Taking Sides: Sarcasm vs Bog-Standard Taking the Piss

I like being sarcastic.

You don't say.

I think sarcasm shows that they have at least taken some thought over it. Doesn't mean it hurts any less than the other kind, but sarcasm seems to use more humour and more intelligence.

Kate, are you sure? Sarcasm can sometimes be very terse and not involve much thought at all, like the guy in my office who, if he wasn't particularly interested in what I had to say, would say sarcastically "that's interesting". This really annoyed me, he could of changed the subject, or said "I'm a bit busy at the mo, can we discuss this some other time" (even if he wasn't busy), but no, he would adopt THAT tone and - oh, I don't know why these things hack me off more in an office environment but they do! It might be just the old "You can choose yr friends but can't choose yr colleagues" thing.

Sometimes I would counter this by pretending that I didn't realise that he WAS being sarcastic and talk about whatever it was in MORE detail. This may've been what finally stopped him saying it actually.

I am not sure whether I would love or hate to have Mark in my office.

are you being...?

Sarcasm, but the kind of sarcasm that is undetectable. Taking the piss assumes a lot of familiarity, and is generally more mean, I think.

I prefer straight-up dissing because I can respond immediately in kind and get over it. Sarcasm is such a floating time-release balance thing where you're hurt but you aren't sure if you should retaliate because they'll just say you're taking it too seriously or they weren't even being sarcastic or maybe they WEREN'T being sarcastic etc etc etc and if a person thinks they're hot shit for being "caustic" or something and they pull it off poorly, I will take my time for revenge and it'll be completely out of proportion and painful. It's probably a lot easier to punch me in the face, to be honest.