Dangers of Sarcasm

    Reading this article on sarcasm was actually very intriguing for me. I have 5 brothers who are moving targets of my sarcasm. My dad also always says, “You can’t hurt my feelings.” I really take this statement and test its boundaries. On the rare occasion that my dad makes dinner, he is always so proud of it even if it is simply grilled cheeses and reheated soup and every time I say something like, “Yeah dude! This is awesome, you look like Gordan Ramsey out here in the kitchen! Great work man!.” I would say around my family I am sarcastic a majority of the time and rarely serious. I guess I never really stopped to think about the why. Why am I sarcastic with them and what is my sarcasm doing? With a big family, it is pretty hard to get words in at the dinner table or any other sort of family event. I feel like if I’m going to try to get a word in, it has to fall into one of the following categories: 1. It is big news that everyone will be in awe of 2. It has to add something to the current conversation 3. It has to make everyone laugh. Typically, I’m trying to get to that third category.  

    There is something about sarcasm that produces a laugh from others that is so satisfying to me, and I hadn’t realized it until reading this article. It’s almost like sarcasm is a form of showing off intelligence, like “Oh, I beat all of you to that joke” or “I connected those things in a way you hadn’t thought of” not to take it too far, but it is almost like “Wow, I’m smarter than you.” Just as the article says, “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence” (Gino). Although, it discusses the benefits of sarcasm such as creativity, I feel like in my experience there are also many dangers in the use of sarcasm as the article eludes to in the last sentence saying, “Given the risks and benefits of sarcasm, your best bet is to keep salty remarks limited to conversations with those you know well, lest you offend others—even as you potentially help them think more creatively” (Gino). This was one of my biggest struggles as a kid growing up because I would always joke and practice sarcasm with my family, and I didn’t know where the line was.

 

    I would use sarcasm as an outlet and thought it meant I could say whatever I wanted whenever I wanted as long as I presented it through sarcasm and in this joking manner. However, I learned on many different occasions in my childhood that that was not the case. I remember when I was very young maybe 5^th or 6^thgrade, I was at a UVA soccer game, as my family usually went to. I forget exactly how it happened, but an older high-school-aged family friend we knew was talking to me and my friends and he had an afro, and my bratty, young self somehow ended up saying, “Are you a hobo?” and thought it was funny. Everyone laughed, even the guy I said it to, and I thought nothing of it. Somehow, some way the joke had gotten back to my mom, and I was immediately dragged to the bathroom where I got a bar of soap in my mouth. My grandma too used to always get fed up with me calling me “fresh.” I was constantly showing off my intelligence in all the wrong ways through the use of sarcasm in all the wrong situations. It was dangerous. Luckily though, I grew up, learned how to deploy sarcasm tastefully and correctly as the article expresses, so fingers crossed I never have to get soap in my mouth again.