June 20, 2008

Sarcasm: An Evolutionary Survival Skill

Neurophysiologist Katherine Rankin at the University of California, San Francisco, has recently discovered that sarcasm, which is both positively funny and negatively nasty, plays an important part in human social interaction.

So what?

I mean really, who cares? Oh for God's sake. Don't you have anything better to do than read this column?

According to Dr. Rankin, if you didn't get the sarcastic tone of the previous sentences you must have some damage to your parahippocampal gyrus which is located in the right brain. People with dementia, or head injuries in that area, often lose the ability to pick up on sarcasm, and so they don't respond in a socially appropriate way.
So there you have it. If you do not appreciate my sarcasm, then please go develop your parahippocampal gyrus. Nyahaha! (don't you just absolutely love Urban Dictionary?)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, sometimes I do.

Nas said...

i suddenly feel incredibly normal :D