Seriously Joking

A friend of mine, who has a rather perverse sense of humor, posted something over my precious Facebook wall. If you know me, precious is an understatement for the wonderful reality that is Facebook. I like his humor. His penchant for shenanigans is only matched by his affinity for theology, and possibly his musical virtuosity. This is a dear, yet peculiar, brother.

This was premeditated shenanigans.

Getting around this friend is a bit tricky, if you don't know him. He can rub you the wrong way and he probably doesn't care. With the internet and all, it is much harder to decipher his "tone". More than his tone, you cannot see his typically annoying grin when he makes quips like these.

Some observations and reflections about this:
* There are people who suggest that I make a serious reply to this brother's joke. I would possibly come to these good folks and friends as defending myself (because I care about my precious identity), but this got me thinking about confused communication expectations. No one reads the comics section of the daily newspaper and expect to find reliable information. You go there to ease your mind with some humor. One could not simply take a joke seriously, unless they fly over your head. The only exception is having quick enough reflexes to not have things fly off your head.

* Connected to the first one, anyone who's been to the Internet for quite sometime has possibly had his brushes with petty online quarrels. Go to any YouTube channel and you will find someone arguing that someone else is wrong. Go to a prominent celebrity's social media and you'd find people either gushing or hating said celebrity. If I were to put my finger in the problem, it would be that we've lost the art of determining the context.

* With a usually lazy effort to determine the context, it's become difficult to joke around in the Internet. There are people who have convinced themselves to be tone policemen and -women. No possible amount of explanation would convince them that humor, sarcasm and satire exists. Or that these have their proper uses in discourse. Toleration might be the highest of this age's virtues, but no one tolerates sarcasm. I sometimes take delight in reading fights in FB and YouTube comments sections. Sarcasm thrives in such. It might surprise(!) some that God used sarcasm because some occasions call for it (Isaiah 44:12-20).

* I know this brother well enough to be certain that his post gives him some perverse pleasure. We were chatting when the idea for his post came to his mind. The wordplay and misquoting of scripture (for snarky purposes) is far too rich an opportunity for him to give up. That or he really likes me to get married soon. But I am convinced that I do know him, and that he was joking. Then again, have I misread this joke, I mean, his subtle nudge into the matrimony direction? Oh no.