Why is sarcasm lowest form of wit

Laura 1, books view quotes. Apr 26, PM. Ankith 18 books view quotes. Apr 13, PM. Yaseen 5 books view quotes. Apr 11, AM.

Wai 0 books view quotes. Apr 07, PM. AnitroK books view quotes. Jan 08, AM. Tracy books view quotes. Dec 02, PM. Niamh Anne books view quotes. Oct 31, AM. Joshua books view quotes. Oct 14, AM. Rhonda Harding 0 books view quotes. Sep 23, AM. Leonardo 60 books view quotes. Aug 20, PM. Anish 75 books view quotes. Aug 01, PM. LauZorro books view quotes. Liz books view quotes. Jul 19, AM.

Souad 82 books view quotes. Jun 20, AM. Luna books view quotes. May 31, AM. Alexandra 2, books view quotes. May 05, AM. Shailendra 0 books view quotes. Apr 19, PM. Jack books view quotes. Stary Ng 98 books view quotes. Mar 21, AM. Nida Ansari books view quotes. Mar 19, AM. Michael 0 books view quotes. Dec 18, PM.

John 53 books view quotes. Oct 11, AM. Rohit 1, books view quotes. Sep 27, PM. Sep 02, PM. Ummea books view quotes. May 15, AM. Arielle books view quotes. Apr 16, PM. Davide books view quotes. Apr 16, AM. And yet, our research suggests, there may also be some unexpected benefits from sarcasm: greater creativity. The use of sarcasm, in fact, promotes creativity for those on both the giving and receiving end of sarcastic exchanges.

Instead of avoiding sarcasm completely in the office, the research suggests sarcasm, used with care and in moderation, can be effectively used and trigger some creative sparks. Sarcasm involves constructing or exposing contradictions between intended meanings. The most common form of verbal irony, sarcasm is often used to humorously convey thinly veiled disapproval or scorn.

Early research on sarcasm explored how people interpret statements and found that, as expected, sarcasm makes a statement sound more critical. Participants rated sarcasm to be more condemning than literal statements.

Both perspectives prompted participants to rate sarcastic comments by the second person as more impolite relative to literal comments. Other research has show that sarcasm can be easily misinterpreted, particularly when communicated electronically. In one study , 30 pairs of university students were given a list of statements to communicate, half of which were sarcastic and half of which were serious.

Some students communicated their messages via e-mail and others via voice recordings. Participants who received the voice messages accurately gleaned the sarcasm or lack thereof 73 percent of the time, but those who received the statements via e-mail did so only 56 percent of the time, hardly better than chance. By comparison, the e-mailers had anticipated that 78 percent of participants would pick up on the sarcasm inherent in their sarcastic statements. That is, they badly overestimated their ability to communicate the tenor of their sarcastic statements via e-mail.

They guessed they would correctly interpret the tone of the e-mails they received about 90 percent of the time. They were considerably less overconfident about their ability to interpret voice messages. In recent research, my colleagues and I discovered an upside to this otherwise gloomy picture of sarcasm. In one study, we assigned some participants to engage in either simulated sarcastic, sincere, or neutral dialogues by choosing from pre-written responses on a sheet of paper.

Others were recipients of these different types of messages from others. Not surprisingly, the participants exposed to sarcasm reported more interpersonal conflict than those in other groups. It has been suggested that its origins go back even further to a simple open hand gesture to show that there is no weapon.

The naval salute with the palm inwards traces back to the use of tar on Royal Navy ships. The palms of ordinary seamans' hands would be forever dirty so it was seen as good manners to hide this from superiors. Colin Beszant, Moss Vale. Back in the medieval era, knights and soldiers wore rather clunky armor, which included a full helmet and face-plate. That action of your hand moving towards your brow replicates the hundreds-of-years-old gesture today when approached by a superior officer notice it is always a lower rank saluting first, unless at the end of an address.

Either to show one is unarmed or raising a helmets visor to identify oneself. This evolved into the doffing of hats in the British army. To avoid costly wear and tear, the military changed the custom to an open handed gesture.

The naval salute, adopted by all US forces, developed because British tars had dirty hands from sealing ship timbers. They angled them to avoid offence. Knights in armour raised their visors to reveal their faces upon meeting other knights. Also the raised hand showed that they held no weapon. Hence the hand raised in the region of the face to show friendship and respect.

When generals are not fighting wars they have to be kept busy with important activities like designing salutes. Lots of military brass means lots of different types of salutes. Richard Keyes, Enfield. All military salutes,i. Thus the navy altered its salute by rotating the hand to a horizontal position,such that the "unclean" hand coould not be seen. In days of olde, just before a payre of bolde knights set about thyneselves at the local tourney and jouste, they would face each other and rayse their visors with the right hand, thus confirming that the person within the armour, was indeed who he said he was and not some swarthy knave imposter with exceptional skyll in aiming a lance and wielding a broadsword.

The navy salute is different for two reasons: sailors dont ride horses and swimming is much more difficult if youre wearing half a ton of armour. As Senator McGauran has demonstrated in Parliament, even the humble one-fingered salute is open to amendment. David Cameron, Bathurst. There are a couple of theories: one is that it comes from the custom of lifting the visor of the helmet in days of armoured combat to acknowledge friendly intent; another is that the hand is raised to the forehead so that you won't be blinded by the magnificence of the person you're saluting.

And that doesn't take into account the derivations on the Roman military salute! As to differences in service practices since when have any of the military branches ever agreed on anything? Alan Moyse, Canberra. In last week's column, an answer submitted by John Frith "Soap works with a chemical and physical action Wouldn't it be better and save time if just the batsmen swapped ends, rather than rearranging the field?

Why is sarcasm the lowest form of wit? Please try again later. The Sydney Morning Herald. August 20, — Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size. Mary Purnell, Revesby Because intellectuals said so, and when were they ever wrong? John Amy, Blakehurst I tend to think that wit is the highest form of sarcasm. Daniel Pericart, Cooranbong.

Ives Sarcasm is said to be a low form of humour as its intent is generally to get laughs at someone else's expense. David Buley, Seaforth Because it is only marginally better than being witless.

Because it is the form commonly employed by politicians. Hugo Stiegl, Dora Creek Sarcasm is scornful, contemptuous and taunting, hence it is rightfully the lowest form of wit. You'd have to be a bloody genius to know that! Linda Forbes, Collaroy Plateau Because it requires very little brain power to be sarcastic? If you have to ask,you wouldn't understand!

Karlheinz Kunkel, Oatley The lowest form of wit is reputedly the pun - or as some wag said, "The bun is the lowest form of wheat". Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie Great question!

Madeline Palmer, Kualal Lumpur Because it is only marginally better than being witless. Why is a broad, expansive mind called "catholic"? Mary Purnell Revesby Because catholic means universal, broad and expansive! Peter Dresser, Coonamble.

Humphrey Charles, Bronte The word "catholic" comes from the Greek "katholikos" meaning universal. Anna Smith, Runcorn, Qld Catholic, the actual word, is unrelated to religion.

Why are tennis players "seeded" rather than "ceded"? Surely the order of importance is a matter of succession, derived from the word "cede"? Joseph Lee, Belfield It derives from the verbal sense of scattering seed, as with cloud-seeding. Chris de Zylva, St Ives Orbital speed and gravity are sucking it towards the earth at 8k per second, a pace requiring far too much fuel and power to resist with puny rocketry.

Fausto Mino, Schofields The shuttle operates at an orbital altitude of nautical miles. Doctors, Kensington It takes enormous energy to get the space shuttle up to a speed of around 16, mph to stay in Earth orbit. Frank Jackson, Watsons Bay What is the origin of the military salute and why is the navy one different to the air force one?

Wayne Steel, Quakers Hill The Air Force salute is made by holding the right hand up to the forehead with the palm of the hand pointing down. Fabian Vassallo, Rhodes There are two theories; one says it was a method of showing that the hand did not contain a weapon when two people met, the hand was raised up to be clearly viewed. Colin Beszant, Moss Vale Back in the medieval era, knights and soldiers wore rather clunky armor, which included a full helmet and face-plate.

Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie Knights in armour raised their visors to reveal their faces upon meeting other knights. Richard Keyes, Enfield All military salutes,i.

David Yule, Sans Souci In days of olde, just before a payre of bolde knights set about thyneselves at the local tourney and jouste, they would face each other and rayse their visors with the right hand, thus confirming that the person within the armour, was indeed who he said he was and not some swarthy knave imposter with exceptional skyll in aiming a lance and wielding a broadsword.

David Cameron, Bathurst There are a couple of theories: one is that it comes from the custom of lifting the visor of the helmet in days of armoured combat to acknowledge friendly intent; another is that the hand is raised to the forehead so that you won't be blinded by the magnificence of the person you're saluting.

Correction In last week's column, an answer submitted by John Frith "Soap works with a chemical and physical action