How to Use Open Sarcasm
No need to purchase or download anything—just type ¡ to make your sarcasm clear.
Platform-specific Instructions
Windows 7 or Vista: Hold down the alt key and press 1, 7, and 3 on your number pad.
Windows XP: Hold down the alt key and press 0, 1, 6, 1 on your number pad.
Language-specific Instructions
In Spanish it’s common to introduce an exclamation or question with an inverted exclamation point or question mark. To adhere to this convention, sarcastic Spanish sentences should begin with an exclamation point and end with an inverted exclamation point. Examples:
- !Gee, that’s [expletive] great¡
- !Well, I can’t wait for Monday¡
Thanks to Comrade Dave for this excellent suggestion.
Automáticamente traducido al español por Google.
En español es común para introducir un signo de exclamación o pregunta con un signo de exclamación o signo de interrogación invertido. Para adherirse a esta convención, sarcástico frases en español debe comenzar con un signo de exclamación y terminan con un signo de exclamación invertido. Ejemplos:
- !Que [expletivo] bueno¡
- !No puedo esperar para el lunes¡
Gracias al compañero Dave para este excelente sugerencia.
Examples
Here are just a few ways that people have used Open Sarcasm to punctuate their sarcastic comments—for free! Leave your own suggestions in the comments.
- The creators of the SarcMark ® are geniuses¡
- Thank god for the SarcMark ®¡
- If only the SarcMark ® had come along sooner¡
- Thanks to the SarcMark ® my life is now complete¡
- The SarcMark ® is really too cheap—I feel like I should’ve paid more for this luxury¡
- Hey, don’t forget to order me a SarcMark ® t-shirt¡
- I can’t wait to tell all my friends about the SarcMark ®¡
Examples from the Twitter:
- Comrade @lowrobb: The next patent approved will be one click shopping and some form of mouse hovers¡
- Us: Sarcastic literary palindrome of the day: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times¡”
- Comrade @cfargis: lovely weather in new york today¡ i am so glad to be home and not in florida anymore¡ #opensarcasm
- Us: #Itsfunnyhow SarcMark thinks you should pay to be sarcastic¡ Use #opensarcasm: The people’s punctuation.
- Comrade @Wecferguson: @OpenSarcasm I hate http://opensarcasm.org¡¡¡ And later: @OpenSarcasm Next time address me as Rev. Dr. Alt173. Prudence demands such¡
- Comrade @Book_Donkey: @OpenSarcasm I absolutely love using the ¡ symbol. Especially when talking politics¡
- Comrade @tundal45: Thanks to @opensarcasm, I can say HootSuite is awesome, especially their ow.ly links¡
- Comrade @benkearney: @rgserena I didn’t know about the sarcasm mark before. Allow me to rephrase: My heart hurts for you too Jake¡
- Comrade @kimshannon: @OpenSarcasm I really wish I’d known about SarcMark® sooner – makes it so much easier to be sure I’m not offending anyone¡
- Comrade @BIGANDER: @OpenSarcasm Didn’t realize I had an alternative, thanks! Much better than paying for sarcasm. Sarcasm, Inc. is so awesome¡ #opensarcasm
- Comrade @urbanbohemian: @OpenSarcasm That just might work, thanks. And nice going on the spelling of @stopthepota’s twitter handle¡
28 Proclamations From the People on How to Use Open Sarcasm
When I press Alt+1 I get: (nothing)
When I press Alt+1(numpad) I get: ?
These instructions were really useful¡
Comrade Our mistake, Comrade Dave, thanks for bringing this to our attention. On a PC, you need to hold down alt and type 1, 7, 3 on your number pad. Instructions updated–punctuate sarcasm to your heart’s content!
[...] Use Open Sarcasm [...]
Comrade thanks for the mac instructions. They were indeed helpful.
Dave, isn’t everything suppose to be easier on a mac¡
Comrade VagabondJimMarch 23, 2010
?Gee, isn’t there something we can do to indicate sarcastic questions¿
Comrade VagabondJim, sarcastic questions should be punctuated as follows:
“Wasn’t that fun?¡”
Comrade If you’re on a laptop with no num pad – take a look and see if you don’t have some letter and number keys with ‘alternate’ numbers on them.
If you do, then Fn+Alt+(alternate)1,7,3 (for me J,7,L) should work!
Comrade I honestly don’t think this will catch on. I’m sorry but you guys are going to have to expect the sarcmark to be relevant in culture because the present version on this site looks too much like an i and is tedious.
[...] the People“. On it you will find more information and history as well as instructions for using the unicode symbol you already have for free. To be honest, I like the upside down punctuation so much better [...]
Comrade Any help for us crackberry users? I used this with my palm, but now how do I?
[...] point, “¡”, frequently seen in Spanish usage, has also been used to indicate sarcasm. Here is a brief usage guide and some examples. I can even use it on my new Droid Eris. « Foreign [...]
Comrade Blackberry users: to get alternate characters, hold down the key and roll the trackball sideways. For the open sarcasm mark, hold down ‘b’ and scroll sideways to get ¡.
That’s for devices like the curve that have trackballs, I don’t know what you do on non-trackball blackberry devices like the Storm.
Comrade concerned citizen¡May 4, 2010
Under what license has ¡ been released?
Comrade Concerned Citizen: There is no license. Anyone may use the sarcasm point to indicate sarcasm in any media, for any reason. We just want to see this free sarcasm punctuation widely adopted.
Comrade Comrade Phil, your instructions were no help at all¡ On a side note, scrolling up and down appears to work as well.
Comrade jasonalexMay 24, 2010
what’s the use of a sarcasm mark if i don’t get to pay for it?¡
which reminds me of a serious question: what is the convention for sarcastic questions?
You used the sarcastic question convention exactly right, Comrade Jason! It’s like this: “Well isn’t that great?¡”
Comrade How about on linux? Also, holding alt then pressing one in my browser seems to flip to a different tab. Any idea how to overcome this behaviour in firefox?
I’ll look into linux when I get some time and post back here when I have a solution.
Glorious and most powerful webmaster, I suggest you add Blackberry to the list of supported systems. Holding B and scrolling with the trackpad/trackball indeed works for a Blackberry with a keyboard. I would be curious to know how you can do it on a Storm.
For Ubuntu (might work in other Debian distros, not sure though) press and hold Ctrl+Shift, then type “u00a1″ then release Ctrl+shift. This will not give you the open sarcasm mark¡
[...] demasiado, o están en contra de pagar por usar un estúpido signo, también pueden usar Open Sarcasm, que vendría a ser algo así como la versión libre y en vez de usar el símbolo pago, usa [...]
Comrade John WilliamsJuly 26, 2010
this is idiotic
Comrade BalzacJuly 26, 2010
I can confirm that:
hold CTRL+SHIFT, press u00a1
works for Ubuntu. Although ¡ looks remarkably like i with many fonts.
Comrade not meant as suchJuly 27, 2010
On some versions of Linux, using Alt-GR (The one on the right side of the spacebar) + 1 will do the trick. Although typing one character with 7 keystrokes (CTRL+SHIFT, press u00a1) is much more linuxish than using only 2¡
Comrade FoamyJuly 27, 2010
I’m using Microsuck Winblows XP Pro SP3.
Pressing alt+0161 displays the “¡” character.
Pressing alt+173 displays the “¡” character.
Clearly there is a need for both Unicode entries to be displayed here as evidenced by the separate codes for XP and Vista/7¡
XP just plain won’t show “¡” if you type in alt+173¡
Your lord and master,
Foamy
[...] al final de una frase, pero, como el propio sitio web de Open Sarcasm se encarga de señalar, en español se puede usar emparejado con un signo de cierre de exclamación, que se usaría para abrir la frase sarcástica: !Vaya invento más bueno esto de la puntuación [...]
Comrade cPT.cAPSLOCKAugust 27, 2010
On windows 7 (and I believe most other windows versions) you can just use control+alt+1 to get the ‘¡’-symbol. I think this is easier than using ALT-codes.
Thanks Comrade cPT.cAPSLOCK!
February 19, 2010