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I am unable to understand if this phrase is meant to be sarcastic. "I'm glad you're constantly thinking about how to make your life easier :)."

This is made by a higher ranking official in reference to an senior and respected person proposing a solution from someone who is not very favored by him. Hint?: This statement is followed by part embracement of a solution and part differing view, but subtly hinting at complete disagreement. Does the above statement means to be sarcastic?.

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deepz1 k
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  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this isn't a writing question; it's not about how to write something, it's asking us to explain a specific thing a specific person said. – Standback May 17 '16 at 18:13

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There is no proper way to answer this, and here are three reasons I can think of:

  1. We lack the context. Although you do try to offer some context, in the greater scheme of things we would need to know more about the characters, the plot, and the scene
  2. Irony and sarcasm depend a lot on cultural information. What an American considers as ironic, an Indian, Russian, or Vietnamese might not (and vice-versa).
  3. Furthermore, irony and sarcasm also depend on individual readers. One person might see as ironic something someone else does not.

You do ask whether the question is meant to be seen as ironic, implying authorial intention. That's another problem we could be debating on for hours.

If I absolutely had to pick one or the other I'd say 'yes, it feels a bit ironic'. Try the same phrase without the adverb "constantly" and see what happens.

  • HI @DD thanks a lot. ok gotcha what you are saying, to add to it, the solution that the unfavored person presented has the potential to eclipse the solution already presented by the official. Essentially this statement was in a public discussion so he had every reason to resent him. and yes the solution by the author had obvious defects that the other guy pointed out. So your answer i believe would be more correct. – deepz1 k May 13 '16 at 10:30
  • Great response - just one more thing to add: One of the reasons people use sarcasm and irony is to intentionally make the implied put down ambiguous - especially to the person it's directed at. Sarcasm is often used as an inside joke, where a person will use it to make other people laugh at the target of the joke while leaving the target to wonder what just happened. – DoWhileNot May 13 '16 at 15:41
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"irony" and "sarcasm" are not interchangeable words. They are two different techniques. There is no objective method of detecting irony in a short text.

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