What is Digg?132 Comments
- kuz2r, on 07/01/2008, -1/+49"if you didn't get the sarcastic tone of the previous sentences you must have some damage to your parahippocampal gyrus which is located in the right brain."
OK, this is my mother in law. I knew something was wrong with her. Now, how do I tell this to my wife. - dvsbastard, on 07/02/2008, -2/+42Oh! Look at me! I’m making people happy! I’m the magical man from Happy Land, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane!
- garrettsdiggs, on 07/01/2008, -4/+41that description is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny omg
/sarcasm
am i doin it rite? - MetaMars, on 07/01/2008, -3/+35No *****.
- BigManOnCampus, on 07/01/2008, -1/+31Funny, people usually complain about not being able to survive through my sarcasm.
- xtinamo, on 07/02/2008, -0/+23Maybe our sarcasm detection will evolve so we can finally refrain from using "/s" tags.
- dougvfr750, on 07/01/2008, -0/+23Probably not using a sarcastic tone... :-)
- life38, on 07/01/2008, -1/+15It has always been a way to break the ice in a conversation.
- inactive, on 07/01/2008, -0/+13Why tell her?
Just enjoy being able to be a sarcastic jerk to your mother in law without her knowing. - HallEffected, on 07/02/2008, -0/+12Correlation is NOT causation... Doesn't it seem more logical that those with greater survival skills would also have greater ability to detect and express sarcasm, as they are more intelligent?
- ozydingo, on 07/02/2008, -0/+11That may be true for overt sarcasm, the kind of "I don't have a comeback so I'm going to praise what you said sarcastically" like "oh that was SO funny," but there is an art to its effective use. Subtle sarcasm can be brilliantly funny.
- lamiaconfitor, on 07/02/2008, -0/+11On that day we shall be as gods!
- cl0n3x, on 07/02/2008, -1/+11You know what's also seen as an evolutionary skill? ***** THE RIAA!
- uptwolait, on 07/01/2008, -5/+15My son is mildly autistic, and doesn't get sarcasm. Good thing we've found a way around natural selection.
- dougvfr750, on 07/01/2008, -4/+14I didn't read it, but I dugg it anyway /sarcasm
- Haoie, on 07/02/2008, -1/+11Sarcasm is interesting. I mean, it's not like people are taught about it in school, or that you're training to recognise when another is being sarcastic.
Yet somehow it gets its point across to almost everyone by tone of voice alone.
Of course with that, sarcasm doesn't carry well online. - Azerael, on 07/02/2008, -0/+10Congratulations; you're breaking evolution.
- numb, on 07/02/2008, -0/+9Luckily we have tags for that in this day and age.
- inactive, on 07/02/2008, -0/+8People on digg are especially good at picking up on sarcasm.
....do I really need the tag? - fireashes, on 07/02/2008, -0/+7I think thats why onion news is a big hit in digg. Almost every week someone is bitching about it and trying to say that dont post onion news in digg.
- nitsuj, on 07/02/2008, -1/+7So, evolution is 'crap' because it helps explain characteristics of our behavior? Great reasoning nimrod.
Your lack of ability to reason and absorb new information is tragic. - passedoutghost, on 07/02/2008, -2/+7Really? There's no ***** in the article? I never would have guessed.
- notoneofus, on 07/02/2008, -0/+5Japanese people are in trouble. Unless they've spent lots of time dealing with foreigners, you generally need to explain the concept of sarcasm to Japanese before being sarcastic.
Contrast that with Thai people, whom I think are born sarcastic. - lamiaconfitor, on 07/02/2008, -0/+5They do, just not American sarcasm. You try interpreting sarcasm in another language.
- Spamorama, on 07/02/2008, -0/+5You did? You artificially implanted a surrogate mother with your son's seed?
- Barackalypse, on 07/02/2008, -1/+5A very weak article, I was expecting something more profound than "people with similar senses of humor bond"
- nitsuj, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4Awww, you learned to wipe now.
This is about as intelligent as your commentary gets. - inactive, on 07/02/2008, -1/+5Thanks for telling us, we really care about your dilemma. /s
- Exekutor, on 07/02/2008, -1/+5Oh! a sarcasm detector, what a useful invention!
- daimposter, on 07/01/2008, -2/+6yeah sure, and the earth is round.
- zer0nix, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4the 'poor guy with the haircut' probably thought your friend was being kind. maybe i'm totally wrong here -because i'm chinese, a similar breed of asian- but i'm under the impression that sarcasm is communicated through a disjunction between one's words and the situation or the emotion one expresses; if you say 'nice haircut' and you express ebullience emotionally, one has no reason to suspect you're doing anything other than offering a kind comment -especially in a culture where politeness is key. if, however, you say 'nice haircut' and do so in a snarky, condescending, questioning or otherwise out of place manner, then i think the other guy might pick up on your mocking of him and, i quote the article, "insults are marked down on the mental score card in indelible ink."
another factor to consider is that the japanese (as with most asian cultures) highly respect personal autonomy; that is, they don't ever want to risk bothering another person without a point in hand, otherwise they may be potentially interrupting an important train of thought. thus, if someone has something to say, it better damn well be honest and relevant. a great deal of respect is lost for someone wasting another person's time -such as with unrequited nasty comments about a person's hair- but it is also impolite to judge quickly. so, even if your friend's japanese coworker picked up on the sarcasm, he may have simply pretended your friend was simply being kind -out of politeness and respect for him (your friend). of course, if your friend wasn't acting snarky, maybe his coworker was simply being genuine in return, simply surprised and estatic that something as minor as the appearance of his hair could provoke such a friendly response.
i'm sorry to say, i have seen too many examples of japanese sarcasm to even consider your suggestion for more than ten seconds. perhaps the japanese may not be very receptive to your friend's brand of sarcasm but i assure you, they are more than capable of both detecting and appreciating it. their reaction may simply be different from what you'd expect, cultural differences and all.
with regards to the evolutionary ties between slapstick humor and survival, personally, i imagine our overly sensitive 'alarm' triggers can act as a suppressant for laughter when there is the threat of severe loss or danger. at other times, it only makes sense (evolutionarily even) to laugh heartily when someone slips on a wet patch of moss; at once, everyone is alerted to the accident -and is interested- and the point is driven home immediately: don't step on the wet moss or at the very least you may be ridiculed for having poor footing.
with regards to the ridiculous example in the article however, i think if someone didn't appreciate the humor of being asked 'are we having fun yet' while being chased by a lion, he wouldn't just instantly forget about the danger behind him and suddenly stop (which, by the way, is a hilarious mental picture). i don't know how sarcasm may relate to survival except as another effective communication tool; it acts as quick and dirty humor -which alerts one's attention and piques interest- or it may uplift the day when the mood is low, thus making everyone more aware to spot danger and food.
EDIT: damn, confused sarcasm and irony earlier. ah well, i think my words still apply. - inactive, on 07/02/2008, -2/+6I can't believe this guy got dugg down for the 'well placed' sarcasm.
- Nubli, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4I've said it before and I'll say it again. Sarcasm is almost impossible to detect over the internet. Verbal sarcasm is usually indicated not only through the actual wording but also by tone of voice, and sometimes facial expressions, both of which don't exist on the internet.
- Greatn3ss, on 07/02/2008, -2/+6MY LIFE IS USELESS
- lamiaconfitor, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4@NomortaL1... you don't get it, do you? Im saying you cant. language is the barrier. Shakespeare does not translate because of the ***** puns... learn about language, *****.
- Fordi, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3You need to learn to not care about being teased.
- Areiadebondi, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3"Imagine two ancient humans running across the savannah with a hungry lion in pursuit. One guy says to the other, "Are we having fun yet?" and the other just looks blank and stops to figure out what in the world his pal meant by that remark. End of friendship, end of one guy's contribution to the future of the human gene pool."
Well that story really proves the theory!
- Tryptomine, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3Oh, a sarcasm detector? That's a REAL useful invention...
- Tryptomine, on 07/02/2008, -1/+4By the way, I was being sarcastic.
- inactive, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3Orly?
- aliengoods, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3Not true. Evolution hasn't been broken, but the traits through which natural selection occurs have changed. And if your breeding rate is high enough, your genes are almost guaranteed to last a few more generations.
- ozydingo, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3It's more than just sarcasm, and more than just language to which you can apply that. But sticking to language, any prosodic cues (tone of voice, pitch contours, emphasis within a sentence or within a word, etc) are all learned culturally and can drastically alter the meaning of the same set of words. E.g.- "*I* don't want you to come with me" vs "I don't want *you* to come with me"
- desertDenizen, on 07/02/2008, -3/+6A friend of mine moved to Japan and noted that the Japanese don't seem to use or pick up on sarcasm (can anybody confirm?). He used to have fun with with his co-workers, "hey, GREEEAAAT haircut. Yeah. " and the poor guy with the haircut would just thank him profusely.
I'm a huge fan and believer of evo psych and sociobiology, and I buy the evolutionary arguments for humor (which incidentally, are much more complicated and subtle than this lightweight article suggests -- and we're still not sure of anything; humor could be an arbitrary standard that's solely for entertaining each other, but I digress). But arguing that a particular *flavor* of humor had a particularly useful selective past seems, well, stupid. What's next, examples of why laughing at slapstick were helpful during the woolly mammoth hunt? Please. Laughing at your fallen comrades is more likely to get everybody killed. This article is superficial, not at all well thought out, and seems to set back the whole discipline by oversimplifying to the point of deserving ridicule, when so much of the work being done out there is much more important. It is an annoying quirk of the evo psych crowd to attempt to explain every single observed behavior as having been selected for, when clearly, we have totally arbitrary and changing standards (like miniskirts going in and out of style). There are better explanations, like sarcasm is a species of a universal humor mechanism. But then what about the Japanese? Possibly just a cultural meme? Buried as useless. - Disgod, on 07/02/2008, -1/+4"It's also easy to imagine how sarcasm might be selected over time as evolutionarily crucial. Imagine two ancient humans running across the savannah with a hungry lion in pursuit. One guy says to the other, "Are we having fun yet?" and the other just looks blank and stops to figure out what in the world his pal meant by that remark. End of friendship, end of one guy's contribution to the future of the human gene pool." -Richard Dawkins.
This really made me laugh. I've had some friends that would be the ones who would stop and stare. Lucky, we weren't being chased by lions, sadly we were 10 and being chased by priests... - RandomCommenter, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3the internet killed sarcasm
- HallEffected, on 07/02/2008, -1/+3sweet name drop buried
- lamiaconfitor, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2desertdenizen, you are so awesome, IMAO.
- workharderscum, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2So... Edmund Blackadder would be the pinnacle of human evolution?
- inactive, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2depends on if you survive or not.
- thunderforce, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2So now they are going to teach sarcasm in the army?
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