Sarcasm 101

I have a friend, whom I’m not entirely sure I like. She claims she is a blatantly honest person (she says that’s a good thing); however, I would argue that she is just more sarcastic than anything. When I first came to Australia, I wasn’t aware that sarcasm is such an acceptable and common form of expression. It must be a cultural thing, because I know in America sarcasm is considered rather rude. In America it is not as common; therefore, I find it extremely difficult to tell when people are telling me something with a sarcastic tone. Especially this friend, for her sake we will call her something other than her real name, let’s use Caitlin. Caitlin has a habit of responding to me with, “Silly American.” 

The first case was when we were cleaning up after a meal and Caitlin asked me to grab the “cling wrap” from the cupboard. “Cling wrap?” I responded, “What’s cling wrap?” So as you can put together she responded with, “silly American,” while she opened the cabinet and showed me what I was familiar with as, “Saran Wrap.” 

This of all the scenarios’ is definitely the least offensive; my aim isn’t to make her out as a bad person or anything. Anyhow, it took me ages to realize that she intentionally does this as a way to express her thoughts that I am a “stupid American.” Her indefinitely skilful way of being sarcastic is indescribable.  This ambiguity in the sarcastic comments is always resolved by her intonation or "tone of voice" (Woodland & Voyer, 2011, pp. 229). The way she says things, her facial expressions, her hand gestures really indeed get her “obvious” message across. 

In this week’s reading I found the perfect quote to sum up what Caitlin has mastered, “sarcasm is characterized by the intentional production of an overt and separate message” (Haiman, 1998:42).  I also found myself another helpful source that could help with my sarcasm! Who knows, maybe it will help you too!
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLc8RIdRzio

Wierzbicka, A 2002, ‘Australian cultural scripts—bloody revisited’, Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 34, pp1167–1209.

Woodland, J. & Voyer, D. 2011, "Context and Intonation in the Perception of Sarcasm, Metaphor, and Symbol," 26:3, 227-239.