Have you heard about those murder hornets? What a perfect addition to 2020, right?

If you're like most people, you know that I was just being sarcastic.

And sarcastic people can be really funny.

But when their barbs are pointed at you, they can be really annoying or even hurtful.

Welcome back to savvy psychologist.

I'm your host, Dr. Jade Wu,

and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges

with evidence-based research,

a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. Today we talk about the psychology of

sarcasm, including how to deal with people who use it to be mean. Sarcasm is like jazz.

It's hard to define, but you know it when you hear it.

And that's because sarcasm, which is used to convey the opposite of the literal word spoken is primarily communicated by a person's

tone of voice. You can tell a speaker's tone that, well, that's exactly what I need

right now, means I sure wish this wasn't happening.

Sarcasm can be used to compliment people like you ran a marathon and went to night school,

slacker, or to make a good nature tease. Would you like some ice cream with your

sprinkles? It can be self-deprecating. It's a complete mystery why my high school mullet and I didn't get more dates or someone might even channel Beyonce.

Yeah, I woke up like this.

More often though, sarcasm is used to demonstrate irritation or just to be plain old mean.

Like, yeah, that's a real genius idea. Or maybe, could you be less competent?

Before we talk about how to respond when you're the target of someone's mean

sarcasm, let's get a little nerdy first about the science of sarcasm.

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