Great, just what we need: a punctuation mark denoting sarcasm.
Everyone reading this by now knows that e-mail’s stark presentation can lead to confusion about the writer’s intent. Some sentences get misinterpreted as overly cold or critical when they’re not. That’s why we have those silly emoticons:)
They’re childish and stupid—and yes, sometimes I use them—but they at least help the recipient interpret correctly the intended tone of the message.
One company has decided sarcasm needs a punctuation mark, the SarcMark. For $1.99 people can download an application that will allow them to hit the control key along with the period key to create a mark that looks like a dot with a circular squiggle around it denoting sarcasm in the previous sentence.
Yep. People are going to line up for SarcMark, alright.
See? That was sarcastic and everyone who reads it knows it.
If sarcasm works, it is self evident. If it has to be punctuated, it has missed its mark.
The SarcMark is kind of like finishing a joke with: “get it? get it?” If it must be explained, or punctuated in the case of SarcMark, it was a flop.
Also, e-mail’s presentation already lends itself beautifully to sarcasm. It’s already cold. Hence the stupid smiley faces to make sure no one thinks we’re being mean when we’re not. Of course, smiley faces can be used as a twisted end to a really mean sentence. But then that would be sarcasm, wouldn’t it.
The creators of SarcMark are apparently going for a patent. They better hurry: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s system is no doubt collapsing under the strain of all the applications for that one.
