To me, sarcasm is a form of a riddle, albeit one highly dependent on the trust and relationship between the two or more parties involved. A sarcastic statement does not always have to convey a &quot;belittling&quot; or &quot;malicious&quot; overtone, but can be much closer to a maxim, a form of wordplay, a metaphor, or an allegory. Or, in the case of the following Futurama quote, sarcasm can be a container for one of the above literary devices:<p><i>Professor Farnsworth: Is it true that stem cells may fight the aging process?<p>GeneWorks receptionist: Well yes. In the same way an infant may fight Muhammad Ali.</i><p>I like how the article points out that the over-arching caveat to the benefits of scarcasm involve the &#x27;human capital&#x27; of <i>trust</i>. That reminds me of why my friends and I would use sarcasm with each other as games of wit, and why, on occasion, I&#x27;d cringe when one of my friends would be sarcastic, sometimes in a not-very-nice way, to a stranger who was simply trying to do their job. Or, in other words, sarcasm is a very powerful weapon in the &quot;put down&quot; game, and a large swath of the population isn&#x27;t really mentally equipped or practiced in the contest, so it&#x27;s a belitting thing...but when sarcasm ace meets sarcasm ace, holy cow it can be some funny material.