Expert: Tom - 11/6/2009

Question
I have one question? How does a person develop their sarcastic wit?  

Answer
Chris --

This is an interesting question, because I think that, for most people, sarcasm doesn't require a lot of brainpower. You do need to have reasonable powers of observation. For example, if you look at a friend's class schedule and notice that it includes several courses with a reputation for being easy [there's the observation], you can then comment, sarcastically, "Oh, *that's* going to be a tough semester! Are you sure you can handle it?"

For stand-up comedy, I think the risk with sarcasm is that too much of it can be overwhelming, tiresome, and annoying to the audience. Part of this is because we already hear a lot of sarcasm in everyday life, but part of it is because it's so easy to target just about anything or anybody with sarcasm that it can seem very harsh and unfair. Life is full of contradictions and oddities that can be the object of sarcasm, and all of us have aspects of our own selves which could be unfairly mocked with sarcasm.

So, I think you can develop your sarcastic wit by developing your powers of observation, but you also ought to consider carefully if that's really what you want to do.

I hope these ideas help!

-- Tom