Someone is actually studying sarcasm, and figuring out where in the brain the ability to cope with it resides:
There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin's study of sarcasm -- at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrusWhat you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking.
So, in fact, then, people who are sarcastic are more emotionally sensitive and more socially adept than others, not, as might have been supposed, the opposite.
Oops, nope, it's just about recognizing sarcasm, not necessarily producing it:
So is it possible that Jon Stewart, who wields sarcasm like a machete on "The Daily Show," has an unusually large right parahippocampal gyrus?"His is probably just normal," Dr. Rankin said. "The right parahippocampal gyrus is involved in detecting sarcasm, not being sarcastic."
But, she quickly added, "I bet Jon Stewart has a huge right frontal lobe; that's where the sense of humor is detected on M.R.I."
Ooo, baby. We gals love a huge right frontal lobe, don't we?
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