Are.you.serious? December 16, 2011 7:39 AM   Subscribe

This is going to be my first feature request on the site. I was wondering if it'd be possible to add a Sarcastic Font tag to our arsenal of HTML when posting. As many of you are aware, it is sometimes extremely hard to convey sarcasm in written text, and I think this would really benefit some people by spelling out when someone is being sarcastic. Here are some examples of its use. Thank you for your time, and just so you know, HAMBURGER jokes are so 2011 (or whenever that was first introduced).
posted by gman to Feature Requests at 7:39 AM (107 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

This seems like a slippery slope with regards to font use.
posted by tommasz at 7:41 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Nope.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:41 AM on December 16, 2011 [44 favorites]


Cortex meant to write that 'nope' in the sarcastic font. So that's a yes. It will make more sene once pb implements the request.
posted by Think_Long at 7:43 AM on December 16, 2011 [17 favorites]


Hey, uh, as a workaround, you can just use the title attribute of the a tag. Like so.
posted by LogicalDash at 7:46 AM on December 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Oh, what a great idea. Really. Faaaaaantastic. Wish I'd thought of it myself.

man, this sarcasm thing is HARD without the font!
posted by Grither at 7:47 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


<a title="that was sarcasm">Like so.</a>
posted by LogicalDash at 7:47 AM on December 16, 2011 [12 favorites]


You want to encourage more sarcasm and snark?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:48 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


We'd also need a British font tag, because a lot of the time I find people get confused about what I mean when I talk about plasterboard, tramps and sellotape.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:49 AM on December 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Like how?
posted by Grither at 7:49 AM on December 16, 2011


Hah! Neat!
posted by Grither at 7:49 AM on December 16, 2011


JohnnyGunn: You want to encourage more sarcasm and snark?

It's used plenty on this site, especially in MeTa, and while I'm not saying my joke was particularly funny to most people, it certainly would have saved some confusion here. There was also another occurrence this morning in the same thread, but I think that particular mod needs a break right about now.
posted by gman at 7:53 AM on December 16, 2011


Funny note: gman floated the idea by me in MeMail and I couldn't tell me if he was joking or not, which made the request seem reasonable to me.

But cortex said no, so uh...Meatbomb made me do it!

Hey, uh, as a workaround, you can just use the title attribute of the a tag. Like so.

Looks too much like bold and requires the user to mouse over to get understand the sarcasm. Probably better to just throw in some writing convention to delineate the mood. Reverse slash maybe, i.e. \Are you serious\?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:54 AM on December 16, 2011


cortex: "Nope."

That's it? No explanation? :)
posted by zarq at 7:55 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Because.
posted by oddman at 7:57 AM on December 16, 2011 [5 favorites]


I've seen sarcasm tags implemented on some sites and they just plain don't work.
posted by daniel_charms at 7:59 AM on December 16, 2011


Also, it turns out I've been writing sarcastically for like 24 years.
posted by daniel_charms at 8:03 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


It's used plenty on this site, especially in MeTa, and while I'm not saying my joke was particularly funny to most people, it certainly would have saved some confusion here.

Like I said, I got the joke at the time, such as it was; I just thought it was a dumb, tired joke. Notice how a little bit later in that thread someone wandered and actually frothingly trotted out "Stasi"? Yeah. Eh. I don't feel like the problem here is lack of markup.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:04 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Just one more reason you can't believe a single thing a left-hander says.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:04 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


I find people get confused about what I mean when I talk about plasterboard, tramps and sellotape.
Great to find such a well-respected user shares the same hobbies as me.
posted by Abiezer at 8:06 AM on December 16, 2011 [7 favorites]


Ambiguity in textual voices is interesting. People find it hard to wrap their heads around the idea that when you speak online, you only have as distinct a voice as you're willing to format. You can't just use the words you'd use in person and assume they'll immediately have the same effect.

Funny enough, you get the exact opposite thing happening too, where people who are used to writing try to talk and they just sound like some asshole striving to finish his internal essay before the next person cool-story-bros him and gets back to talking about something less analstuffed.

The solution is not a feeble font for feeble minds, but more education about mediums of communication and how the medium affects the way people interpret messages. I'm serious. It's the kind of thing where once you learn a little about it you regret not learning it when you were 5, since it spares you a whole lot of strange and unproductive thinking.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:07 AM on December 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


I give it until August 2012 when someone says "the sarcastic font is so December 2011."
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:09 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


As a workaround, when trying to communicate, just go ahead and write the thing you actually mean.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:10 AM on December 16, 2011 [28 favorites]


Stunt pony is stunty.
posted by Kwine at 8:10 AM on December 16, 2011


Why can't we just use Comic Sans?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:11 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


Isn't a pony, by definition, stunted?
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 8:11 AM on December 16, 2011 [6 favorites]


My Shetland Pony.
posted by daniel_charms at 8:11 AM on December 16, 2011


Why can't we just put it in the FAQ that no-one is to take gman seriously at any time. Much less coding required, no real change for anyone that knows him so win-win, right?
posted by Brockles at 8:13 AM on December 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Two weeks later: We had to destroy the website in order to save it.
posted by Aquaman at 8:14 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


Well, if nothing else, just looking at the site, a problem is that you have to install the font (I can't even tell if they expect that to be server side or user side, but I have to assume user; the usage guide doesn't really say much about the usage), and there's only one font, and the font is atrocious! For something like this to actually work, real fonts that people have on their drives would have to include this reverse oblique or whatever it would be called.

I was thinking there was some html5 magic that would force a regular font into a faux backwards italic or something, but that's not the case. As far as I can tell, everyone's supposed to download this very bad font and then sites can just include CSS for the very bad font to indicate sarcasm?
posted by taz (staff) at 8:17 AM on December 16, 2011


cortex: Like I said, I got the joke at the time, such as it was; I just thought it was a dumb, tired joke.

What you said was - "I know you well enough to know that your intent was almost certainly some kind of joking." Now, if you, who "knows me well enough", weren't certain, then I know a lot of other people here had no idea. Hell, I've seen plenty of in-thread call-outs over this type of thing in the past. Having said that, I did also mention another example in my previous comment.

Wolfdog: As a workaround, when trying to communicate, just go ahead and write the thing you actually mean.

Because always doing that isn't necessary and can be quite boring to read sometimes, depending on the situation.

23skidoo: If the statement is well-formed, it's unnecessary.

You'd think, but there are people on here (and in life) with varying degrees of sensitivities and different humour.
posted by gman at 8:17 AM on December 16, 2011


What ever happened to Yahoo Serious?
posted by klangklangston at 8:24 AM on December 16, 2011


If you want sarcasm marked, you missed the point of sarcasm.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 8:25 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


CautionToTheWind: If you want sarcasm marked, you missed the point of sarcasm.

See, normally I'd agree with you, but not when it's text based.
posted by gman at 8:26 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


As a workaround, when trying to communicate, just go ahead and write the thing you actually mean.

This is a good point. Excellent, in fact. After all, not once in the history of the world have comments with genuine and accurate reflection of true meaning ever been misinterpreted.

I guess we are done here, then.

/insert gif of exploding fireworks in the shape of SARCASM OMGLOLWTF with popping and purty colours here once coding allows this to happen.
posted by Brockles at 8:27 AM on December 16, 2011


gman this is a pretty dumb post. But it is nothing like that parents kissing their children outrage filter post you made on the blue yesterday.

Are you still in high school?
posted by bukvich at 8:30 AM on December 16, 2011


I'm still rather fond of hamburger. It's three easy characters on the regular keyboard, works for every font, and stimulates the appetite. So even if the sarcasm is Not Good, there's value.
posted by taz (staff) at 8:33 AM on December 16, 2011


I was thinking there was some html5 magic that would force a regular font into a faux backwards italic or something, but that's not the case. As far as I can tell, everyone's supposed to download this very bad font and then sites can just include CSS for the very bad font to indicate sarcasm?

Plus, people would then start using the sarcastic font sarcastically, in which case we would need a super-oblique font to indicate sarcastic use of sarcasm.

SARCASM!!!! Or wait, maybe not.
posted by The Deej at 8:38 AM on December 16, 2011


But it is nothing like that parents kissing their children outrage filter post you made on the blue yesterday.

Are you still in high school?


I would ask that of almost everyone who commented in that thread, but ignored my post about a Nigerian photographer and his work, made only a few hours earlier.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:38 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


All I'm saying is Z̥̭̥͈͕̓ͬ͋̊̔͌̊a̅́̅͌̚l̫͖̭̤͚͎̓̔ͨ͒̍ͧ̈́̕ḡ̍ͬ̎ͯ̈́͐ȍ̵̯̫̰͎͈̜̥͛̀ͨ̿̆ got along just fine without his own personal font.
posted by chairface at 8:40 AM on December 16, 2011 [5 favorites]


We need a deadpan font.
posted by Artw at 8:41 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


bukvich: Are you still in high school?

Yeah, but I'm 35 so it's more of a Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused sorta thing.
posted by gman at 8:41 AM on December 16, 2011 [5 favorites]


taz: "I'm still rather fond of hamburger. It's three easy characters on the regular keyboard, works for every font, and stimulates the appetite. So even if the sarcasm is Not Good, there's value"

I love hamburgers! But... I didn't know I could get them on my keyboard. Neat!
posted by Grither at 8:42 AM on December 16, 2011


As a college writing professor always told me, if you have to use a different typeface to convey meaning, you're a shitty writer.
posted by slogger at 8:43 AM on December 16, 2011 [5 favorites]


He is, he fails every single year because he spends all day on Metatalk instead of studying.
posted by Brockles at 8:46 AM on December 16, 2011


I think that particular mod needs a break right about now.

Opening up a new MeTa thread is not actually a way to give anyone a break.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:48 AM on December 16, 2011 [8 favorites]


As a college writing professor always told me, if you have to use a different typeface to convey meaning, you're a shitty writer.

Can't disagree more. It's reflects a black and white mode of thinking that is startling in a college professor, particularly in more global age. MeTatalk discussions over the use of certain words (retarded, disabled, cunt) etc shows that intent and meaning don't always match up and it can not always be pinned on the "shitty writer" totem
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:48 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Spoken like a true writing workshop student, Brandon. Well played.
posted by slogger at 8:51 AM on December 16, 2011


The IT folks at my work *hate* it when I get hamburger on my keyboard.
posted by rtha at 8:51 AM on December 16, 2011


bukvich: "gman this is a pretty dumb post. But it is nothing like that parents kissing their children outrage filter post you made on the blue yesterday."

The content was nightmare fuel, but the subject line was well done.

Didn't flag it, but was surprised it survived, considering the stuff I've had deleted over the years.
posted by zarq at 8:53 AM on December 16, 2011


Spoken like a true writing workshop student, Brandon. Well played.

It's weird, to me, that people want to inject all sorts of darker motive into the comments or this post, but whatever.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:56 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


I'm still rather fond of hamburger.

You know, me too! But I'm here to tell you this does not always work (regardless of which subsite you're on), and sometimes it actually seems to work against a user. I don't want to address the specifics of my own recent experience with this because I like this site and don't feel like taking another nose-whacking over something so stupid. I've decided that the best course of action is to just straighten up and be serious from now on, so it's all very much matter-solved in my mind. Then why'd I comment here? Because although I don't care much for the sarcasm pony, I do agree a little bit with the sentiment.
posted by heyho at 8:57 AM on December 16, 2011


I'm thrilled that everyone here is aware that this post was ironic.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:59 AM on December 16, 2011


heyho, I don't know specifically what you are talking about, but it sounds sort of ouchy, and I definitely can relate to that, but in terms of {/} versus special downloaded font, etc., it still means that only the people who know what it means know what it means. You know what I mean?
posted by taz (staff) at 9:04 AM on December 16, 2011


I don't think we need any Hamburger Helper.
posted by Kabanos at 9:04 AM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'm not aware of too many things. I know what I know, if you know what I mean.
posted by owtytrof at 9:11 AM on December 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Thank you for your time, and just so you know, HAMBURGER jokes are so 2011 (or whenever that was first introduced).

....Oh, I get it, you're being sarcastic NOW!

Yeah, I like the hamburger joke too -- it's easy to remember and it reminds me of hamburgers which are yummy!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:11 AM on December 16, 2011


We are not installing an Edie Brickell font either, owtytrof.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:18 AM on December 16, 2011 [6 favorites]


I was wondering if it'd be possible to add a Sarcastic Font tag to our arsenal of HTML when posting.

If we do this and it catches on, then we don't have any hope of using the backwards-italic for what I want to see it being used for: to convey a look of wide-eyed shock while pushing oneself back and away from the desk with both hands.
posted by SpacemanStix at 9:18 AM on December 16, 2011


gman's user number stays the same, but the noobs' just keep getting higher.

Yes they do, yes they do.
posted by SpiffyRob at 9:19 AM on December 16, 2011 [4 favorites]


Yes, I do know what you mean, taz, and that's certainly true. Without getting into it any more (because I really don't want to), I'd actually spelled out the sarcasm with real words, and... yeah. It still didn't work to alleviate fears that I might be up to something awful. I like this site way too much to get booted over something so ridiculously inconsequential, and I've learned my lesson, so it's all good. (I'll still laugh when others are cracking wise, though! I love how funny the comments get at times. It's... you know... fun!)
posted by heyho at 9:25 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


The thing about sarcasm is you've got to commit, you who have chosen to use it. You've got to roll the dice and hope folks get it. And if they don't, well you've got to take the lumps -- maybe apologize once the dust settles.

But I am very much in favor of its straight-faced, unexplained use. It's one of my favorite weapons against the fast-rising tide of bullshit in the world.
posted by philip-random at 9:42 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


NEVER APOLOGISE.

Especially for sarcasm. It shows a lack of spine.
posted by Brockles at 9:55 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Poor Cortex is in a bad mood, and it's all our fault. :(
posted by Melismata at 10:00 AM on December 16, 2011


Another approach: before commenting, consider whether more sarcasm is just what the site needs.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 10:25 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


I have a sick urge to liken sarcasm to cowbell. Which I've stifled.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 10:44 AM on December 16, 2011


IF IT IS NOT MEAN-SPIRITED IT IS NOT SARCASM. I AM NOT A PRESCRIPTIVIST SO YOU CAN BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY IT.

ALSO THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME. OR THE SECOND TIME.

ALSO I AM NOT SHOUTING. MY EMPH TAG GOT STUCK AND MAYBE ALSO YOUR CSS IS RENDERING IT INCORRECTLY. I AM SO SORRY (FOR YOUR LOSS).
posted by nobody at 10:49 AM on December 16, 2011


Poor Cortex is in a bad mood, and it's all our fault. :(

I'm totally comfortable blaming someone else, preferably an Aussie. Where's Ubu?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:55 AM on December 16, 2011


slogger: As a college writing professor always told me, if you have to use a different typeface to convey meaning, you're a shitty writer.

So this would obviously apply to the italics tag as well. K, let's try something. Off the top of my head:

Rodrigo Lamaitre is a chicken fucker.

Rodrigo Lamaitre is a chicken fucker.

In the first sentence, a coward; in the second a zoophile. Should the reader infer or should the writer make his intent known?
posted by gman at 11:00 AM on December 16, 2011


Rodrigo Lamaitre is a chicken fucker.

Rodrigo Lamaitre is a chicken fucker.

In the first sentence, a coward; in the second a zoophile. Should the reader infer or should the writer make his intent known?

What? He's a coward about fucking, is that it? That doesn't make much sense.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:04 AM on December 16, 2011


It's annoying that even right-to-left fonts use left to right italics.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:21 AM on December 16, 2011


I believe this MeTa is the postal equivalent of a straight line?
posted by infini at 11:29 AM on December 16, 2011


So, hey, anyone see Black Sheep? Really neat little movie.
posted by Artw at 11:32 AM on December 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


My proposed solution:

1) Register a new username, like sarcastic_gman.
2) Use that one to make all your sarcastic posts.
3) Profit!

(I should have posted this as sarcastic_smackfu but I'm cheap.)
posted by smackfu at 11:49 AM on December 16, 2011 [10 favorites]


For some reason, this thread is giving me a strong feeling of deja vu. wtf.
posted by daniel_charms at 12:04 PM on December 16, 2011


Best. idea. ever.
posted by sarcastic Brandon at 12:11 PM on December 16, 2011 [17 favorites]


We have an arsenal of HTML? I always thought the img tag was the bomb.
posted by Dano St at 12:26 PM on December 16, 2011


[photograph of baby crying]
posted by stinkycheese at 12:57 PM on December 16, 2011


see, this is problematic, because sometimes I say something sarcastically and then it actually comes true, so I look like a genius. Don't let this pony take those few precious moments away from me.
posted by estlin at 12:58 PM on December 16, 2011


cortex cortex
his mod powers flexed
when gman post for a
sarcastic font hope
the man said nope
and that's all he wrote.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:03 PM on December 16, 2011


In the first sentence, a coward; in the second a zoophile.

We had already established that he is a zoöphile; in the second sentence we learn what kind of zoöphile he is.
posted by hattifattener at 1:17 PM on December 16, 2011


As far as I can tell, everyone's supposed to download this very bad font and then sites can just include CSS for the very bad font to indicate sarcasm?

A web font wouldn't have to be separately downloaded.
posted by XMLicious at 1:26 PM on December 16, 2011


I find the whole sarcastic font thing utterly baffling. Have you ever read a book and wished it had a sarcastic font?
posted by roll truck roll at 1:29 PM on December 16, 2011


I bet a lot of editors have.
posted by smackfu at 1:33 PM on December 16, 2011


Works great for me.... /rolleyes
posted by The otter lady at 1:34 PM on December 16, 2011


Have you ever been writing a book and then suddenly discovered that it's talking back to you?
posted by daniel_charms at 1:45 PM on December 16, 2011


Well, a book isn't the web, which isn't MetaFilter. You can read a book and you can read MetaFilter but vastly different types of communication are going. The latter mimics spoken speech to some extent, but doesn't have the various cues to meaning (tone, intonation, facial appearance, body language etc). For that alone, adding a house style for sarcasm struck me as worth bringing up, since it can be miscommunicated on the MeFi much easier than speech.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:46 PM on December 16, 2011


A web font wouldn't have to be separately downloaded.

Oh, well, let's definitely do it then.
posted by The Deej at 1:47 PM on December 16, 2011


Or that that charming daniel lad said wrote communicated.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:47 PM on December 16, 2011


Brandon Blatcher: Well, a book isn't the web, which isn't MetaFilter. You can read a book and you can read MetaFilter but vastly different types of communication are going. The latter mimics spoken speech to some extent, but doesn't have the various cues to meaning (tone, intonation, facial appearance, body language etc).

Not only are books not an online discussion forum, but many books either use italics, or finish sentences with things like, "he said sarcastically".
posted by gman at 2:03 PM on December 16, 2011


As a college writing professor always told me, if you have to use a different typeface to convey meaning, you're a shitty writer.

I had a high school teacher who said the same thing about exclamation points. My conclusion is that while these things may be present in shitty writing, shitty writing is bigger than typeface and punctuation.
posted by Hoopo at 2:04 PM on December 16, 2011


I'm lying right now.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:50 PM on December 16, 2011


perhaps the whole post is actually sarcastic, it's a masterpiece of stuntyness.

I salute you.

In other news, I see we're on the feigning illness part of the cycle.
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:23 PM on December 16, 2011


Does the html-stripping filter allow arbitrary not-real-html tags? If you could tag something inside <sarcasm> </sarcasm>, then from what I understand, most people would see nothing. BUT, could people who were interested in such a thing, then use a custom stylesheet to format that tag differently? (I'm not seeing how to do it now in Chrome, but maybe a greasemonkey script could insert a link to an alternate style sheet?)

Not really interested in having it myself, but maybe that would make everyone happy?
posted by ctmf at 8:56 PM on December 16, 2011


I'm pretty sure that it would need to be a span and a class, otherwise it would be goofy for anything that scrapes the site... I'm thinking like RSS, etc. And that means it would have to be a button, because allowing things like span on the user end would cause problems.

/no expert

Altogether, it seems like a lot of effort for something that would probably end up in complaints and confusion. Even as an opt-in thing, it's not hard to envision angry conversations about how something was sarcastic, and the other person saying that wasn't obvious, and the first being all, well, if you'd enable the SARCASM FONT, then you'd know, and etc. There'd be the enabled sarcasm team and the anti-enabled sarcasm team, and eventually a sarcasm holy war, and then we'd be installing the chaos font, and right after that we can expect to be visited by the font horsemen of the apocalypse.

So, just ask yourself: is this the hill I want to be sarcastic on?
posted by taz (staff) at 11:55 PM on December 16, 2011 [3 favorites]


And Papyrus for dry wit.
posted by taz (staff) at 12:23 AM on December 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'll need a martini first.
posted by arcticseal at 12:30 AM on December 17, 2011


That's what I'm talking about.
posted by taz (staff) at 12:37 AM on December 17, 2011


Where's that font of wisdom I've been hearing about? Can we have that?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:31 AM on December 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


Will settle for Norman Wisdom.
posted by arcticseal at 4:05 AM on December 17, 2011


but many books either use italics, or finish sentences with things like, "he said sarcastically".

Only very badly written books, she said condescendingly.
posted by frobozz at 7:32 AM on December 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


Drink the liquid!
posted by lalochezia at 3:10 PM on December 17, 2011


And Papyrus for dry wit.

I'll need a martini first.


I'll go rustle up a few. Anyone else?
posted by flabdablet at 4:30 PM on December 17, 2011


Wait, I thought Papyrus was for $EXOTIC_FOREIGN_LANGUAGE subtitles..
posted by Alterscape at 9:02 PM on December 17, 2011


So, I was looking around a bit and read somewhere that left-leaning italics used to be employed on maps to indicate water, then found this (Flash) presentation about type that shows exactly that (click on "Type Position").

Seeing that, I realized this usage did seem pretty familiar, though I'd never focused on it before. Interesting.

So now you know: your sarcasm would be water on an old German map.
posted by taz (staff) at 9:47 PM on December 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


Spoken like a true writing workshop student, Brandon. Well played.

It's weird, to me, that people want to inject all sorts of darker motive into the comments or this post, but whatever.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:56 on December 16 [2 favorites +] [!]


Shit. I totally forgot to HAMBURGER that comment.

Like three days late too. Harrumph.
posted by slogger at 5:46 PM on December 18, 2011


Why can't we just use Comic Sans?

Finally, something we can all agree on.


It's been done.
posted by ZeusHumms at 11:00 PM on December 18, 2011


In some IRC channels I hang out on, the tilde at the end of a sentence has come to indicate a wavering tone. This may indicate uncertainty, doofiness, or sarcasm. It will probably help to disambiguate sarcasm, though it still leaves some ambiguity in--it doesn't really change the meaning of a sentence, per se.
posted by LogicalDash at 5:20 PM on December 20, 2011


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