Please read this thread if you are considering tweeting offensive or otherwise problematic things you believe are self-evidently “irony” or “sarcasm”

It will not work. It will not land. It will not matter years later when people see those tweets “out of context.”

This is why.

In the real world, with people who know us, sometimes we might say outrageous things which get big laughs precisely *because* our friends know there is a deliberate comic disconnect between who they know us to be & the wacky edgy statement we just served up with the hot wings.

For example, among my closest female friends, I might say something like “Ha ha women are the worst, am I right?”

And they laugh because they know I am a woman & an outspoken feminist, so the only reason I’d say that to them would be to mock that pervasive cultural assumption

We see people make a lot of trouble for themselves with tweets they claim are clearly ironic.

Some of that is just PR & they really are racist misogynist sacks of crap.

But some of it comes from not understanding how to codeshift between in-group discourse & public discourse.

A lot of people got positive feedback making “edgy” jokes to their friends who know they don’t mean it & are setting up ironic juxtaposition

But on the internet, bitch we don’t know you.

We don’t know the “context” is just supposed to be that you’re a super good dude, acksually

It’s one thing to joke “women are the worst” among my friends in response to whatever sexist bullshit happened to one of us.

If I just tweet “Women are the worst” there is no way at all for anyone to know I’m not serious & referencing some movie or situation. You don’t know me.

And it really, really doesn’t work years down the line when my kid can’t open a can of beans & someone goes through my tweets & finds “women are the worst” sitting there like an old dry turd.

Any context is long opaque. Any irony based on you knowing me is a HUGE assumption.

Every dumbass own-goal tweet gets called satire or irony or out of context.

This does not work on Twitter especially without explicit quote-tweeting, including any context in the tweet, & even then probably sOmE cRaP LiKe ThIs to make double sure

(Or hey just don’t tweet it)

I think part of why it’s often (not always) public figures belonging to certain demographics that get caught with a bunch of “edgy” tweets is that said demographic doesn’t have to code shift as much in real life as others & are accustomed to people assuming their good intent.

They genuinely believe they are so self-evidently a good, funny, moral person that any offensive thing they say will be intrinsically understood to be top comedy.

Their friends always get it. What the internet’s fucking problem?

The Internet’s problem is the context & irony was based on everyone knowing you & knowing how great you are at heart, so any bad thing you say must be ironic by definition.

But it’s just words on a screen, man. There’s no hot new check mark denoting a good person & thus irony.

I notice a lot of these old tweets come from the early 2010s as well—a time when shifting between social interaction IRL & online was still something everyone was working out on their own amid a lot of “the internet isn’t real life” misguided advice.

Ultimately, no one cares if you were being ironic & assuming everyone knew you were super cool so it’s ok.

All they see is your goddamned tweet full of slurs, which you chose to put into the world & slap your name on, & they’re not interested in knowing you at all.

And that’s if you are indeed simply confused about the definitions of “irony” & “satire” & not just a standard internet dickosaurus.

Because I got news for you: there’s no way for us to tell the difference. It’s all the same words & tone as the real thing.

So maybe ask yourself, before you tweet your rad dark edgy joke you think is irony with a rich & clear context:

Is the context just that it’s absurd that anyone would think I actually believe this?

Why do I think the entire goddamned Internet knows & likes me that much?

Perhaps consider that the use of actual fucking slurs means that you are not only putting brutal ugliness into the world for very little purpose & making yourself look indistinguishable from bigots, but that it makes it trivially easy to find the worst things you’ve ever said.

In conclusion, if you post shit you don’t mean we are not your bar buddies & we have no reason to believe you aren’t 100% sincere.

Maybe a bunch of offensive words on their own without commentary isn’t as funny as you think, & your beautiful soul is not public knowledge.

Remember always that even in the perfect utopia where all of us good upstanding citizens got your joke & thought you were the best, the Internet is full of sentient farts who will just think you’re on their side & keep farting up this world until it’s unlivable.

Also, if you’ve made it this far, pour yourself a cup of tea & open your mind to the idea that making fun of women, BIPOC, & LGBT folk is as old as the goddamned asscrack of time & if you aren’t in those groups your joke is probably about as edgy as grandpa stealing your nose.