Shadow_Ferret said:
But we're talking about the written word. The first thing I learned when I found the Internet was that sarcasm does not translate well. The people can't HEAR how you emphasize the words (like they can on TV).
Thus, IMO, you need qualifiers like "he said with sarcasm" because otherwise the reader won't know.
For instance, I can have:
"Just finish your homework. Your imagination is working overtime."
"Right, dad."
It sounds like an ordinary convo. This is how it actually appears:
"Just finish your homework. Your imagination is working overtime."
"Right, dad," she said in that sarcastic tone kids achieve so well.
You never need qualifiers, if you can write well enouigh. Qualifiers mean you don;t trust what you've written, and have to expplain it to teh reader. If you have to explain it, you've already blown it.
Good sarcasm never needs an explanation. If it does, it's the sentence that's wrong, not teh fact that it's the written word. If it sounds like ordinary converstaion, it IS ordinary conversation.
"Right, dad" isn't good sarcasm, no matter how you write it or say it. Good sarcasm is, in and of itself, perfectly understandable as sarcasm, whether it's listened to or written.
Good sarcasm isn't how you empasize the words, an dit isn't the tone you use, it's the particular words you use and what they say. I think too many cofuse saying something sarcastically with actual sarcasm. They're two very different things. "Right, dad," is not sarcasm, it's simply a couple of ordinary words you want the charadcter to say sarcastically. This does work much better on TV than in books. The written word needs actualy sarcasm, not words that are said sarcastically.
Actual sarcasm does not need an explanatiopn, and never needs to be said sarcastically. What the words say does the deed. Real sarcasm can be, and usually is, spoken in a straight forward tone of voice.
Again, I'd say watch Friends. Or better, if you think it doesn't work when written, I'd say read one of the scripts for Friends. No one needs to be told when sarcasm is being used. No explanations necessary.
"If you aren't making enough money, why don't you think about joining the military?
"Great idea, Dad. That way I can still be poor while I'm getting shot at. I'll sign up tomorrow."
Another problem with writing "he said sarcastically," is that not only isn't it needed with real sarcasm, it's going to get very old, very fast, which means you aren't going to be able to use it very often at all.
"Jake, I have a blind date tonight. Do you think she'll notice this zit on my face?"
"Nah, she won't notice. . . as long as she really is blind.
or "Nah, she won't notice something like a zit. She might see that rotton orange stuck on your cheek, tough."
Yet another problem with writing "he said sarcastically" after words like "Right, dad," is that the reader has already read the words, has already sounded them out in his mind in a certain way, and now you tell him he read them wrong. Wait, you say, I know those are ordinary words, and you read them just like ordinary words, but that was wrong. You have to go back and add a sarcastic tone to them.
Nope, real sarcasm isn't tone or emphasis. That's for visual medium. For the written word, and for good visual medium, sarcasm is what someone says, not how they say it.
Again, watch friends. The character of Chandler is a master of sarcasm, and never faisl to get it sebvel lines of sarcasm in each episode. But it's what he says that makes it sarcasm, not the tone or the emphasis.
