SAC: The new LOL

LOL or SAC?  You be the judge...

We all have pet peeves.  For some, it's bad drivers.  For others, it's chewing with your mouth open.  But mine is perhaps a little more far reaching -- touching all members of the growing community of text messengers that span the globe.  I'm talking about a little acronymn called LOL.

For those of you still "using CD's," "setting your VCR," or "unnecessarily using quotation marks," let me explain (although you do get bonus points for reading a blog.)  LOL is an internet / text-message / instant message acronymn that stands for 'LAUGHING OUT LOUD' and commonly used as a response to a joke or witty comment.  Let me give you an example:

FRIEND1: Hey man, whattup?

FRIEND2: Leaving 4 Italy in 3 dayz... cr8zy

FRIEND1: Sweet eat lots of meatballs

FRIEND2: LOL. Fo' sho'

Now, is the 'meatball' comment witty?  Yes.  Is it funny?  Yes.  But is it LAUGH OUT LOUD funny?  NO.  And that my friends, is where my beef lies.

Comedians - or people like me who just tell lots of jokes  - live for that LOL moment.  We work for it.  We strive for it.  We are rewarded by it.  Because let's be perfectly honest - it takes a LOT to make someone actually LOL.  I'm talking hit-in-the-groin-with-a-ground-ball funny.  I'm talking Bambulance or Felching funny.  That's LOL... not meatballs.  I mean, all it's doing is giving a bunch of mediocre comedians a false sense of confidence.  There's some very boring people out there with a 58% LOL ratio.  In fact -- LOL is the digital equivelant of the adult courtesy laugh (the one all people over the age of 18 give at cocktail parties and office water coolers after any joke/story told, regardless of its merit.)

  

And thus we come to SAC.  SAC simply means SMILING AT COMPUTER.  As you read this sentence, you are probably SAC.  SAC is what happens 95% of the time -- and that's ok.  It's good.  It preserves the authenticity of the LOL... while at the same time acknowledging the witty-ness of the sender.  We all need to use SAC more often.*

FRIEND1: Hey thanks for the ride last night

FRIEND2: Don't be silly - it was no prob.  What r u doing?

FRIEND1: Just gonna sit around and use Google Maps all day to look at my house, my parents house, and where I work.

FRIEND2: SAC. Holla at me later. And check out the Grand Canyon too.

Please -- do your part.  Please help spread SAC worldwide.   

KEY POINT:  LOL is not a term to be thrown around lightly.  When most of you say LOL, you really mean SAC.

And for those of you saying OMG or WTF, I know this post had nothing to do with Italy.  SAC.

~ J. Twice

* SAC also applies to phone text messages as well... simply because SAP is not as LOL.  By the way, the 2nd most underrated punctuation mark is the asterick.  It's as under-used as LOL is overused... but don't EVEN get me started on that!