Don Rickles

Is comedian Don Rickles one of the world's smartest people? Science suggests he just might be.

(The Associated Press)

Well, what a surprise, scientists have discovered that sarcastic people are the smartest in the world.

In case you couldn't tell from our tone, we're being sarcastic -- that is, saying the opposite of what we actually think in order to get a dark chuckle. We tend to be sarcastic a lot, because we're obviously really, really smart.

See, we were just being sarcastic again.

The thing is, academia really has decided that sarcastic people are the brainiest of them all. Harvard Business School researchers have apparently determined that sarcasm, especially when it has a sharp edge to it, represents the "highest form of intelligence."

"The construction and interpretation of sarcasm lead to greater creativity because they activate abstract thinking," the study's authors write in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (Bet that publication is a real page-turner. Sorry, we can't help ourselves.)

"Just blurting out an insult is pedestrian at best," information technology expert Vacheh Joakim told Psychology Today recently. "But a sarcastic jab that can masquerade as a compliment is much more enjoyable, and it also gives the person being sarcastic a sense of superiority."

That sense of superiority will bother some people, but it nonetheless has value. The Harvard paper concludes that those who use sarcasm face more conflict but that they should power through the annoyed looks because being involved in or recalling a sarcastic exchange sparks "enhanced creativity." We should note that only the abstract of the article is easily available, so we can't dig into the details of the study, which of course is exactly how we want to spend our day. (Did we do it again?)

At any rate, the important takeaway here is that scientists once again are improving society through a pertinent research project.

Yep, being sarcastic again.

-- Douglas Perry