h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sarcasm has to be THE ultimate way of hiding your inner self. It work perfectly. Even the most embarassing situations can be saved with the right kind of remark.
Some say the pen is mightier than the sword. Likewise so is sarcasm mightier than the truth.

indeed. And people who say 'sarcasm is the lowest form of wit' are always the victims of a shockingly scathing bit of sarcasm who can't retort with anything wittier than a standard response.
Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but at least it is wit.

indeed. And people who say 'sarcasm is the lowest form of wit' are always the victims of a shockingly scathing bit of sarcasm who can't retort with anything wittier than a standard response.
Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but at least it is wit.

I really wanted to post that twice. No really.

a woman friend once said to me that

oops! disregard my fragment above. A friend once told me that she felt men did not understand sarcasm from women. I've thought about this for years and in my experience it seems to be true. I've lived with my boyfriend for five years and he still does not know when I'm being sarcastic, which is just about all the time...."I love you" for example...

Ok. Ok. Maybe sarcasm can be cruel at times, but there is no way of escaping the fact that it is a way of comprehending in a world gone mad. Unless you don't go just a little mad yourself sometimes you will slowly become more and more afraid of the world around you thus becomming a constant victim of other people's sarcastic remarks.

Probably because women infle(i)ct their sarcasm more subtly. It is only obvious when used crassly. Half the fun is insulting someone and them not noticing.
Probably the lack of scholarly respect for sarcasm is that it is a performance art which doesn't translate well to the printed word. Try writing someone a sarcastic letter.
By the way sarcasm isn't the lowest form of wit, quotation is.

An example of how poorly sarcasm works in the written word (or maybe some Americans are just dense!). An Australian told me this one and I can believe it.

An American was planning to travel to Australia and asked, over the internet, if there would be any problems with things like electrical equipment, CDs, etc. He was told, by an Australian, that there should be no problems, except that the Coriolis Effect would make his CDs spin the wrong way (sarcastic or ironic response). The American expressed great interest in this, and asked for more information. This started an Internet conversation that went on for some time, with other interested (or otherwise) parties chipping in as the mood took them. Eventually someone took pity on the poor sap, and told him that the original reply had been a joke.
At this point the American asked something to the effect of 'How was I to know it was a joke if you didn't put a sarcastic smiley at the end of the message?'

Somebody please tell me that not all Americans are that thick!

My mother always says 'Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but it takes intelligence to be witty'. So there.

not all Americans are that thick

Only the live ones.

I've heard they require foreign slaves to scoops their mountains of food into their mouths, as they have not yet worked-out how to operate cutlery.

It is truly ironic Americans can not understand irony especially as it rhymes
with their average IQ level, moronic.

It is truly ironic that although Americans are said to be dense, we were not the ones dressed in bright red uniforms and marching in formation to a drumbeat, travelling through woods thick with Americans who blended into the surroundings.

But really, Americans are dense.

Most of the Americans who fought in, and won, the war of
independance had American English as their 2nd language.
How ironic is that. The less said about their allies
the French the better.They still blow up their allies boats
without the slightest sense of irony.

yes, but were you being sarcastic when you posted it twice? if so then hurrah, very witty indeed. if not, well , i don't know. if i were good at sarcasm this would be a perfect opportunity to use it. i am not however, so please diregard this whole blathering mess.

how ironic.

There are some people in the real free world who believe the USA, not America, that is a collective noun for the continent) are so paranoid about being late for WW1 and WW2 they want to be first at WW3

errrrrr. pardon me, but i was told that it was known as north america not just plain ol' america.(which, by the by is us). and the only reason we would like to be first at wwIII is beacause the french always steal the good seats.