There's a good chance this article may turn out to be a joke, or at least lost in translation? How could anyone ban inflection of tone? The problem is, the story is so ridiculous, it's beyond satire. Plus, knowing what we know about leftists, about how much they hate being mocked, how they love to control speech and thought, is it really so hard to believe a dictator would ban sarcasm?

Nooooo. A control freak dictator who keeps a tight leash on his people would NEVER ban something as dangers as sarcasm.

See what I did there?

Regardless, we do love ourselves some North Korea (see Fast Facts: Communist North Korea vs. Capitalist South Korea and NORTH KOREA: Kim Jong-un Has Cured Cancer!), so I suppose it could be true.

North Korea's Kim Jong-un has banned sarcasm because he fears people only agree with him ironically, according to reports.

Government officials were apparently warned they will "not be forgiven" if they are heard being sarcastic.

Mass meetings were organised across the country to spread the word about the new order.

“One state security official personally organised a meeting to alert local residents to potential ‘hostile actions’ by internal rebellious elements," Radio Free Asia's Korean Services quoted a source as saying.

“The main point of the lecture was ‘keep your mouths shut’.”

"...he fears people only agree with him ironically..."

I'll lay it out like this. You know those people in your life who you just "yes" to death because it's easier than dealing with them? Kim Jong-un just made that illegal. There are also people in your life who completely miss nuance. They're never sure if you're being serious or if you're using your sarcasm font when you're speaking. If you're anything like me (Oh Gawd), you've probably taken advantage of their nuance-missing minds, just to screw with them. Kim Jong-un just made that illegal.

In North Korea, she'd go to prison.

Sarcasm isn't hard. It doesn't take a lot of skill. Sometimes it's comedy for the lazy. But it's still mockery. Despite it sometimes being comedy for the lazy, sarcasm still has its place.

Its place is no longer in North Korea.

Which begs the question, will there be a sarcasm police? What do those guys look like? How does one enforce the "Don't be sarcastic" ban? Gratuitous eye-rolling? Tongue sticking out? Laughing uproariously in one's face?

So yes to soup, because sarcasm?

Look, if leftists had their druthers, they'd ban sarcasm here too. Me saying, "I totally think it's fine for men to use the ladies room, what could possibly go wrong?" would get me thrown into the sarcasm slammer. Only literal language allowed. They would know I was completely mocking them right to their face. What with everything that's gone wrong with dudes having pee-pees being in the same toilet room as the ladies.

Not only do we have the speech police, the speech tone police? Becoming a reality. In North Korea sure, but first steps.

It's a Dear Leader's world. We just mock him for it...

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