As you might have understood by now, the online sarcasm community is pretty big. No doubt there might be some overlap there among the various followings, but you have a good dozen or so pages that all revolve around sarcasm or similar forms of humor.

Well, r/sarcasm is one of them.

r/sarcasm is one of the few Reddit communities that are purely dedicated to the linguistic art. It’s also by proxy the biggest one, having a membership of 34,700 people.

The community was officially created pretty early in Reddit’s life—back in 2008, and since then other related communities have also popped up, namely r/DangerousSarcasm and r/LearnSarcasm.

Sarcasm is widely used for a number of reasons, seemingly mostly as a form of humor or criticism. Or maybe even humor and criticism.

But it could also be a way that someone hides their insecurities, expresses their anger, deals with social awkwardness and even asserts superiority through mocking.

Because sarcasm isn’t for everyone, the use of it can lead to mental health issues like rocky relationship dynamics, sabotaging any potential for emotional intimacy and embedding communication breakdowns.

Think of Chandler from Friends. Yeah, that level of dysfunctional.

It goes without saying that if sarcasm is becoming a problem, you should either tone it down, or stop using it altogether. Honestly, why would you, it’s amazing, but [sigh] it’s for the greater good.

Turn those sarcastic remarks to honest, respectful, and clear communication without it being at someone else’s expense. Folks would also trust you more.

It also helps to reflect upon your behavior. Ponder why you use sarcasm in the first place and tackle that.

Do you feel angry? Do you feel insecure? Do you feel vulnerable? Work on those issues and find healthier ways to communicate past that.

Another aspect to focus on is practicing empathy. Empathy is essentially putting yourself in other people’s shoes. By doing so, you will understand how hurtful some of the things you say might be.

Oddly enough, folks with higher levels of empathy are better equipped to identify sarcasm and get on the same level, again showing that sarcasm isn’t for everyone, so don’t force it on everyone.

In turn, it helps to know your audience and understand where sarcasm is appropriate. But besides individual people, there’s also a whole cultural aspect to consider as some cultures are more accepting of it while others not so much.

Let alone, not every culture uses sarcasm in the same way and there can also be differences seen in terms of gender and social status.

Or, screw that, sarcasm’s good for the soul and good for your brain.

If you can identify sarcasm in action, that is a key indicator that your brain is in good standing. And besides that, you can use it to filter out people in your life—people you might not want to be in your life, that is. Or, the other way around, folks who know you might interpret your sarcasm as a way to laugh it off and de-escalate a conflict.