Sarcasm Blind / Live-Action TV

Sarcasm-Blind characters in Live-Action TV series.

---

• The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon Cooper.
  • Leonard even made a sarcasm sign in an early episode. And Sheldon keeps track of how many times he correctly understands sarcasm.
  • Once, when Howard made a sarcastic comment, Sheldon asked "Was that sarcasm?", and Howard sarcastically replied "No!" — which, of course, Sheldon failed to recognize the sarcasm of.
  • In at least one episode, this is inverted: Sheldon takes something as sarcastic when it isn't. This can be Truth in Television to some extent if you can't recognize sarcasm and you're used to looking for it everywhere.
  • Over the course of several seasons, Sheldon has eventually learned to recognise sarcasm.
    Sheldon: Leonard, I believe what we just heard from Penny was sarcasm. (Penny nods) Oh, good. I'm eight for 26 this month.
  • ...but not always.
    Sheldon: I zinged him with sarcasm, he didn't even notice.
    Leonard: I know, and it was the greatest sarcastic quip I've ever heard.
    Sheldon: Well, aren't you a peach.
• Virtually everyone in Blackadder except the title character takes turns at failing to understand his sarcasm, especially in the fourth series. This is lampshaded once in the third series.
  Blackadder: Baldrick, do you have any idea what irony is?
  Baldrick: Yeah. It's like goldey and bronzey, only it's made of iron.
• Boardwalk Empire:
  • Deputy Halloran. when he marvels at the existence of a "lady lawyer," she deadpans "What next, horseless carriages?", prompting his response "They already got those." On another occasion, while helping dispose of a body, he asks whose it is and is sarcastically told it's silent film star Mary Pickford, leading to the shocked response "You killed Mary Pickford?!"
  • When Sigrid nags Nelson again about the plumbing, he angrily claims that he got the president of the Roebuck company to personally send a crack team of men to fix the problem. She believes him, forcing to him to state that it was sarcasm and storm out.
• Dr. Temperance Brennan, title protagonist of Bones, often fails to understand sarcasm at first (if at all) and usually must use logical deduction (out loud) to detect it. Much to the bemusement of her partner.
• The Brittas Empire: Mr. Gordon Brittas not only fails to understand sarcasm, but anything at all that's subtler than coming out and speaking your mind. Cue Cringe Comedy.
  Laura: You see, we were all standing outside the ambulance waving goodbye to Mr. Petrov, and Mr. Brittas was saying "Where are we going to find an internationally famous pianist in the next half hour?" and I said, "Hey kids, why don't we do the show ourselves?"
  Helen: Oh, you didn't...
  Laura: I just never thought.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow Rosenberg. "Cibo Matto can clog dance!?"
• The Class (2006) had this with Yonk Allen. Richie had all kinds of fun with it.
• The elderly Ernie "Coach" Pantusso, bartender at Cheers, made a lot of dimwit comments after taking sarcasm too literally. His future replacement Woody Boyd, a farmboy from Indiana, was probably even worse at it.
• A Running Gag in El Chavo del ocho comes from the characters' inability to understand sarcasm, particularly El Chavo and Quico who are the most prone to this.
• In Community, Abed's inability to understand being "messed with" drives his and Troy's subplot for an episode. Lampshaded:
  Abed: Troy invented rap music, and he's related to Danny Glover, and President Obama.
  Troy: Hey man, that stuff I said this morning wasn't true, I was just messing with you.
  Abed: You were lying?
  Troy: Yeah, as a joke. You've never had somebody mess with you before?
  Abed: Yes, just kidding, no. Like that?... This isn't a table. (laughs) ... That's funny.
  • Abed uses sarcasm in another episode, but the group fails to recognize it because it wasn't said in a sarcastic tone of voice. Abed then calls himself on that, ending (in a very sarcastic voice), "Sarcasm is soooooo interesting."
• Wanda from Corner Gas has the opposite problem in the episode "Dog River Dave". Because she's sarcastic almost all the time, other characters keep assuming her sincere comments are just more sarcasm.
• Bennett Halverson, the programmer played by Summer Glau on Dollhouse, shows signs of this as part of a general Rainman vibe, as evidenced by an exchange with Adelle.
  Bennett: You used the company jet to abduct the programmer of a rival house?
  Adelle: I'm certain I'll be kicking myself come holiday bonus time.
  Bennett: I'm sure you'll be dead by then.
• A sort of secondhand example in sketch show The Edge— Alan Ruck's character sarcastically confesses to a brutal murder while on the stand in court. Since the audience are laughing at his sarcastic rant, and he hasn't been heard properly, the judge asks the stenographer to read back the last statement, which she does without the sarcastic tone; as such, the confession is taken as genuine.
• In Father Ted, when Mrs Doyle encounters Father Jessup, "the most sarcastic priest in Ireland";
  Mrs. Doyle: Shall I make the beds in the spare room?
  Father Jessup: No, we'll sleep outside, in a ditch!
  Mrs. Doyle: OK so... would you like a cup of tea?
  Father Jessup: No, We want to die of thirst.
  Mrs. Doyle: (baffled) OK so...
  Father Ted: (quietly) Mrs. Doyle, I think Father Jessup might have been being a bit... sarcastic...
  Mrs. Doyle: Really? Were you being sarcastic, Father Jessup?
  Father Jessup: No, we'd like to die of thirst!
  Father Ted: (quietly) Mrs. Doyle, I know it's a bit confusing, but the trick is to do the opposite of what Father Jessup says.
  Mrs. Doyle: (very uncertain) So, you really... do... want a cup of tea?
  Father Jessup: (exasperated) Yes! (reaches out for the cup)
  Mrs. Doyle: (takes the cup away, looking very pleased with herself)
• On The Golden Girls, Dorothy is a Deadpan Snarker extraordinaire, while Rose is a ditzy Cloudcuckoolander. Since this is something akin to an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, the writers will usually split the difference and have Rose understand that Dorothy is being sarcastic about half the time. Example: Sophia was telling her friends a friend of hers passed away.
  Rose: How did she die?
  Sophia: She was fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico. She was 88!
  Rose: Well, at least she was able to work right up until the end.
• Horatio Hornblower: Horatio Hornblower sort of inhabits a World of Snark. The resident Deadpan Snarkers do not exchange sneering comments with each other, but they are paired with poor Sarcasm Blind Horatio, who is a genius at everything else, but irony, jokes, and the like usually escape him. However, his close friend Archie's smartass comments are likely to bring about one of his rare and most attractive smiles. An example from "Retribution", involving the hero and a snarky captain at the Lieutenants' trial which investigates a possible mutiny aboard their ship commanded by a crazy Captain.
  Captain Collins: (in sarcasm mode) A happy day for James Sawyer when you four gentlemen came aboard.
  Horatio: (completely honest) Thank you, sir.
  Captain Hammond a.k.a. Hanging Judge: (smirks and laughs out loud)
• In the House episode "Family Practice", the Patient of the Week is Cuddy's mother, played by Candice Bergen. After going through the usual incorrect diagnoses of what's wrong with her (her hypochondria didn't exactly help things much), House makes a blatantly sarcastic remark about how much he loves a certain famous baseball player, then asks her if he really meant what he just said. Her inability to detect his sarcasm confirms his suspicions, allowing him and his team to proceed finally in the right direction.
• Ted from How I Met Your Mother has this problem.
  • In "I Heart NJ", Ted is surprised that Stella expects them to live in New Jersey after they get married, after Ted thought she agreed that they would live in New York. A flashback shows that she made a sarcastic remark about living in New York, which Ted failed to see as sarcasm.
  • In "Mom and Dad", Ted is suspecting many people who may have covered the picture of Wayne Gretzky (which Barney planned on giving to Robin) in ink. When he tells Lily about who he narrowed it down to, he gets this response:
    Lily: (sarcastically) Right, 'cause an elaborate conspiracy is much more likely than you leaving the picture next to an open ink bottle.
    Ted: Thank you.
    Lily: You can't even detect sarcasm!
• Inverted in a Kids in the Hall sketch with a character with a speech defect causing him to always speak sarcastically, no one believes he is not sarcastic.
• Leverage's Parker. Too many to count in every episode.
• M*A*S*H— when Radar O'Reilly is leaving the unit, he tells Major Winchester that he's welcome at his Iowa home for dinner anytime. Winchester snarks that he'll anticipate "the dinner bell a-clangin'". Radar replies that he'll be looking forward to it too, and Winchester is genuinely touched at his guileless good nature.
• In one episode of Modern Family, Haley asks whether her boyfriend Dylan can stay at their house, and Claire sarcastically responds that he can take her and Phil's room. Alex has to explain the sarcasm to Haley.
• In Monty Python's Flying Circus, Mr Pither in the episode "The Cycling Tour":
  Cafe Proprietor: 35 p please.
  Mr Pither: Ah... oh, I have only a fifty. You have change?
  Cafe Proprietor: Well, I'll have a look, but I may have to go to the bank.
  Mr Pither: I'm most awfully sorry.
• A Mr. Show sketch has a man who expresses constant, venomous sarcasm... through letter writing. Given the obvious lack of cues towards his sarcasm as a result, everyone tends to take him at face value (including one poor woman who receives a "love" letter from him).
• The Muppet Show: One skit in the Mac Davis episode consists of Davis making fun of Link Hogthrob's ego for four minutes, including a performance of "Hard to Be Humble", with Link totally failing to recognise the sarcasm and parsing the mockery as sincere praise.
  Davis: Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble / When you're perfect in every way...
  Link: You too?
• In an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mike is put on trial for all those planets he blew up by an omnipotent alien judge. The judge offers Mike the chance to choose who he wants as the prosecutor and defense; both times he lists two famous historical figures plus one of the Mads ("Your choices are Thomas Jefferson, Clarence Darrow, and Professor Bobo.") When Mike snarks "Yeah sure, like I'd choose Bobo", the judge takes him seriously. After doing the exact same thing to make Pearl the prosecutor even Mike himself comments that he clearly doesn't learn very quickly.
• Odd Squad:
  • Olive, of all people, gets a moment in "Bad Luck Bears".
    Oprah: I have an idea. Let's all stop working, and talk about how much you love the Bears.
    Olive: Really?!
    Oprah: NO!! We have a case to solve!
  • In "No Ifs, Ands or Robots", Oscar explains how to shut off Oscarbot 10. Surprisingly, it's not resident Deadpan Snarker Olive that gives out the sarcasm— it's Otto.
    Oscar: There are three switches: two on his ears and one on his neck. But you need to hit them at the exact same time, or it won't work.
    Otto: You could've made it a little bit more complicated.
    Oscar: Sure I could have! I mean I could have a— [catches himself] Right, you weren't actually asking that.
    Otto: No.
  • Due to his lack of social skills, things like insults and sarcasm tend to fly over Otis's head a lot, especially early on in Season 2. One example is from "High Maintenance".
    Obby: I suppose I can get my magic tool which fixes this door in five seconds.
    Otis: Sounds amazing!
    [cue Disapproving Looks from O'Mary and Obby]
    Otis: That tool doesn't exist, does it?
    O'Mary and Obby: Nope.
  • In "The Cherry-on-Top-inator", following Olympia's and Otis's musical story about how they stopped the Puppy Master and Evil Knight using the Cherry-on-Top-inator (in a manner that's not its intended use), Oona sarcastically thanks them for making her decision clear. Not only does Otis take her comment at face value, but so does Olympia, and they begin panicking when the Scientist whips out her mallet again to smash the titular gadget to pieces.
• The Office (UK)— Gareth is as clueless here as everywhere, notably when Lee gives Tim a wrapped gift that is obviously a bottle:
  Gareth: Probably a bottle of something.
  Tim: You reckon?
  Gareth: Look at the shape.
• Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks' snark occasionally backfires when she aims it as Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton or Stretch and Bones Snodgrass. Mr. Boynton's so Oblivious to Love that sarcasm has a habit of sliding right off him. Walter Denton occasionally mistakes the sarcastic for the serious. As for the Snodgrasses, it's unlikely they even know what sarcasm is.
• Subverted with Chris Trager on Parks and Recreation. Due to his extremely positive, upbeat personality, one would expect that he wouldn't understand sarcasm. He does understand and recognize sarcasm, he just ignores it because he believes there is a kernel of truth in it.
• Power Rangers Zeo: Inverted in "King for a Day: Part 2". Bulk and Skull helped destroy the forcefield preventing the Rangers from escaping Prince Gasket. No one believes their story - except the actual Rangers, whose praise they interpret as sarcasm.
  Kat: I'm sure wherever they are, they're really grateful for your help.
  Tommy: I bet if they were here right now, they'd really wanna thank you guys.
  Bulk: Oh, cut the sarcasm, will ya?
  Skull: Yeah! These guys obviously don't believe us, either.
• Pretty Little Liars: When you tell Hanna she has the subtlety of a hand grenade, she's actually delighted to hear it!
• Saturday Night Live:
  • In a sketch when Kevin Spacey hosted, he played the "inventor" of sarcasm. He said things like "I love this party" meaning he hated it, but no one got it because no one else knew of sarcasm. Until they all understood he was being ironic, became extremely hurt, and burned him at the stake.
  • Another SNL skit had Matthew Perry as a teacher in a class for Sarcasm 101.
    "Is this Sarcasm 101?"
    "No this is embroidery. Sarcasm 101 is down the hall."
    "Ah. Thanks!"
• Seinfeld: Kramer sometimes asks Jerry for unreasonable favors to which Jerry, as a comedian, replies sarcastically to. Kramer never manages to detect it. For example, when Kenny Roger's Chicken makes Kramer's apartment uninhabitable, Kramer asks Jerry to switch apartments with him:
  Jerry: Or I could sleep in the park. You could knock these walls down, make it an eight room luxury suite.
  Kramer: Jerry, these are load-bearing walls, they're not gonna come down!
• As of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Data's Day", Data can recognize sarcasm using logic, but can't quite grasp how to use it:
  Riker: (sarcastic) Charming woman.
  Data's voice-over: The tone of Commander Riker's voice makes me suspect that he is not serious about finding Ambassador T'Pel charming. My experience suggests that, in fact, he may mean the exact opposite of what he says. Irony is a form of expression I have not yet been able to master.
• Supernatural:
  • Castiel. Though as he hangs out with Dean more, he might get a handle on it.
    Castiel: [God] isn't in Heaven. He has to be somewhere.
    Dean: Try New Mexico! I hear he's on a tortilla.
    Castiel: (after seriously considering this) No, He's not on any flat bread.
  • Also:
    Jo: Hey, ever heard of door handles?
    Castiel: (after teleporting himself out of the car) Of course I have.
  • Lately, he's become more sarcastic himself.
    Castiel: You're right. Pardon me for highlighting their crippling and dangerous empathetic response with "sarcasm".
• Teen Wolf: While Stiles is usually one of the resident snarkers, he has his moments, usually around the more intimidating werewolves. One example being in "Chaos Rising":
  Stiles: Where do you live?
  Peter Hale: In an underground network of caves hidden deep in the woods.
  Stiles: Whoa, really?
  Peter Hale: No you idiot! I have an apartment downtown.
• Temps de chien: Antoine and Kim try to heal a cow belonging to a farmer. After Antoine says he will have to ask for help regarding the cow:
  Farmer: That's not a cow that can take a flight to be operated in Quebec City.
  Kim: [confused] She's afraid of flying?
  Antoine: I think he's being sarcastic.
  [The farmer nods.]
  Kim: [embarrassed] Ah. Sorry. It's my first day in this field.
  Farmer: [to Antoine] So, are you able [to heal my cow] or...? Otherwise, I'll have to shoot her in the head.
  [Kim starts laughing, causing Antoine to look at her in disbelief]
  Kim: [realizing her mistake] Ah, that... that wasn't sarcastic.
• That '70s Show: In "Laurie Moves Out" Kelso is angry with Hyde when he is caught cheating. Hyde pretends to be sarcasm blind, but Kelso truly is.
  Kelso: Hey Hyde, thanks for your help with Jackie man.
  Hyde: Sure thing man.
  Kelso: Okay Hyde, do you know what sarcasm is?
  Hyde: No.
• The West Wing: In the third season episode "Bartlet for America", there's a Flashback to when President Bartlet was governor of New Hampshire, and two staffers are pitching him a tourism campaign ("New Hampshire: it's what's new!"). The two staffers clearly believe that Governor Bartlet is deeply interested in the subject, his comments ("And the goggles? What about the goggles?") are completely sincere, and he is not in any way being sarcastic or snarky out of irritated boredom. They could not be more wrong.
• The Wire: Herc, a cop, is annoyed by the fashions of the local street kids. He sarcastically asks one where he can get "one of those cool hats with the brim on the side." Oblivious to the sarcasm, the kid patiently explains that it's a regular hat simply turned sideways on his head. The flummoxed Herc has no response.
• Young Sheldon: "Teen Angst and a Smart-Boy Walk of Shame": Sheldon, knowing that he has trouble understanding sarcasm, asks Dr. Linkletter to use sarcasm on him. Right off the bat, the boy genius failed to notice that Linkletter was being sarcastic before even being asked to be sarcastic. In response to almost everything Linkletter says, Sheldon asks "Is that sarcasm?" However, Linkletter is blind to Sheldon's sincerity when Sheldon calls Linkletter "an expert in humiliation and defeat."

---