Ask McFartnuggets: “How Can You Show Sarcasm With Sign Language?”

Dear McFartnuggets: 

How do deaf people who speak sign language detect sarcasm when they’re talking to each other? When you see sign language interpreters at press conferences they’re always pulling all sorts of funny and weird cartoonish faces and that’s just when they’re saying normal serious things from an official during a serious emergency. How then can they communicate sarcasm? Is it even possible to use sarcasm with sign language? -- Nicola from San Fran, California

Dear Nicola:

Of course you can use sarcasm in sign language! The differently audial have just the same communicational capabilities as usual hearing people. Some might use different faces or different accents on their hand signs. However, I think the classic jerk off hand gesture would work pretty well. If someone hearing impaired says “Oh yeah, Jeff is a real hard worker!” in sign language then follows that with the jack off hand movement and a roll of the eyes then it’s pretty obvious they’re being sarcastic about what they just said. You don’t even need to know sign language to figure that out. That’s actually more effective than normal verbal sarcasm. Some people can still misinterpret verbal sarcasm, but the jerk off hand gesture is unmistakable.

This must be the international symbol for jerking off Zeus.

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