This reminds me of a quote by Douglas Coupland about irony. Ironically, “sarcasm” and “irony” are often coupled, even used interchangeably, which I find odd and tragic. For example, irony can be lost on someone, or not lost on someone, but you don’t lose sarcasm — sarcasm you don’t “get” (or “appreciate, young lady,” as said by my late father, often.)

Satire relies on irony, but shies from sarcasm, since the purpose of satire is to present irony in a way that is both humorous, true, absurd, and guileless, all at once. Back to Coupland, I’ll paraphrase since the three seconds it would take to Google the actual quote is exhausting to even think about (sarcasm? yes. ironic? your call), he said something like ‘only about 20% of the population ‘gets’ irony, which means that 80% of people walking around are taking things at face value.’ Which is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying.

I had a friend once who eschewed sarcasm, and held it as a form of dishonesty. An ‘inauthentic nuance of human interaction that should be banned from human communication.’ I had to stare at him for, like, 30 seconds, waiting to see if he was going to smile, or if he was dead serious. It was the latter. I told him that if he really felt that way, then further communication with him should prove to be a knee-slapping adventure in fun. He stared at me, waiting to see if *I* was going to smile, or if I was dead serious. I didn’t smile. However, I was definitely being sarcastic. Which he missed, sadly, because the irony was lost on him, and I didn’t allow him to “get” the sarcasm via my facial cues. Which leads me to believe you can be ironic without sarcasm, but it’s more difficult to be sarcastic without irony.

Bumpy segue — enjoyed your article and writing. Also…

Not withholding sarcasm, here, it’s super-fun to spend time on a pet project (find it HERE) that you think is super-neat, and no one reads it, because a) it’s too long (do they configure photos in the “reading time” thing? If so, they are way off base w/r/t my piece; it’s not that long) b) they take it — the piece and it’s basic, uh, thrust — at face value (80% of them, if we use Medium readers as a base sampling for humanity), or c) it sucketh.

Either way, I’m going to pimp it to you in the hopes you’ll find it enjoyable, thus adding a green heart to it and making my day — nay, my very life — feel complete. (BTW, do you think italics were a primary or secondary development w/r/t the written word w/r/t sarcasm?)