The SarcMark

Today, my best friend texted me about a new punctuation mark (she knows me so well). It's a sarcasm punctuation mark, created by a company called Sarcasm, Inc. It looks like a swirl with a dot in the middle. You can download it to your computer and put it after sarcastic sentences, in order to let people know that you were, in fact, being sarcastic. Here's my thought-process on the topic:

Upon first seeing the text: Is this a joke?

I googled it. There were news articles. I concluded that it was probably real, but remained skeptical.

Then I thought, Yes! I've been saying they need one of these! With some people, you just never know. This will come in handy.

Two minutes later: Wait, this is going to make us stupid. Without the mark, one has to work to carefully craft a sentence where sarcasm is conveyed. It can't be too subtle, or too obvious. Sarcasm, without the mark, takes wit, creativity, and talent.

One second later: I won't use the mark. I will rise above.

At this point, I began to get upset:You know what else? People are going to start using "sarcasm" for everything now. All those kids on facebook are going to start commenting on everything sarcastically. And it won't be witty sarcasm. It'll be lame. Now that everyone can be sarcastic, there is no talent required. The SarcMark will follow the same path exclamation marks have--overuse will ruin it.

After reading an article or two about it: I think this is a joke. Does a company called Sarcasm, Inc. even exist? And if so, wouldn't this be exactly the kind of thing they'd joke about?

An hour later: This will not catch on. Most people are in agreement with me, making sarcastic remarks about the sarcmark, not using the sarcmark. Thank goodness.

I think there are some valuable lessons here: 1) Sarcasm takes talent and, most importantly, wit. 2) This talent is not shared by all. 3) That's what makes it so wonderful.

[Side note: I know you've heard a lot about it today, but let's continue to keep Haiti in our prayers. There are lots of ways to help by giving money. Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, World Relief, the Red Cross are all taking donations. Definitely pray.]