Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill

Meredith F. Small
LiveScience's Human Nature Columnist
LiveScience.com

Humans are fundamentally social animals. Our social nature means that we interact with each other in positive, friendly ways, and it also means we know how to manipulate others in a very negative way.

Neurophysiologist Katherine Rankin at the University of California, San Francisco, has also recently discovered that sarcasm, which is both positively funny and negatively nasty, plays an important part in human social interaction.

So what?

I mean really, who cares? Oh for God's sake. Don't you have anything better to do that read this column?

According to Dr. Rankin, if you didn't get the sarcastic tone of the previous sentences you must have some damage to your parahippocampal gyrus which is located in the right brain. People with dementia, or head injuries in that area, often loose the ability to pick up on sarcasm, and so they don't respond in a socially appropriate ways.

Presumably, this is a pathology, which in turn suggests that sarcasm is part of human nature and probably an evolutionarily good thing.

How might something so, well, sarcastic as sarcasm, be part of the human social toolbox?

Evolutionary biologists claim that sociality is what has made humans such a successful species. We are masters at what anthropologists and others call "social intelligence." We recognize and keep track of hundreds of relationships, and we easily distinguish between enemies and friends.

More important, we run our lives by social calculation. A favor is mentally recorded and paid back, sometimes many years later. Likewise, insults are marked down on the mental score card in indelible ink. And we are constantly bickering and making up, even with people we love.

Sarcasm, then, is a verbal hammer that connects people in both a negative and positive way. We know that sense of humor is important to relationships; if someone doesn't get your jokes, they aren't likely to be your friend (or at least that's my bottom line about friendship). Sarcasm is simply humor's dark side, and it would be just as disconcerting if a friend didn't get your snide remarks.
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No, really? Who woulda thought?

Oh, that's an ingenious contribution to the analysis. Very valuable. Thanks.
































(OK, this pattern could be LOADS o' fun, but sooner or later a newbie is gonna come along, not get the joke and end up VERY upset! As Mom used to say when the rough housing and teasing kicked up, "Start out laughing, end up cryyying!")

I find the title of your thread to be very sarcastic. It's dripping with it.

I do some stand-up comedy routines that are totally sarcastic. In a club, about 30-50% of the patrons "get it" in the first 5 minutes. A college or Westside crowd runs at about 80% and most actually anticipate cynical and sarcastic dialog.

I swear, only 10% of Colbert's teevee audience has any clue what he is doing.

A good trick is to begin so sarcastically that it is diffcult to distinguish any comedic content, then gradually drop the misdirection. The audience will suddenly realize (especially if weed and tequila are involved) that they have been "had" for the past 5 minutes.

!!

Sarcasm! And Satire!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjMYQyhjiYA

I didn't get Colbert for the longest time. I couldn't tell whether his character reflected his opinions or whether it was satire. Then one night I was watching one night and he was taking questions from the audience. They were obviously planted with canned answers, and someone grabbed the mike and an "off script" question. Colbert did a perfect impression of the lost look Bush gets when someone asks him an off script question. Something clicked at that moment and I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Kids in the Hall. Yes!!

I have thought that the film Sunset Blvd had some of the greatest sarcasm:

Betty Schaefer: Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Gillis, but I just didn't think it was any good. I found it flat and trite.
Joe Gillis: Exactly what kind of material do you recommend? James Joyce? Dostoyevsky?
Betty Schaefer: I just think that pictures should say a little something.
Joe Gillis: Oh, one of the message kids. Just a story won't do. You'd have turned down Gone With the Wind.
Sheldrake: No, that was me. I said, "Who wants to see a Civil War picture?"


Sitting Pretty and Laura were also great examples; and even a couple of heavy-handed lines in Casablanca were good.

I am so using that line the next time I get one of those "Radioshack: You've got questions, we've got blank stares," looks at a joke.

Besides, if I didn't pop off with some smart-ass comment, I might lose my membership:

Oh, really.

NOW they tell us.

Oh, that was...sooooooo funny...

Everyone here is so on the ball, all of you could be President for this administration. An office held in honor, looked upon by millions. Some years down the line we can hold a seonce for your presidency like McSame and Romney did.

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[size="4"]I'd a given my right arm to see that son of a bitch actor show up right then.

Is that what you call it?