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Linh
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 76
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 Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:41 am Post subject: sarcasm, irony, mocking |
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Could you help me distinguish the three words: sarcasm, irony and mocking?
Thank you! |
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Linh
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:34 am Post subject: |
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| I'm sorry. They should be: sarcasm, irony and mockery. |
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lostin1800
Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:01 pm Post subject: |
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'Irony attends the wounded, and sarcasm is biting.'
Does 'attend' here mean 'is born with'?
I did check the dictionary, but couldn't be sure which meaning fits this sentence.
Thanks. |
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Bob S.
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Posts: 1767
Location: So. Cal
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 1:54 pm Post subject: |
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| lostin1800 wrote: |
'Irony attends the wounded, and sarcasm is biting.'
Does 'attend' here mean 'is born with'?
I did check the dictionary, but couldn't be sure which meaning fits this sentence. |
Attend in this case means "take care of". Think of like an airline attendant. They take care of the airplane passengers. |
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lostin1800
Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:32 pm Post subject: |
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I appreciate it, Bob.
'The wounded' could mean the receiving end of an irony, I suppose.
Airline attendants are usually nice, polite and they mean well toward passengers; could the same be said of an irony to its victim? |
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Bob S.
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Posts: 1767
Location: So. Cal
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| lostin1800 wrote: |
'The wounded' could mean the receiving end of an irony, I suppose.
Airline attendants are usually nice, polite and they mean well toward passengers; could the same be said of an irony to its victim? |
Sort of. I guess it brings us back to the original question:
| Linh wrote: |
| Could you help me distinguish the three words: sarcasm, irony and mocking? |
Sarcasm is typically an ironic comment meant as an insult. Tone of voice and timing is important. It is the biting because it is meant to hurt.
For example, if your friend got a very bad score on a test, you might say "oooo, you are sooo smaaarrt." Of course he is not smart, and he knows he is not smart. By exaggerating the opposite, you rub salt in the wound of the painful truth.
Irony is a notable result where it is opposite of what you would reasonably expect from a given condition. It can be humorous or sad. But if you can appreciate irony, you can still see something of the humor in the ridiculous results of even a sad ironic situation. Or you can sense a cosmic justice in the situation. It makes a bad situation seem not so bad.
For example, there is the story of Apollo 13. In Western cultures, 13 is often considered a very unlucky number. Tall buildings will often skip the number 13 when numbering their floors. But the scientists and engineers at NASA wanted to prove that they are not primitive superstitious. So they did not skip #13 when numbering their flight attempts. Apollo 13 was launched at 14:13pm local time in Florida (which was 13:13 local time at the Manned Spacecraft Center near Houston, Texas). And two days later, on April 13th, the spacecraft had a major mechanical malfunction that could have potentially killed the crew (fortunately it didn't). So it is ironic that these logical scientists who were trying to prove how un-superstitious they were should defy a common superstition and get such terribly bad luck.
Mocking is just teasing in an annoying way that emphasizes the target's weakness.
_________________
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper |
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lostin1800
Joined: 01 Dec 2006
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Thank you so much Bob. I think I've got the full meaning of sarcasm and irony now. I can see now why some novels are called 'full of irony' instead of 'full of sarcasm'. |
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