It’s very difficult to have grown up in the Catskills and not to have been exposed to sarcasm. Comedians such Milton Berle, Jackie Gleason, Billy Crystal, Sid Caesar, Jerry Seinfeld, Jacky Mason, Buddy Hackett and many others entertained New Yorkers for many, many years. Today, shows like “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) feature sarcasm and SNL fans are probably enthused about the show for this very reason. This show has a well-earned and well rewarded reputation of cutting-edge humor (with eighty-four Emmy Awards alone.) But sarcasm is not confined to television. Radio talk show hosts often skewer people and politicians they don’t like. Still, there are generally agreed norms and boundaries in our society. It is considered insensitive to make sport of people with disabilities or individuals from a protected class. Yet, some do. And while the President of the United States (POTUS) is often the brunt of humor (including sarcasm), the minor children of POTUS are normally considered sacrosanct and spared from public shaming. We do not make certain life experiences such as sexual assault, school shootings and major tragedies such as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 a matter of sport or humor. Comedians do make fun of religion (“A priest, a rabbi and a minister walk into a bar . . .”) but perhaps fearful of violent consequences, there is little said of Allah or Muslims.
Merriam-Webster defines sarcasm as “the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say, especially in order to insult someone, or to show irritation, or just to be funny.” A minimalist definition of sarcasm is “hostility disguised as humor.” And this humor comes at the expense of another person’s feelings. A recent meme that I saw had a photo of comedian Bob Newhart and a comment he was alleged to have said. It read:
I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’.”
Sarcasm is recognized as the use of irony to mock or convey contempt. It is often used for comedic purposes, although it often carries a negative tone, which can upset those on the other end of the sarcasm. Typically, people use it to convey the opposite of what is true to make the subject of the sarcasm look or feel foolish.
As a literary device, sarcasm allows an author to illustrate a character’s feelings of frustration, anger, or ridicule, which is usually veiled by either humor or irony. In fact, when sarcasm is used throughout an entire piece of writing, audio, video, etc., it is classified as satire, which is the use of humor or ridicule to expose the foolishness of human vices.”
It was only after I learned the brutal origin of the word “sarcasm” that I came to understand that it was not something worth cultivating. It was mean-spirited, destructive, and your reward for using it comes at the expense of another. In the case of Christians, it almost certainly “quenches the Spirit (I Thessalonians 5:19.)” Here the word σβέννυτε means “extinguish, suppress or stifle.” We want the Holy Spirit to feel welcome and comfortable in our lives. This presents a challenge for us to be more Christ-like in our love for others. We should be promoting the fruits of the Spirit.
The origin of the word sarcasm derives from the Greek word “sarkazein” which literally means “to tear or strip the flesh off.” In other words, to fillet. Hence, it’s no wonder that sarcasm is often preceded by the word “cutting” and that it hurts.
It hurts like a zebra hurts, after a chunk of muscle the size of a dinner plate has been ripped from its hindquarter by a lion. The object of this scorn feels like they are bleeding, as an elk bleeds from a tear in a major artery after an attack by a wolf.
Predators
Rather than include some gory photo of a poor deer-like creature being attacked by wolves or lions, I’ve decided to focus on the details of the hunt. Keep in mind that this same brutality in nature is what the word “sarcasm” is based on, and what should come to our mind when tempted to be sarcastic.
Wolves
Wolves depend on their keen scent and acute hearing ability to zone in on prey. They travel many kilometers, generally at night but occasionally during the day until they find their quarry. They can maintain speeds of five miles per hour indefinitely in their search for food, which is usually confined to their own terrain and established paths.
Cats
Contrary to African cats (lions, leopards and cheetahs) which tend to ambush their prey, wolves, in the manner of “wild dogs and hyena [which are] ‘coursing’ hunters, using endurance and long chases (sometimes up to several kilometers) to bring down prey.” A lioness or similar cat hunting with her offspring will sometimes wound a zebra or gazelle and then fall back in order for her cubs to smell the blood of the prey and learn to deliver the coup de grâce on their own.
Sharks
Then there are sharks. Sharks are cowards by nature. Their strategy is to take a quick, vicious bite of muscle from their prey and then slowly circle the victim while it bleeds out. Sharks are very patient. At some point, the prey is defenseless and the shark goes in for this kill.
Wolves (cont.)
In terms of pack size, a single mating pair can be sufficient in some cases to bring down a large animal and four wolves are considered optimum for most prey. However, for large animals, more than four wolves are advantageous. Yet, lone wolves have been known to down a moose on their own.
Like sharks, wolves are very risk-adverse, preferring to isolate a single deer or bison from the larger herd. Because many animals such as deer, muskoxen or bison are known to “stand their ground” and therefore present a challenge to the wolf, wolves will try to stampede the herd or a single member of the herd, which in a state of panic may commit some error or suffer some accident that works to the advantage of the wolves. When cornered, wolves generally attack the flanks and rear of the animal while others will bite the prey on the soft nose. The long canine teeth of the wolves are capable of inflicting great pain and disability. Other areas of attack include the hind legs, back, neck and perineum. Once the animal starts to bleed, the wolves may halt their attack, resting instead near-by and let the animal weaken from blood loss before going in to finish off the prey.
“The wolf often seems to begin eating the animal from its open wounds. If there are many wolves feeding off the same animal, the meal proceeds quite chaotically. The wolf uses the entire animal and will chew even its larger bones to bits. Sometimes the wolf might even hide its kill.”
When the moose, deer, elk or caribou is finally brought down, the pack begins a feeding frenzy, tearing the flesh from the animal from different directions. The liver, lungs, heart and stomach are eaten and eventually the kidneys and spleen are as well. It is not unusual for wolves to tear off large pieces of flesh to drag them to some secluded spot where they can eat uninterrupted at their leisure. It is a truly brutal process, and this attack with the ripping of flesh and tearing asunder of the limbs is the image that the word sarcasm attempts to elicit.
Gray wolf pack in forest (Shutterstock.)
Wolves are a problem in western states because they tend to hunt sheep and other domesticated animals. Compared to larger animals in the wild, sheep and calves are like “low hanging fruit” to them.
While it is relatively easy for most people (at least those who are neurotypical) to recognize sarcasm in spoken speech, it is much harder to distinguish it in written communications given the limited ability of algorithms today. So, emojis and hashtags are often used to alert readers of sarcastic speech, lest it be misunderstood. But sometimes, when a person says something that wounds another and then follows=up with an apology as “I didn’t really mean that,” in fact, he or she likely did. Sometimes someone will say something mean-spirited and conclude by saying “God bless her” as if that excuses the previous comments.
Sarcasm can also be a sign of one’s insecurity. It keeps listeners off balance so the focus is not on the person who is being sarcastic.
There is a boundary between sarcasm and ordinary wit. But that boundary is often ill-defined and whether it is appropriate or not depends on what is in the heart of the person making the remarks.
