A recent phenomenon I have noticed in the digg comment section is the use of “/sarcasm” at the end of a user submitted comment. This suffix is added by the author to indicate what should be obvious for any truly sarcastic statement.  Like a terrible joke that require an explanation, a sarcastic comment that requires /sarcasm at the end is never funny. Has anyone on the planet ever said or thought the following: “Oh my, that comment was very rude… oh… wait.. he put /sarcasm on the end… he was being sarcastic! Dear lord, I get it now! That is HILARIOUS!” ? I ask you.

For a little bit of history, a forward slash is used to indicate the end of a tag in markup languages such as HTML. /sarcasm might be literally translated as “end of sarcastic statement.” A fully formed markup would also include an opening tag and could look like this: <sarcasm>I hate sarcastic comments</sarcasm>. Though I have no definitive proof of such, I believe the phenomenon was first used to indicate a frustrating “rant” for example: <rant>I hate the /sarcasm tag</rant>. In the early days of web based forums, this full (formal, if you will) syntax would was used. In these days of OMG and ROTFL, time is of the essence. The opening tag has fallen to the wayside in the name of progress.

Sarcasm, as with most forms of humor, is a subtle art. There are really only two exceptions to this rule: 1. Home videos of fathers and/or uncles getting kicked in the nuts and 2. Baboons with the bald, red asses. Those are rarely subtle, but always funny. The /sarcasm tag, I feel, has empowered a group of amateurs to attempt feats of sarcasm best left to professionals. The point of sarcasm is that it is funny - without further explanation needed. Like a great joke, it doesn’t need to be explained. Sarcasm is an inside joke for those who have transcended language as merely a means of crude communication. People who understand it are part of an elite club you might say - the We  Understand Simple Sarcasm Yes! club (WUSSY).

The point of this opinion piece… if you are writing a comment and notice that you are typing /sarcasm on the end, stop! Do you really *need* to tell us that? Is your post even funny in a sarcastic way? Drop the suffix. Put it out there on the line. No more safety net. Have a nice day.

/sarcasm /sarcasm

(the second /sarcasm is to indicate that the first /sarcasm is sarcastic. I am in fact *not* being sarcastic)

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