Introducing the Irony Mark

Despite the less than positive comments for the Interrobang, I would like to advocate for more sentence-end punctuation options. I spend a lot of time communicating in writing with email and IM, and wish I had more options for expression. Take the following example:

Friend: Britney is planning to have another baby to save her marriage with KFed.
Me: God Bless America

What is the proper punctuation mark for my response? A period might be appropriate if I thought it was a good idea to rely on a baby to resolve marital difficulties, and an exclamation mark if I was feeling enthusiastic about it. A question mark might be appropriate if I had no opinion on the matter. Even the interrobang isn’t right here, I need something far more sarcastic.

I need a mark that clearly conveys the ridiculousness of such a plan. Without it, my intentions may be misread by a reader who doesn’t know me well. I’m not the first to advocate for an irony mark. Such a mark has already been invented as a backwards question mark. Unfortunately the irony mark does not appear in the ClearType font collection.

I foresee a future where I exclusively use the irony mark for punctuation

Kevin Larson

 

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