Lowly sarcasm!

I’m a strange sort.

I’m attracted to sarcasm. I love to use words that mean the opposite of their literal meaning to mock or be humorous. Most people use sarcasm to criticize or insult. I’m not a fan of that. Instead, I use it as “gallows humor” to point out the crazy situations that I find myself in. I use it as a survivor’s technique to get a chuckle about life’s ups and downs.

For example, when I’m late picking up my wife, I joke that I wanted to be early to avoid the rush. When I’m talking with a coworker and I drop my stash of notes and papers, I lighten the tension by saying that I’m on top of things.

I have a bit of Oscar Wilde in me. He called sarcasm “the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.”

Here’s what I mean. Here’s a few of the signs and comments in my travels that have struck me as funny or on the mark:

Or this:

Or even this:

Sarcasm with a purpose

I find irony and sarcasm are great ways to lessen the tension. I do have to be careful though. Sarcasm can be challenging to pick up in writing. I also think the cynicism and negativity can be disconcerting to those not ready for it.

The World’s Happiest Place!

I associate my love of sarcasm back to some of the interesting places I’ve worked in my career. When I worked as a newspaper reporter, sarcasm was standard fare. Folks like to criticize the media. They say that reporters push their liberal or conservative views. I saw none of that at the small to medium newspapers where I worked. People were people. Sarcasm, though, was everywhere. You couldn’t survive without it.

A coworker who had served ten years in the U.S. Navy before becoming a reporter joked that the media business and the Armed Forces were the two most sarcastic places he had ever spent any time.

It all goes back to Peanuts

Besides work, I attribute my love of sarcasm to a second unlikely source. As a kid I was a huge fan of Charles Schulz and his Peanuts cartoon. I was looking back recently at some of his old cartoons and was shocked to see so much sarcasm:

• “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
• “I love mankind … it’s people I can’t stand!!”
• “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, ‘Where have I gone wrong’.
  Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than one night.”
• “Happiness is waking up, looking at the clock and finding that you still have two hours left to sleep.”
• “I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time.” 

It all makes sense now where I picked up my sarcastic bent.

Laughing at yourself

So yes, I love me some interesting sarcasm even when it’s at my own expense. Of course, who am I to complain? As this shot from a candy shop from a few years ago shows: I’m every man and woman’s and dream. I’m a Big Hunk. Yes, please note the sarcasm.

Here’s to a little sarcasm to get you through your day!