The current adjective being used to describe me is “mean”. I get that from my friends in my literature course, my professors in my literature course, the officials in the organization I’m in, and even the girls I’ve had crushes on so it’s not really odd for people to call me mean.
I could remember one of the meanest times I had was in the TomasinoWeb organization room when I totally unleashed joke after joke to my org-mate named Alyssa (pronounced “Eliza” apparently). And for some reason, her reactions are totally hilarious and just add fuel to the fire. It’s really awesome when she whines like a cute little girl (only not cute. HAHA! I’m kidding). It’s actually simple to be mean to her. When she’s with her friends, I could simply say “Hi girls. …Alyssa”, which really makes her seem like a new gender. It’s hilarious and then she calls me mean for some reason (stating the obvious, really). My god, looking back at that paragraph, I actually do sound mean. Oh well.
It’s alright to be mean as long as you’re hilarious in doing it. Well, not really alright, since you’re being a bad guy and all. But still, being mean is just throwing jokes at someone as if you’re like being friendly with them. It’s a form of communication mixed with humor at the expense of your friend and even yourself. Why? ‘Cause it’s fun!
My big tool for pulling off this meanness act is sarcasm. People who can’t detect sarcasm are the ones whose minds are on a dial-up connection while everyone else is on DSL. The problem is not your jokes but rather the people you’re directing them to. A good joke is only good by the reaction it gets. It’s like this: If a joke is told and no one is there to laugh at it, is it funny?
Use sarcasm when it’s appropriate and on a person who would actually understand that you’re being sarcastic. An example is how I made my friend Miho Octobergloom (that’s her nickname) laugh a few months ago. Since she was an exemplary writer and a member of the Thomasian Writers Guild or TWG (“TweeGee” as it’s pronounced), I would often joke with her and scoff “Oh look, Tweegee girl’s here. Ugh! I gotta get out of here!” But for all intents and purposes, I did that to make her laugh and thankfully, she did. Had she not understood the joking sarcasm, she would have been angry and hit me with a chair or something.
Sarcasm is a hard thing to master because you need to time it. It should only be used at the right time with the right audience who you know would actually get your sarcastic jokes. Your classmate makes a joke? A good time to use sarcasm. Your classmate opens up to you seriously? Bad time to be sarcastic. At a funeral? Really bad time. Being held up by a mugger? Really, really bad time. (Dude, why would you be sarcastic when you’re being held up?! That’s just stupid, man!)
If you master sarcasm or at least good with it and know how to use it, you’ll be ultimately mean. All you need now is the material or the fuel to add to your flaming desire to mock somebody.
If you master sarcasm or at least good with it and know how to use it, you’ll be ultimately mean. All you need now is the material or the fuel to add to your flaming desire to mock somebody.