Python's Law

Have you ever cracked a joke, assuming that your audience understands that you’re being ironic or sarcastic, only to find out that many (or most) of them took the joke literally?

This happens so often on the internet that there’s a term we use to describe it: Poe’s Law. The idea is that without a clear indicator of the author's intent, it is difficult or impossible to distinguish an extreme parody from a sincere expression of the parodied views.

That’s why people like to ruin jokes nowadays with little emojis, letting you know they’re just kidding, or that you’re supposed to laugh at the joke.

I’m only half-kidding about ruining the joke, by the way. If you tell someone who doesn’t already understand that you’re being ironic, that really helps them out: it lets them know you’re just kidding and making a different point. By contrast, for someone who already understands that you’re probably joking, a juvenile emoji letting them know to laugh is…

Well, it’s like having a laugh track on a s…