  Comedy
This week: The Sar-Chasm Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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No, Groucho is not my real name. I am breaking it in for a friend.
-Groucho Marx
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain
Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar.
-Drew Carey
What have you been reading, the Gospel According to St. Bastard?
-Eddie Izzard |
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The Sar-Chasm
The gap between what you meant and what you said
sar·casm
noun
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark
(Source: dictionary.com)
There is great need for a sarcasm font.
-The Internet
Many forms of comedy translate well between the spoken and written word. Sure, it's sometimes difficult to go from physical comedy to written, but good writers can manage.
However, there is one comedic device that is dead obvious to most people in person, but which can be utterly impenetrable in prose: sarcasm.
Let me give you an example, from the immortal Weird Al Yankovic's classic song, "Albuquerque."
OK, like one time, I was out in the parking lot
Tryin' to remove my excess earwax with a golf pencil
When I see this guy Marty tryin' to carry a big ol' sofa up the stairs all by himself
So I, I say to him, I say "Hey, you want me to help you with that?"
And Marty, he just rolls his eyes and goes
"No, I want you to cut off my arms and legs with a chainsaw"
So I did.
And then he gets all indignant on me
He's like "Hey man, I was just being sarcastic"
Well, that's just great
How was I supposed to know that?
I'm not a mind reader for cryin' out loud
Besides, now he's got a really cute nickname - Torso-Boy
So what's he complaining about?
See what I mean? If someone says, "No, I want you to cut off my arms and legs with a chainsaw," you can be pretty sure they're responding to your idiotic question of whether they want help or not.
But written? Well, you just never know. Be sure to have a chainsaw handy, just in case.
There's been some discussion about some ways to indicate sarcasm when it's written: some sort of punctuation or a separate font as in the quote above. Such attempts have been really successful. (That was sarcasm.) Here's a wikipedia article about it, because you can trust wikipedia: (That was totally not sarcasm.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm_mark
I don't know why they don't call it a "snark mark." There's just something awesome about anything called a "snark mark." It's a lot like the "dark mark" in Harry Potter, but it's for people who don't take themselves quite so seriously.
But see, the problem with any sort of indication that sarcasm is being employed is that the audience just misses out on such a great opportunity to see beyond an author's words and divine his or her deeper meaning. You know, kind of like they do with James Joyce, only in that case there is no deeper meaning, but the readers like to pretend that there must be so they can continue to believe that it's deep.
We're comedians. We're not deep. If you look for deep meaning in comedy, it's more like "On the surface it makes you laugh, but dig a little deeper and it makes you laugh more. And on the next level, man, go get this guy some psychiatric help." No, sarcasm's highest and best use is in otherwise serious prose. See, some of the best writing works on more than one level at once. In fact, much of good writing involves setting up the first meaning in the reader's mind and then the punch line comes along and suddenly it works on more than one level.
Sarcasm takes many forms, but the most effective is probably irony - the kind where what you say can be the exact opposite of what you meant, as in the Weird Al snippet above or, well, pretty much every example of sarcasm in this newsletter. See, I could have said, "Of course, I never use sarcasm," but that would have been sarcastic.
Or, well, you could write an entire piece in sarcasm. That is, if you wanted to say something other than what you're actually saying. Jonathan Swift knew this. Oh, the literary establishment calls it "satire," but sarcasm is never used in satire (that was sarcasm).
In any case, don't overlook sarcasm and don't leave it out of your stories just because you can't convey tone of voice very well. Put it in there, and let readers figure it out from context. No one will ever hate you for it or anything. |
Here are some funny things that may or may not be sarcastic:
And one interactive thing:
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Last time, in "Comedy Newsletter (April 4, 2012)" , I talked about getting through April Fools' Day... or not, as the case may be.
Artemismad Scientist  : Waltz, my dear housemate, the shaken beer was not a mere prank . It was inspiration for April Fool's editorial. While I was hoping for a thank you, I will settle for not coming home work to find the locks changed.
I know where you sleep.
Smiling Jack  : Thank you, Robert, for all the great suggestions a fertile or sadistic April foolster can use to screw with others' mind and/or body.
Though there were many, one line I especially liked was:"I have a few friends whom I suspect of being in the closet, but I don't want that to be literal on April Fools' Day."
I wasn't really worried. There's no room in any of my closets. In fact, you can't open one without the junk falling out. I consider it an effective burglar alarm. Well... except for the one in Artemismad Scientist 's room. Feel free to hide in there.
troy ulysses davis : Cool. Loved the story and the celebration of April Fool's Day.
It was totally true, and it's not a celebration. It's a yearly source of stress.
Katya the Poet  : Thanks for putting my crazy tax poem in here!
Taxes... I knew I forgot something last month.
Mummsy  : If someone manages to glue your furniture to the ceiling, I'd be much obliged if you'd take some photos. After checking your camera for booby traps, of course.
None of those in my camera. Well, not the "traps" part, anyway.
And that's it for now - see you in four weeks! Until then,
LAUGH ON!!! |
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Comedy: May 02, 2012 Issue [#5023]
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