Irony is no fun if it's clearly marked.
In fact it completely defeats the purpose of irony. It's like explaining a joke until you've completely killed it.
In fact it completely defeats the purpose of irony. It's like explaining a joke until you've completely killed it.
Isn't it funny when you need a font to mark subtle forms of humour because so many people won't get it without some help?
Damn... It's hard to do this when you don't know how many levels of subtle jokes are piled upon this topic...
If you demarcate such language beforehand with backtalics or <sarcasm> tags, then there is no such juxtaposition and thus no realization.
Plus, while difficult, there are ways to hint an intonation in text.
I mean, hel-LO, it's so OBvious.
Your thinking only applies to a true deadpan comment with a straight tone of voice - that's not the majority of sarcastic comments we hear.
This is clearly false, as both irony and sarcasm are usually delimited by both changes in speech and nonverbal cues. The better you know each other, the fewer of such cues are necessary, but especially among 'new' people, you'd better make sure they get you are being sarcastic/ironic, lest they get a completely wrong impression of you. The lack of cues and subsequent misunderstandings is exactly the problem with speech on the internet and is exactly why things like italics exist: to be able to shift emphasis like you'd do with speech or nonverbal cues.
You've obviously never been to England.