An Idiot’s Guide to Mobile Sarcasm (Seriously)

People who repeat Oscar Wilde’s “sarcasm is the lowest form of wit” quote seem to forget the second half of that sentence, which concludes, “but the highest form of intelligence.” Which is to say, if you have no facility with the fine art of sarcasm, then you haven’t done too much thinking. The greatest pleasure in being sarcastic is dropping it on unsuspecting others, or being the victim of it and respecting its genius. Enter texting and other digital communications, which have made sarcasm increasingly difficult for people to read. That's where the new iOS app, Sarcas-o-meter, comes in.

Created by designer Andrew Herzog, Sarcas-O-meter distills 25 years of “field research” on the subject of sarcasm into an app that does the intellectual work for you. And, he claims, “You will probably never not understand sarcasm again.”

“Our spoken language is riddled with subtle nuances and intricacies, often missed by the human ear,” Herzog explains. “With the Sarcas-o-meter, you will probably never not understand sarcasm again. Using an algorithm, the Sarcas-o-meter generates a number that may or may not be related to the percentage of sarcasm found in a user’s voice. It's potentially never wrong.” Which means you're always right. Potentially.

Click here to download Sarcas-o-meter, and here to see more work by Andrew Herzog.

Related:

A New App Illuminates the Hidden Histories of Everyday Places

Now You Can Sketch Musical Ideas on Interactive Sheet Music

Your Eyes Make Music with This Face-Tracking Production App