are made to be combinable. Now you can write DS for Deadpan Sarcasm, ES for Excited Sarcasm, PS for Pained Sarcasm, or TS for Thoughtful Sarcasm. This makes it possible to not only show general sarcasm in dialog, but the specific type of sarcasm, which I’m pretty excited about. The other styles can be combined as appropriate too, but sarcasm seems to be the easiest one to mix, which is why I still consider it the backbone of the system. Maybe I just want to make sarcasm as fun to write as it is to speak.

            The major flaw with this idea is my own limited understanding of language. Separating and describing the elemental styles of speech seems like a job for a linguist, not for some dude with self-diagnosed Asperger’s. If I had a lot of money I’d fund the creation of a system, similar to how the Shavian Alphabet was done (which is a pretty sweet alphabet by the way, although I think phonetic alphabets should be more careful with their symbol choices so that bad handwriting won’t be a major issue), but I don’t, and working on it myself is more fun anyway. Suggested additions or improvements would be most appreciated though, and the system is still very much in a nascent state. I don’t even have styles for I and Y yet, and can’t think of a way to describe J for Jovial that isn’t exactly the same as E for Excited. The description in general are all fairly crude. I would love to do this well, since a general guide to expressive speech forms would be valuable even if it wasn’t codified into written language, but I just keep struggling with the difference between tone and pitch. I do think I was able to nail Q for Questioning though since a raise in pitch at the end is an easy one. If only everything were that simple.

The Shavian Alphabet

            In the end, this may just be another idea that is good in theory, but doesn’t really pan out in the execution. It’s fun to think about though, and expect to see some of these new quotes showing up in my future writing. I’m tempted to do some more dialog heavy writing, such as a short story or something to see if this system would be too tiresome when fully implemented (maybe it could spice up my old Jurassic Park erotic fanfiction). Sarcasm Quotes are an ongoing project that I will likely continue in the same random and unscientific manner in which it started. Until the next time.

Sarcasm Quotes

A major problem with writing is a difficulty in effectively conveying sarcasm in text form. Misunderstood sarcasm is quit unfortunate, as it generally entails the opposite meaning as intended being taken from your words. That can cause a lot of problems.

Many people have suggested that a sarcasm font should be chosen, and anything written in said font will be identifiable as sarcastic. I don’t think this is the best solution. Fonts are not the easiest thing to recognize at a glance, and are not easy to display in a variety of programs and medias. My alternative solution to this problem is the subtle and elegant Sarcasm Quote. Behold

^SHello world^S

There you have it. Superscript S’s are all you need to conveniently express facetiousness via written language.  A simple ctrl + shift + + in Microsoft Word, or ^S in HTML, and you have bought yourself a one way ticket to sarcasm town. Never again should an innocently ironic comment be taken literally. Now as far as I know I am the first person to submit this idea. My Google search of “sarcasm quotes” only brought up actual quotes on the topic of sarcasm or in a sarcastic manor.

Possibly the best part of this idea is that it is not just limited to sarcasm. I also advocate Russian Accent Quotes (^RI must break you^R), Arnold and/or Austrian Accent Quotes (^AGet to the chopper^A), and any other accent you can assign a letter to. This solves the problem of writing in an accent, without running the risk of confusing your reader and your spell check. I am yet to think of a use for superscripted numbers as quotes, but I am sure something can be thought of eventually.

Now if you’re thinking that you do all of your sarcastic writing in text messages, and your phone can’t write superscript, I have a solution for you as well. My sarcastic text messages are done as follows. “Oh, that smells like a great time” Cob said sarcastically. I see three strengths to this solution; it add some literary flare to your message, you get to refer to yourself in the third person, and it could probably be considered second degree sarcasm (better than normal sarcasm) since it is being somewhat ironic about its own sarcastic nature. If you are put off by this solution since in involves extra typing, I’m not really that worried. If you can’t be bothered to write out the word “be” in its entirety, then I doubt you are the type of person demands precision of tone in their writing.   

This post has been Revisited.