First you have to know what is sarcasm?
Sarcasm is a large
component of social interaction and conversation. To demonstrate a sense of humor, people
frequently use sarcasm as a means of “breaking the ice” during initial encounters
with others. People also use sarcasm as
a means of being comedic with groups of friends. They say something contrary to what they feel
and/or believe for the purpose of being funny.
Sarcasm, in these instances, seems harmless and playful. But is it really? Too much sarcasm is annoying and hurtful, but
can even a minimal amount be too much?
Why would people joke around by saying the absolute opposite of what
they mean? Would not that cause
unnecessary confusion and frustration?
There are also people who say sarcasm should not even be used as a means
of being funny because one can never be certain how serious the sarcastic
person is. How does sarcasm affect
inter- and cross-gender relationships?
Do males make sarcastic remarks more than females or do both genders use
this means of communication with the same frequency? Individuals have different experiences, but
generally speaking, do both sexes experience sarcasm the same way?
WHAT
IS SARCASM?
Sarcasm
is an indirect form of speech intentionally used to produce a particular
dramatic effect on the listener (McDonald, 1999, p. 486). Researchers Maggie Toplak and Albert N. Katz
make a similar statement in their article “On the Uses of Sarcastic
Irony”: “It is reasonable to assume that
pragmatic insincerity is employed by a speaker to have some effect on a
listener that would differ from the direct presumably more sincere form, and,
conversely, that listeners…would be aware of the effect intended by the
speaker.” Similarly, in his book Talk is
Cheap, John Haiman makes the following affirmation: “What is essential to
sarcasm is that it is overt irony intentionally used by the speaker as a form
of verbal aggression….” (20). Some people even consider sarcasm to be a
male-dominated form of communication used mostly among peers (Noble, 1977).
Many people relate sarcasm to irony, but there is a big
difference between the two. According to
John Haiman, a person may use irony unintentionally and unconsciously (Haiman
20). Situations can also be ironic
(20). However, sarcasm must be
intentional and conscious (20). Whoever
makes a sarcastic comment knows that they are saying something contrary to what
they actually believe, or how they actually feel. In addition, situations cannot be sarcastic,
whereas people can (20).
The
subject of sarcasm is complex because many factors are involved. The following stimuli affect the presence, or
degree, of sarcasm in everyday language:
exaggeration, nature of the speaker, relationship of speaker to victim,
severity of the criticism, and whether or not the criticism is being made in
private or in front of an audience (Toplak, 2000, 1483). However, there is one basic factor regarding
sarcasm: It is “a form of ironic speech
commonly used to convey implicit criticism with a particular victim as its
target” (McDonald, 1999, 486-87).
Whether someone claims to be “just kidding” or whether that person’s
intention is to express dismay, there is always a victim (when the object of
the sarcastic comment is a person).
Negative sarcasm, where positively worded utterances convey negative
attitudes, is used frequently in everyday language. For example, one may say “I love James; that
jerk slammed the door in my face even though he saw me walking behind
him.” James’ actions would normally not
be loved by anyone. However, one may use
the word “love” to express their disapproval of him and his actions. Once again, this is a play on words.
Sarcastic remarks, like this, are usually accompanied by
exaggeration, and intensifiers may be used on the words that state the opposite
of how one truly feels. For example, in
the situation with James, one might put a vocal stress on the word love,
resulting in “I looove James.” Lori
Ducharme supports this statement in her article “Sarcasm and Interactional
Politics”.
Sarcasm was recognized by the intonation of voice as well
as by the physical gestures of the sarcaster….In a sarcastic statement, a
speaker utters words which are directly opposite to his/her intended meaning,
but a vocal emphasis on these words (often accompanied by facial gestures such
as a smirk, shaking of the head, or rolling of the eyes) indicates that they
are not to be interpreted literally.
WHY
DO PEOPLE USE SARCASM?
Sarcasm has been found to be
“morphologically simpler and more flexible to use than direct forms” (McDonald,
1999, 487). It tends to be a more
efficient way of conveying emotion or thought.
Some people also view sarcasm as a less aggressive form of stating what
is truly on one’s mind (487). Sarcasm
also gives the speaker an opportunity to be dramatic and use wordplay that is
more interesting than straightforward remarks.
While sarcasm may be a polite version of criticism, it is
a form of criticism that is usually accompanied by particular negative
attitudes, such as disapproval, contempt, scorn, and ridicule (487). “Some have argued that an effect of ironic
criticism is to dilute condemnation, relative to the more direct form….whereas
others have demonstrated that sometimes ironic criticism is used for the
complete opposite reason, namely to enhance condemnation” (Toplak, 2000). Whether a person’s intent will be to lessen
or increase the impact of criticism is dependent on the perspective of the speaker. From the listener’s point of view, after a
sarcastic remark has been made, a process of decoding and interpretation must
take place in order to understand what has been said. There are different theories as to what the
listener experiences after hearing a sarcastic remark.
Grice’s
traditional model assumes that the listener hears the literal meaning of the
statement, realizes that the meaning unexpectedly contrasts with known facts,
and replaces the literal meaning with a nonliteral one, based on conversational
inference (McDonald, 1999, 488).
Basically, the listener is substituting definitions. One flaw with this model is that it does not
take into account the speaker’s intent behind the sarcasm. For example, by saying ‘A lovely day for a
picnic indeed’ (on a rainy day) “the speaker is not simply asserting that it is
not a lovely day for a picnic, but may be deriding the listener’s judgment,
blaming him for ruining the day, suggesting they should never have set out, and
so on” (McDonald, 1999). According to
the traditional model, the speaker could be ridiculing the listener and the
listener would not even realize it because he/she would be using his/her own
substitution to define the comment.
Toplak
and Katz conducted a study to examine the reasons why people use sarcasm
when
being critical of others. Their aim was
to see whether the reasons for using sarcasm varied from different points of
view (Toplak, 2000, p.1470). They used
eighty-eight undergraduates, twenty-four males and sixty-four females, from the
University of Western Ontario. The
students were given literature to read featuring sarcastic remarks and direct
criticisms. The four points of view
studied were that of the speaker, the listener, an incidental overhearer, and a
control no-perspective individual. The
results showed that relative to a direct criticism, the “person who utters an
indirect, sarcastic statement is perceived as intending to be more offensive,
verbally aggressive, anger-provoking, and mocking. The sarcastic message is also perceived as
more insincere, humorous, impolite, non-instructional, and conveying a somewhat
unclear message” (1470-71). The speaker
was also seen as being smug. Basically,
sarcasm was perceived negatively, as a means of verbal aggression. However, from the perspective of the speaker,
the sarcasm was seen more positively than to the people in the other points of
view (1474). This makes sense. It is no surprise that the speaker would view
his comments as less caustic. He may
believe that what he is saying is not as bad as others make it out to be.
A
second study, with the same set-up, was performed; this time focusing on the
relationships between speaker and listener (1476). Through active imagination, those who took
the role of speaker thought sarcasm would have a negative effect on the
relationship with the listener/victim (1479).
When asked, those in the speaker and listener roles did not see the use
of negative comments as indicatives of close relationships, whereas those in
the spectator points of view thought negative comments indicated close
relationships (1479). Maybe the
spectators thought this way because they assumed that people would feel more
comfortable making all kinds of remarks, negative and positive, to people they
had close ties with. Maybe people in
close relationships had reached a level where criticism is okay, and sometimes
expected. From the perspectives of
speaker and listener, maybe they felt the discomfort of using sarcasm and could
not imagine people in close relationships using such a harsh way of expressing
their opinions.
At the
end of the studies, Toplak and Katz concluded that point of view is not a
factor in the reasoning behind why a person uses sarcasm (1482). All points of view in the studies showed that
the fundamental factor of sarcasm is this:
“With speaker intent in mind [from all points of view] sarcasm is used
as a means of verbal aggression; with victim’s reactions in mind, sarcasm is
taken as a more severe form of criticism than found when criticism is directly
expressed” (1482).
IS
IT CONVENIENT?
Reaction-time studies have been done to show how long it takes sarcastic
and literal comments to be processed.
Some studies have found that it takes longer for sarcastic comments to
be processed as opposed to their literal counterparts (McDonald, 1999,
489). In addition, sarcastic remarks
also require additional cognitive processing (500). The brain has to do more work in figuring out
the metamessages. If a speaker wants to
get a certain message across but uses sarcasm as the means to do it, there is
always a possibility that the listener will not interpret the comment as the
speaker intends. Yes, sarcasm may be a
more interesting means of making a statement.
It may be more dramatic and less boring, but it will be inefficient if
the speaker’s desired reaction does not occur.
Sarcasm will be inefficient if the listener acquires feelings of ill
will even though the speaker’s intention was to be non-caustic and funny. Sarcasm will also be inefficient if the
listener takes the remark humorously although the speaker intends it to be
serious and derisive. If there is a
great likelihood of misunderstanding and hurt feelings, making conversation
exciting and interesting does not seem to be a good enough reason to make
sarcastic comments. Direct comments,
even though may result in hurt feelings, are straightforward and will hardly
cause people to guess the speaker’s intentions for making the comment.
SARCASM
IN ITS SIX FORMS
According to Lori Ducharme, sarcastic transactions may take six
forms: social control, declaration of
allegiance, establishing social solidarity and social distance, venting
frustration, and humorous aggression (57).
Social control: Sarcasm is used
as a control mechanism to reprimand members of a particular group when
inappropriate or undesired behavior is displayed (53). For example, saying “Great job” to a member
of a baseball team who strikes out for the second time in a row. Declaration of allegiance: Sarcasm can be
self-directed (55). A person reprimands
him-/herself for unacceptable behavior.
For example, telling oneself “You
are such a genius” after realizing an error made on an exam. Solidarity and social distance: Sarcasm is directed at outsiders of a
particular group, affirming the “you are not good enough to be part of our
group” mentality (56). This sarcasm
takes place when others do not fit a group’s expectations of what is acceptable. For example, a group of girls sitting at a
table may comment on another girl that passes by saying, “She is the most
beautiful creature on this planet. Just
look at her zit-infested face.” Venting
frustration: Sarcasm can express
disapproval with a situation or object that does not uphold the standards of an
individual (56). For example, saying
“These are the best seats in the house” at a movie theater where one’s seat is
at the back of the theatre behind someone wearing a top hat. Humorous aggression: Sarcasm can be used to be funny and expresses
wit by stating the opposite of a fact or belief shared by group members
(57). For example, by saying “Pat isn’t
as smart as you all think he is, he’s only valedictorian because he bribed
college students to do his work for him” may be someone’s attempt at joking
about a valedictorian’s intelligence and ability to graduate at the head of
his/her class. (Sarcasm under this
category can be used to describe a person, event, situation, etc.).
Social control, social solidarity, and declaration of allegiance
are politically motivated sarcastic remarks (59). Their purpose is functional: to maintain
group boundaries of what is and is not acceptable behavior. Venting frustration and humorous aggression
are expressive in nature (59). They may
convey a sense of exasperation with a person or situation, but neither is
concerned with defining group boundaries and adhering to acceptable behavior
(59). It seems that people nowadays tend
to use the expressive forms of sarcasm more than the political forms in conversation.
SARCASM
IN RELATION TO HUMOR
Having observed many conversations and social situations,
it seems that many people view sarcasm as a type of humor, with nothing about
the statement being serious or truthful.
According to these people, sarcasm would be in a subcategory of
humor. On the other hand, other people
find sarcasm to be very serious, even if the implications are humorous. To these people, sarcasm is too vague and
should not be used as a form of communication.
There is too much room for misunderstanding and hurt feelings. According to Lori Ducharme,
Sarcasm and humor are two forms of problematic yet
functional communication which
have received the recent attention of sociologists….Some distinguish sarcasm
and humor on the basis of their perceived positive and negative qualities…humor
is affiliative, while sarcasm is often a source of estrangement…Others imply
that sarcasm is…a subtype of humor, emphasizing their structural similarities:
both sarcasm and humor are situationally and contextually oriented…both rely on
shared sets of meanings between speaker and audience…and both make use of dual
(and incompatible) interpretations of those shared meanings….
People
have different views of sarcasm in relation to humor. There is no written code stating whether
sarcasm is a positive or negative thing.
However, one can make an assumption as to how sarcasm is generally
perceived by studying contexts and the general public’s experiences with and
beliefs on the matter.
THE
STUDY
A study
was conducted on the University of Pennsylvania campus in order to gain insight
on people’s experiences with and perspectives about sarcasm, particularly in
male-female, male-male, and female-female relationships. Thirty people were surveyed, fifteen males
and fifteen females. Most were freshmen
residents of Hill College House. There
were two parts to the study. The first
part consisted of a 10-question survey about sarcasm and gender experiences. The
second part of the study consisted of a role-play. The role-play was comprised of two
characters, 1 and 2. Participants were
asked to read the role of character 1, the victim. The survey conductor (me) read the part of
character 2, the sarcastic person.
Before reading their parts, the participants were asked to keep a mental
note of character 2’s responses to character 1 and their own personal
reactions. (The intent of character 2’s
comments was for humorous purposes, not derision). After the role-play was performed, the
participants were given a questionnaire to fill out regarding the role-play
experience, along with other questions.
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