Wait, Someone Expects People To Pay To Let People Know When They're Being Sarcastic? That'll Work
from the [sarcasm]- dept
We’ve pointed out in the past how unfortunate it is that so few browsers recognize the sarcasm markup tag in HTML, because sarcasm sometimes gets missed in text. Apparently some random company is trying to fix that by creating an explicit sarcasm punctuation mark, called the SarcMark, made up of a squiggle around a dot. I’m hoping the whole effort itself is sarcastic, because the company has apparently registered a trademark on it (no, you can’t use that punctuation!) and is trying to get you to pay $1.99 for a special app to let you use the mark. What a great deal! I’ll buy 6!
Filed Under: sarcasm
Comments on “Wait, Someone Expects People To Pay To Let People Know When They're Being Sarcastic? That'll Work”
I’m sure they will make millions /s
Re: Re:
Unfortunately, I think they will make millions…
Re: Re: Re:
nope. They will make “millions’
Amazing
What a great idea! /s
As someone has pointed out on that link, such a thing has already been invented.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark
and guess what. No patents required. That’s right, contrary to corporate and governmental belief, not every idea needs a patent to exist.
Re: Yeah but...
…⸮ was invented in France so it doesn’t count. Freedom fries anyone?/⸮
⸮⸮
Aham!⸮
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
(o_O)
Re: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
If anyone tries to send me a message with this in it, or a 19th century “Irony Mark” for that matter, I’m going to beat him with a sarcas-stick.
Wow.. And here I have been using
all these years.. and without charging a cent for people to read it either… damn
Now will the swirl done in mirror image be called an ANTI sarcastic remark? o¿o
Why not just use a special font?
I think all sarcasm should be rendered in a special font, like Sarcastica ™ and Sarcastica Heavy. cf. Ironica Oblique.
Why not just an explicit HTML tag?
I don’t get it. Why not just:
<sarcasm></sarcasm>
??
Re: Why not just an explicit HTML tag?
It’s already patented.
Fantastic idea, I have been waiting years for somone to do this.
Now I wont be offended every time I go online as I will be able to recognise sarcasm!
From the article:
<blockquote>…the new punctuation mark was not a gimmick and had serious potential applications, such as allowing deaf people to pick up sarcasm in subtitles.</blockquote>
Fix’d:
<sarcasm>…the new punctuation mark was not a gimmick and had serious potential applications, such as allowing deaf people to pick up sarcasm in subtitles.</sarcasm>
great… now those of us with poor handwriting will have another confusing mess (yes, some of us still have to and write for a living.)
“So what is that, your email address or are you being a douche again?”
Woosh.
Odd, I thought they were being sarcastic. That mark was everywhere, after all.
Hey, I bought something like 6 million frownies from Despair.com a while back: http://www.despair.com/frownies.html
Looks like their free offer is still valid!
Re: Re:
That’s the first thing that popped into my head, too.
what a great post!
sarcasm
Isn’t this when a non-profit open source group steps in a developes a similar yet different “sarcmarc”, calls it the sarcas-Stick and simply lobbies to have it added to the Western ISO keyboard standard?
The SarcMarc seems vaguely similar to an anpersand “@” since it’s already in the system… and FREE… couldn’t we just reappropriate it’s use or as we like to do in the english language, use something that means something else and use it for a different meaning… I mean seriously, we do it all the time for words, why not symbols!
The SarcMark is a GREAT idea@ This company is a revolutionary force in punctuation venue@ I look forward to the visionary like contributions they will be providing to society in years to come!@!@
I like it! I’m gonna use the open source sarcasm mark from now on! …::: Sarcasm Mark: “@” :::…
Re: You made me laugh this morning
The SarcMark is a GREAT idea@
What happened to
Re: Re:
It was superseded by
Im getting 10 ! /s
Squiggle around a dot. How exactly do you squiggle around a dot? However you do it I’m going to, and then wait to be sued. I’ll be famous (squiggle around a dot)
Seriously...
I got not problem with them trying to sell some people a symbol that might make their lives easier… and more power to em for trying…
As long as they don’t try to sue people for not being stupid and using other free methods, or start suing other companies that don’t use their symbol and come up with other methodologies…
Re: Seriously...
umm, no – it is quite ridiculous when you think about it for more than a few seconds.
How does one know if a sentence is asking a question? Is there a special character to denote this? I do not know of any trademark upon the character “?”
There is a character which denotes the end of a sentence. I have not heard of any trademark upon the character “.”.
Is there a need for a special character to express the fact that you are being sarcastic? Let’s assume there is.
Why does it need to be trademarked?
I don't get it
Mike,
“That’ll work”
Why do you think it will work?
I think you’re wrong. I don’t see a need.
Re: I don't get it
Dammit! You beat me to it!
if you have to denote your sarcasm, you’re not doing it very well. It’s the equivalent of calling yourself a “playa” which by definition means your are not the aforementioned “playa”
sigh.
I’m ashamed to admit that this company is from my state. @Linotype Hell: agreed. If you need to explain, you’re doing it wrong.
Don't Learn The Hard Way!
Here I sit doing time
pirating punctuation
my heinous crime.
As remorse slowly sets in
I realize my error
Oh what a fool I’ve been.
Let my plight a lesson be
don’t make a mark
without paying the fee.
/Punctuation,Uppercase letters, and rhymes used with permission/
[] Should it be the reverse of italics that goes here instead of tilted 45 to the right. Off titler to the left? []
This is ridiculous.
But I don’t blame them for trying because there are other ridiculous things out there which require to be paid for.
Those imbeciles!
There already IS a sarcasm mark, and a quick visit to Wikipedia will find it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark
Personally, I think it’s a GREAT idea؟
Re: Those imbeciles!
Oh, the irony of your post.
And what if the sarcasm tags are used sarcastically?
What in the.....
Yup, there’s room in my budget for that.
Re: What in the.....
I bought one, but I already used it. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to afford a few more for my next round of comment postings.
I’m afraid someone like Dark Helmet could go broke using these… (/s) 😉 etc.
So an individual or a small group of individuals has/have created a program that maps a character of his/their design such that it will appear as a symbol in documents on screen and in print. For this he/they charge $1.99.
I am trying to put my finger on why this is deemed significant such that it merits an article.
Re: Re:
I am trying to put my finger on why this is deemed significant such that it merits an article.
You must be new here. This article is yet-more evidence that so-called intellectual property laws are OUT OF CONTROL and therefore they all need to be abolished. Every week or two, there’s a new story about some crazy cat lady who has somewhere between four and six DSM-IV-certified mental illnesses who brings an absolutely frivolous lawsuit against someone claiming, among other things, some sort of IP violation. The other claims may include telekinetic harassment, infringement of one’s right to defecate openly in a public park, interference with the manufacture and use of tinfoil hats, and so on.
This is the latest in that vein. Eventually, the weight of all the crazy cat ladies and Sarc-Mark vendors will convince you that the only solution is simply to abolish all the laws in this area so we don’t have this kind of frivolous-time wasting ever agin.
Re: Re:
I am trying to put my finger on why this is deemed significant such that it merits an article.
Your lack of a sense of humor is duly noted.
bad sense of humor
Sometimes your co-worker’s lame attempt at humor just can’t be considered funny, no matter how many squiggles; dots; lines; or marks they add to it.
“How come you didn’t find that funny? Didn’t you see my SarcMark?”
You can’t fix failed sarcasm with punctuation.
Prior art?
Seems rather similar to the “cootie shot” (see Billy v. Sarah, Swingset, 1984).
SarcMark is Stolen
Erm… That SarcMark is lifted directly from the Hebrew alphabet…
http://www.mepreport.com/2010/01/web-company-auctions-off-foreign-alphabet/
I didn’t know you could sell people the right to use your trademark. Isn’t that the opposite of the intent of trademark protection?
Um, or are we supposed to be franchising this mark?