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This Instagram Account Celebrates Hilariously Sarcastic Memes, Here Are 50 Of The Best
Oscar Wilde once said, "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence." Regardless, PR experts and marriage counselors often advise their clients to stay away from it. The reason is simple: this form of expression can sting others, hurting people and harming relationships. As a communication tool, it dances on the edge of conflict.
But sometimes, throwing sparks and seeing if they catch fire is precisely what you want. Especially when everyone and everything around you tickles your nerves. Which is something we all sometimes feel. (I hope.)
So let's take a look at the Instagram account 'Sarcasm Only.' Sharing memes, tweets, and all kinds of content, it manages to pinpoint universal human emotion despite firing shots in every direction. If there's one place you need to get through a lousy, it's this little corner of the internet. I mean, why else would 16 million people follow it?
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In fact, scientists are finding that the ability to detect sarcasm really is useful. For the past 20 years, linguists, psychologists, neurologists, and other researchers have been analyzing our ability to perceive snarky remarks and gaining new insights into how the mind works. Their studies have shown that exposure to sarcasm enhances creative problem solving, for instance.
You could say sarcasm detection is an essential skill if one is going to function in a modern society dripping with irony. "Our culture, in particular, is permeated with sarcasm,” Katherine Rankin, a neuropsychologist at the University of California at San Francisco, told Smithsonian Magazine. "People who don't understand sarcasm are immediately noticed. They're not getting it. They're not socially adept."
Sarcasm is so popular in 21st-century America that according to one study of a database of telephone conversations, 23 percent of the time that the phrase "Yeah, right" was used, it was uttered sarcastically.
Entire phrases have almost lost their literal meanings because they are so frequently said with a sneer. Take "Big deal," for example. When was the last time someone said that to you and actually meant it? "My heart bleeds for you" almost always equals "Tell it to someone who cares," and "Aren’t you special" means you aren’t.
"It's practically the primary language in modern society," John Haiman, a linguist at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the author of Talk is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation and the Evolution of Language, said.
Let's start normalizing the fact that clothes are really expensive and deserve to be worn more than once!
Sarcastic statements are sort of a true lie. People are saying something they don’t literally mean, but the communication works as intended only if their listener gets that they're insincere.
Some language experts suggest sarcasm is used as a sort of gentler insult, a way to tone down criticism, but their opponents have found that the mocking, smug, superior nature of sarcasm is perceived as more hurtful than a plain-spoken criticism.
The Greek root for sarcasm, sarkazein, means to tear flesh like dogs. Haiman thinks dog-eat-dog sarcastic commentary is just part of our quest to be cool. "You're distancing yourself, you're making yourself superior. If you're sincere all the time, you seem naive."
I was going to comment something smart but I'm so tired. I'll do it tomorrow.
Research has also shown that sarcasm can be easily misinterpreted, especially when served electronically. In one study, 30 pairs of university students were given a list of statements to communicate, half of which were sarcastic and half of which were serious: some students communicated their messages via e-mail and others via voice recordings.
Participants who received the voice messages accurately gleaned the sarcasm (or lack thereof) 73 percent of the time, but those who received the statements via e-mail did so only 56 percent of the time, hardly better than chance. Additionally, the e-mailers had anticipated that 78 percent of participants would pick up on the sarcasm inherent in their sarcastic statements. That is, they badly overestimated their ability to communicate their tone.
At least sarcasm goes well with memes!
Those were the days. Spending all night reading...simpler times.
Right?! Now I read 45 minutes past my bedtime (and drop the book on my face at least 4 times) and wake up like I only got 20 minutes of sleep.
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I love reading, and still spend a lot of time doing it, but I have noticed that in the age of the web, my attention span has dropped incredibly... read half of an article, move on, read several headlines, half an article, play a quick game, read a paragraph. I don't sit thru whole movies any more, because I can pause in the middle. Now, especially online, I skip any articles that I think are too long.
the only thing school accomplished was making us depressed and turning our brain into mush
You have the same brain but you don't have the same responsibilities
Oh this one hit hard. I used to read between 2-3 books a week and then my narcolepsy decided to get much worse and now I can only read 2-3 pages before I fall asleep.
Retired still do it love it read 7 books last month! Always have one with me wherever I go!
Ditto, i get through a book every few days! Not retired, i read after supper after work.
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You guys read chapter books in middle school? I read graphic novels and claimed that they improved my drawing styles
i remember when i could read the whole harry potter series in a week... now i have neither the time nor effort for that
The printing was much clearer in those days and your eyes weren't so tired all the time.
Brain is over-stuffed with all those 450 page novels. Now there's only room for one sentence memes.
Thesis killed reading for fun lol only now 2 years after am I slooowly doing it again
I came out to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now.
Plus writing 2 500+ word essays, calculus, and preparing for a science project while STILL hanging with your friends
Which one was that? Only guess I have was "Gerald's Game", with the protagonist being named Jessie.
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I've never finished a single book on the syllabus in school. We had things like cliff notes for that.
3 days? 450 pages? you can brag when you've read 900 pages in one day.
According to my dietician the worst thing you can do is eat or drink on an empty stomach, at least that's what I understood when I read her list of do's and don'ts.
POV: When your friend brings one of their other friends to lunch but you don't know the other friend so you just sit there awkwardly while they reminisce about something they did 4 years ago.
But if you were stranded somewhere in danger at 3am and needed them you know they’d come.
I hope it's not a chili pepper cake, because you don't need the extra burn.
Well yeah that's why its called "after work". I don't exist to the outside world after 8pm.
Yup, rich will do that to you. All the money in the world for surgery, injections, make-up and photoshop.
Note: this post originally had 95 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I'm sat here trying to figure out if the person that put these together actually knows what sarcasm is.
I'm sat here trying to figure out if the person that put these together actually knows what sarcasm is.
