Communicating with Coaches

[mbyron]

Humor at the coach's expense is seldom amusing. Humor at the official's expense can work for some officials. If you're not able to pull it off routinely in your life off the court, I would not recommend it during the heat of battle. Also generally ill-advised with a new coach or for younger officials.

And: most of you mean to use 'facetious' and not 'sarcastic', unless you're out to hurt people's feelings with your irony.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by mbyron

Most of you mean to use 'facetious' and not 'sarcastic', unless you're out to hurt people's feelings with your irony.

Facetious
1 : joking or jesting often inappropriately : 2 : meant to be humorous or funny : not serious

Sarcasm
1: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2: a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual

Irony
1: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
b: a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony
c: an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result
(2): an event or result marked by such incongruity
b: incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony tragic irony

[BillyMac]

Catholic middle school games:

Saturday: Two teams, both with blue jerseys, and blue shorts. One team wore pinnies over their jerseys. During a break, I bantered with some fans, who have come to know me over the years. I announce to them, "I got twenty dollars that says the team with the blue shorts will win". I got a good laugh.

Sunday: Two teams, both named Saint Mary, one team in home whites, the other in road blue. Again, I'm talking to some fans, again, who have come to know me over the years. I figure that I can be funny two days in a row, so I decided to announce that I had twenty dollars that says Saint Mary would win, but, for some reason, maybe old age, it comes out, "I got twenty dollars that says the blue team will win". They all look at me like I was nuts. I immediately tried my attempt at humor again, this time the correct way, but also adding what happened the day before, and how I screwed up the joke. They all laughed, but not at my joke, at me. At least I got the laugh I was looking for.