Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines sarcasm as “a taunting, sneering, cutting or caustic remark,” while the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary–which calls itself the “one of the world’s most trusted dictionaries,” so you just know it’s right, huh?–describes it as “a bitter or wounding expression or remark.”
Well, that’s illuminating.
Both definitions, while accurate, also are a little misleading about the practice, which some find hilarious and others feel is mean and passive-aggressive.
“It’s sort of the ability to quickly come up with comments that hit close to home but that have a humorous edge to them,” said Kurt Koller, a computer programmer who created the parody Web site Sarcasm.com as a way to take shots at popular culture.
“They’re mean in a way,” he admitted, “but I think you really need to have an understanding of the person you’re attacking–if you want to call it that–in order to get a good sarcastic comment in. And that, I think, shows that you pay attention to the person and understand what they’re doing.”
Cracked comedian David Spade, whose promotional tour for his latest movie brought him to Chicago in August: “Sarcasm has been good to me.”
It was Spade’s movie “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star,” in which he plays a sarcastic actor who tries to relive his childhood to win a part in a movie, that sparked thoughts of sarcasm and its current place in society. Sarcasm can be a way to humorously fight the current wave of politically correct thought processes–and to just have a laugh at someone else’s expense.
Talk to those who are pro-sarcasm and you’ll hear things like, “It takes true wit to be sarcastic,” “It’s a snarky, subversive form of comedy,” “It’s fine as long as you’re not trying be truly mean to someone,” and “Get a life.”
Well, maybe you wouldn’t hear the last one. But you might.
“Sometimes it can be biting,” said Sean Bryan, 28, of Chicago, who was visiting wiseguy stand-up Lewis Black’s comedy show a while ago. “However, we live in such a very touchy society that we get offended so easily by so many different things. I think sarcasm helps toughen the skin.”
As far as Chicago-area public relations executive David Brimm is concerned, not only is Spade not funny to him, neither is the sarcastic way of life.
“I think it’s just mean. I mean, it’s not even humor,” said Brimm, a past president of the Publicity Club of Chicago. “It’s essentially making fun of people through putting them down. I don’t think that’s an appropriate form of humor.”
Talk to others who are anti-sarcasm and you’ll hear things like, “It’s mean-spirited and nasty,” “You’re getting laughs at the expense of others,” “It’s an evil, subversive form of insulting someone,” and “I’m gonna punch you out.”
You really might hear the last one.
“If you’re trying to be mean, it can be mean,” said Sarit Catz, who has written for such TV comedies as “Full House” and “Coach.”
“It depends on what you’re being sarcastic about. If you say something like, `Oh, you’re a genius,’ well, that’s sarcastic and mean.”
But Catz, a New York-based public relations rep, noted that the intent behind sarcasm is the difference between ripping on someone and just having a little fun.
“If you say, `Oh, this looks good on me,’ you’re being sarcastic and not really mean because you’re talking about yourself,” Catz said. “It’s all in the delivery.”
Added Spade: “It’s really like, whatever comes naturally. And that comes naturally. But there’re varying degrees.”
Wink, wink
Chicago radio personality Bill Leff noted that “you have to give a little bit of a wink to the audience and say, `Be in on this with me,’ don’t you, for it to work successfully?”
Leff, a comedian and morning personality for WNND-FM 100.3, said that how a person sells the joke is equally important: “If you can get that across, and you can say, `I’m gonna be sarcastic, but just so you know I’m going to be,’ then you’re not hiding anything from them. You’re showing them your cards.”
Leff was speaking from the standpoint of a comic, although his advice could work for civilians. Another comedian, Jimmy Tingle, stressed that in many cases, sarcasm is best left to the professionals.
“When a person does it who’s not performing, then that’s probably when it gets to be troublesome,” said Tingle, who recently appeared in the new PBS comedy special “The Strategic Humor Initiative.”
“If somebody’s always using it, then I can see how that can wear thin on people if [the sarcastic person] is not supposed to be there to entertain them.”
That sounds like Nancy Taylor of Chicago.
“I live my life by sarcasm,” said Taylor, 52. “I think it makes the trials of daily life more bearable if you can kind of take the anger or frustration that you feel and turn it into humor, which I think is what sarcasm does.”
Taylor’s 13-year-old son, Max, countered: “Sometimes it’s a little not needed. [It’s OK when] you need it to start a conversation, when not very important things are going on. But don’t use it when you’re driving. It tends to be a little annoying.”
“The other drivers can appreciate my sarcasm,” Nancy said.
“Well,” Max shot back, “they can’t hear it.”
People like Nancy Taylor intrigue Patricia Rockwell of the University of Louisiana at Layfayette.
Rockwell, an assistant professor of communication at the university, has studied non-verbal behavior by focusing on deception, sarcasm and mixed messages. She said that in addition to finding that Americans are more sarcastic than other cultures [Really?], men are more sarcastic than women [Lies!], and men will be more sarcastic with other men than with women [No!], that women will be more sarcastic with men than with other women.
“When women are talking together, there’s not very much sarcasm that goes on,” Rockwell said. “It usually requires a man in the conversation to produce it.”
There’s a surprise.
A break for women
Genevieve Lynch, 30, of New York City (“The land of sarcasm” she called it) actually thinks sarcasm wears better on the ladies than it does on the fellas: “I think [women] can get away with it a little more. When a guy’s sarcastic to a woman, it’s a little like, `Oh, you’re a jerk. That’s no way to talk to a lady.’ But it’s OK for girls to do that.”
As for sarcasm being a passive-aggressive form of communication, Rockwell’s research doesn’t support that. In fact, she said, “some researchers will argue that it is less aggressive because you are muting the real meaning, the real intent. So that’s not so aggressive.
“On the other hand, instead of saying something really polite and pleasant, you are intentionally presenting negative information,” Rockwell added. “And you expect people to recognize it. At least, that’s what we have thought, that when you are sarcastic you are assuming that people understand you as being sarcastic. That’s not necessarily true, because so many people don’t pick up on it.”
Oh, say it isn’t so.
The sardonic side of Hizzoner
Actor and comedian David Spade may be a sarcasm god, but also worthy of some kind of deity designation is Chicago’s very own Richard M. Daley. Hizzoner’s brand of sarcasm:
‘Mickey and Minnie got it before us.’
–Complaining about Disney World and Disneyland’s being declared no-fly zones after Sept. 11 but not Chicago; March 2003
‘If you get probation for 37 guns [sold illegally], maybe you have to sell 100 to get two weeks at County Jail.’
–Sniffing at leniency shown to 17 convicted gun runners, many of whom received probation and were required to perform community service; January 1999
‘This is the third proposal they have made. It is going to be the highest, the tallest building in the universe now.’
–Casting a skeptical eye on plans for a 112-story skyscraper that would be taller than Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; June 1999
— A.J.
Comedian David Spade on what he does best
“Sarcasm,” David Spade notes, then pauses for effective comic timing, “you’ve got to reel it in.”
But Spade’s onscreen personas–in his movie “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star,” as a washed-up actor living with a family in order to scam a plum role, in his TV role as smarmy Dennis Finch on NBC’s “Just Shoot Me,” and as a skewer of the stars in his “Hollywood Minute” segment on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”–scream anything but restraint.
Even Spade sometimes can’t help himself. Witness this episode as host of the 2003 Teen Choice Awards on Fox last August.
“I’m like, `Hilary Duff, how old are you, baby?’ She’s like 15, I’m like, `Hmm, as my good friend R. Kelly said, “If only you were three years younger,”‘ and the crowd’s like, `What?’ They booed me. I’m like, `He’s not a great friend.'”
Here are a few more bouquets from the Prince of Sarcasm:
“Mariah Carey had a big hit this year with a remake of the Jackson 5’s `I’ll Be There.’ Mariah, you know why [Michael Jackson] sang that song? So you don’t have to. It’s called originality. Look into it.”
–Spade on “Saturday Night Live”
Chris Farley: “You know, a lot of people go to college for seven years.”
Spade: “Yeah, they’re called doctors.”
–From the movie “Tommy Boy”
“Here’s me: `Buh-bye.’ Here’s you: `I wanna say something important!’ Me: `Buh-bye.’ You: `I’m Joe Carry-On, let me through, I’m a big man. I don’t check nothing.’ Me: `Buh-bye.’ You: `I’m cool, I wear a suit, no way am I a loser.’ Well, you’re wrong. Now buh-bye.”
–Spade as a sardonic flight attendant, on “Saturday Night Live”
Wendie Malick: “Guess what I have!”
Spade: “Why, are they baffled down at the clinic?”
–From “Just Shoot Me”
“Hey, Michael [Jackson]. Do me a favor: Put a fork in yourself, ’cause you’re done. It’s called `Peaked with “Thriller.”‘ Deal with it.”
–Spade on “Saturday Night Live”
— Allan Johnson
