I Can't Post At Pandagon

This isn't really a post to my blog. It's a comment that I was trying to post at Pandagon, but the connection failed in some fashion. I saved the comment, and I'll stick it here until I can connect to Pandagon successfully.

It's a comment on a thread abour irony and sarcasm, and their (im)proper use.

On an earlier thread, there was much discussion of whether Gen Y was more or less ironic than Gen X or the Boomers, and so on, and I was disappointed that nobody pointed out that irony has always been the primary form of humor and social commentary in American culture, from the GIs in World War Two noting "SNAFUs" to the smart-aleck private eyes of the 1930s all the way back to the 1840s when political candidates were sarcastically referred to as "OBM" ("Our Best Men").

It is true, I think, that sarcasm and irony are a tool of the powerless to soften the blows of the powerful. But there's a difference between being in a position of disadvantage and being a "loser". But one of the things that defines a "loser" is being on the bottom and not trying to get out from under, so if your ONLY response to abuse is irony, then you may well be a loser. Jon Stewart's famous smackdown of Hannity and Colmes was his moment to not be a loser, and he succeeded big time. Our next big chance to speak boldly and without irony is coming in November -- be there.

Sally, re pretending that you like something "ironically", to avoid being stigmatized for simply liking it: that strikes me as an especially poisonous use of irony. It reminds me of Johnny Carson breaking a joke halfway through the punchline, ending on a questioning note, as though expressing shock that his writers would give him such a joke to read. Whenever he did that, I wanted to say to him, "Either tell the joke and take the lumps for it if it isn't funny, or just don't tell it at all!"

KLK, having worked with people with various kinds of neurological disorders that affected their speech, I'd say that it's entirely possible that a person could be stuck in "sounding sarcastic" mode. I've talked with people who could only speak mournfully, or gruffly, no matter how happy they were. And with the best will in the world, any of those grates on your nerves after awhile.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Well, isn't that an intelligent and insightful post?"\\