this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

No, the whole point of sarcasm is that it’s so easy to miss that it reinforces the (unspoken) real point you’re making.

With sarcasm, you’re deliberately making a statement that doesn’t make sense, in order to sort of say “You already know the answer to that, and to demonstrate it to you I’m going to give you the wrong answer and you’re going to know it’s the wrong answer”.

Like if someone says “Tomorrow we’re going to have a construction crew running a jackhammer all day in the hallway outside this office”, and someone responds with “Oh that oughta be helpful”, the real message is:

  • The jackhammer will NOT be helpful
  • I trust that everyone listening agrees with me
  • In order to demonstrate how much we’re in agreement, I will state the exact opposite
  • When you hear me state that opposite, your brain will reject it as nonsense

It’s a way to emphasize the unarguable truth of a statement: you say the opposite as a demonstration to the listener that they cannot take it at face value.