Getting On My Grammatical Nerves
Okay, okay, let us use this as a teaching moment.
Hyperbole: deliberate extreme exaggeration or overstatement.
Sarcasm: a sharp form of humor, intended to hurt, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one’s intended meaning.
When the Leader of the Republican Party said that Barack Obama is the founder of Isis, he was not being sarcastic because (1) it was not humorous, and (2) he did not mean the exact opposite.
He was also not using sarcasm because he said he wasn’t.
There is also Satire, which is Hyperbole and Sarcasm with an advanced degree. Donald Trump would not recognize it if it bit him on the butt.
There, I feel better.
JJ, sweetie, it’s an old rule: If you have to explain it, then it’s not. Sarcasm… satire… a joke… if you’re doing it right no explanation is needed. Someone’s not doing it right.
(Yeah, Donnie, I’m lookin’ at you!)
1JAKvirginia reminds me of the aggrieved actress who announced in the middle of a hotel lobby, “I am a BIG STAR!”, leading a bellboy to mutter, “If you gotta tell ’em, you ain’t.”
And Trump isn’t doing anything right, at least not from the semi-rational GOP columnists’ viewpoints.
Speaking of Virginia, I just want to wedge this in: as of last night, Maryland had 9 gold medals in Rio, more than the rest of the US combined or any other country except China. Thanks to our record-breaking swimmers, Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, who aren’t done yet!
2Thank you, JJ, for pointing out that no matter how you look at it, Drump’s statement wasn’t satire. After I heard media reporting his “it was satire” bit, I looked up “satire” in the dictionary, just to be sure I wasn’t crazy to think it means the opposite of what one says. As we keep saying, words have meaning!
3Dumbo Donnie tries to backpedal every ignorant thing he says into either A Joke or It Was Sarcasm. None of his ignorant spewing is, was, nor ever will be!!
Intelligent people can figure it all out pretty quickly!!
4I just wish the MSM would give Ms. Clinton the same amount of on-air minutes for her statements as they give to that Cheeto-faced Twatwaffle.
5@JAK
If only a whole generation of celebrity speakers could just learn THAT!
6Whaddaya mean sarcasm, satire, a joke? Hellspitandamn! The guy was hallucinating! And in public! Next question: so where were the guys with the nets and the rubber sweaters? You know, his keepers!
7Please do not forget his favorite technique…..innuendo. He uses it often and with apparently good effect. “People are saying….”. “I have heard….” there are lots of examples. He is fond of “I did not say that, I said other people are”.
Then of course there is the bald faced lie, he does that daily.
8If it bit him on the butt? Did you really have to evoke that image.
Note that at least anyone who did do anything in the vicinity of Trump’s butt would not be a brown-nose. It would be orange.
9John Scalzi dissects jokes and humor and how there’s no such thing as “just a joke”. It’s a bit longish but does a good job of inverting the pyramid so the good stuff is at the beginning.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/08/10/trump-and-his-jokes-and-you/
10Naturally, when the Rape-Public-CON’s nominut for Presidunce said he was just being sarcastic, he was just being sarcastic. Ironically enough.
😉
“Some people have a way with words, others… not have way.” – Steve Martin
Keep America Great Again!
11Clinton/Kaine 2016
Thanks so much for covering this subject. This pompous jerk who is “so smart” according to his own definition, exhibits a lot of similarities to a condition becoming more well known. If I were qualified in some sort of actual psychiatric/medical way, I’d say he has some sort of condition bordering on or exhibiting as Asberger’s.
12That’s his new go-to excuse for stupidity, bigotry and general cluelessness about governing. The Joker never means what he says, unless he really does.
13Broomhilda, if I was qualified, I would rule out Asberger’s. But my information is anecdotal only. With proper medication and counseling, like a neighborhood friend from my youth, we’re talking about generally sweet people who are harmless and completely functional. Not descriptions that fit Donnie.
Maybe Donnie did have Asberger’s as a youth, but between bouts of neglect and over indulgence, he is what he is today, less sane than Ted Bundy. And, more dangerous than any Bush.
14Trump is an unintelligent, nincompop. He can’t even put a decent declarative sentence together.
15I’m not a clinician of any kind, but I don’t think that Asperger’s is characterized by grandiosity, overweening narcissism, and pathological lying. As I’ve heard it described, it’s Borderline Personality Disorder. Not to mention, the man’s as distractible as a gnat, which would be ADHD.
16Yeah, he meant every word. The slime he lives in is becoming highly oderiferous.
17@DonA–thank you for the John Scalzi link! I recently read ‘Old Man’s War’ and really enjoyed it. I did not know he had a blog. As far as The Donald’s comment–no, not funny, not satire, not even sane. He needs to lose and lose BIG.
18Trump’s own voting base as a focus group for Trump political ads….makes me grateful I’m aging out of this dimension rather than being young and facing decades more.
These are real people who really vote watching fake political ads…fear is learned behavior…a Thesaurus doesn’t have the word to describe the terror these people inspire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MubunsD-7g
Plagiarizing another viewer: “Put one more Trump supporter in that room and you would have had a critical mass of stupid and the whole place woulda’ gone up in a Cheeto dust-tinted mushroom cloud.”
19OMG Susan! My brain almost imploded following that link. It’s hard to believe no one said, at any time, “No, that’s just too stupid.” I had to take a couple aceto. Be warned, fellow beauty shop denizens! Follow Susan’s link at your own risk.
(Susan, prepare a waiver for signing just to protect your ass—ets.)
20Definitely not Asperger’s. My son is an Aspie. Folks on the Autism spectrum generally have a hard time lying because they are concrete thinkers. If they do lie, they usually do it badly. They also usually have difficulties reading social situations. Whatever you think of Trump, he can read a crowd.
People who have learning disabilies or ADHD or similiar issues when they are young frequently do learn to work the room and do things to distract from the problems they are having. I would also point out that Special Education wasn’t a right when DJT was a kid.
21