Irony Punctuation - Other Typography

Other Typography

Rhetorical questions in some informal situations can use a bracketed question mark, e.g. "Oh, really"--The equivalent for an ironic or sarcastic statement would be a bracketed exclamation mark, e.g. "Oh, really". Subtitles, such as in Teletext, sometimes use an exclamation mark within brackets or parentheses to mark sarcasm: (!). Likewise, Karl Marx uses the exclamation mark within brackets repeatedly throughout Das Kapital, Volume 1. For example, in one instance, to ridicule Colonel Torrens:

The problem is in no way simplified if extraneous matters are smuggled in, as with Colonel Torrens: "effectual demand consists in the power and inclination , on the part of the consumers, to give for commodities, either by immediate or circuitous barter...".

The question mark can also be used as a "meta" sign to signal uncertainty regarding what precedes. It is usually put between parentheses . The uncertainty may concern either a superficial aspect of the text (such as unsure spelling) or a deeper level of meaning.

It is common in online conversation among computer specialists to use a pseudo-HTML element: . Many times, the opening tag is omitted, due to the HTML tagging often being an afterthought. Similarly, and common in social-news-based sites, is a single /s placed at the end of a comment to indicate a sarcastic tone for the preceding text. "Rolling eyes" and ":P" emoticons are often used as well, particularly in instant messaging, while a Twitter-style hashtag, #sarcasm, is also gaining currency.

Emoticons can also be used in text, most often in informal writing, to denote sarcasm.

Some people have attempted to augment this emotional gap in the English language through the creation of a "SarcMark."

In some internet forums, green text is used to signify irony.