[ WP ] Aliens come to Earth to study the most exotic skill in the universe - sarcasm .

`` Do you ever wonder if perhaps there is such a thing as taking a joke too far?'' Matan asked as she stared at her Introduction to Sarcasm textbook, trying to will the dry words to stick in her brain. `` Because if there is, then we might have passed that mark some fifty years ago.'' 
 
 `` You have to admit it's funny,'' said Navan, her roommate, who was reading a book on the history of muakhe cinema. 
 
 `` Pathetic, more like,'' Matan sighed, shutting her textbook and pushing it away. So far, her Oxford experience had had a few hiccups. The University was one of the most prestigious centers of higher learning in the entire spinward sector, and it had been an honor for Matan to be accepted. She had wanted to learn science, philosophy, literature, a thousand other subjects - but, because of that stupid, stupid joke made so long ago, she had to slog through a course about *sarcasm, * of all things. 
 
 The whole debacle had started seventy-five years ago, when the bezzahn had first been introduced into galactic society. More specifically, it had been at a gala held to celebrate the new member of the Galactic Union. A human and a bezzahn had struck up a conversation, and at some point the human made a sarcastic remark. The bezzahn, who had been enjoying more oekho-made ale than necessary, was briefly confused, and had asked for clarification. The human, who had also been enjoying the oekho ale, misconstrued the bezzahn's confusion as being caused by a lack of understanding of sarcasm. The bezzahn, recognizing a potential for hilarity, kept it going, acting taken aback by the concept of'saying something that you do n't mean, but it's not really lying, it's more like joking, I guess', as the human clumsily put it. 
 
 `` Incredible,'' the bezzahn had said. `` I am amazed that, in the thousands of years our society has existed, we never considered such a concept. Please, tell me more.'' 
 
 And so, the entire bezzahn species got in on the joke, and entered the galaxy while pretending to be the only spacefaring species in existence with no understanding of sarcasm. It had been funny for the first fifty or so years, but Matan thought it was going stale. She was taking a course on sarcasm at *Oxford, * for fuck's sake. She could be taking that lecture on Shakespeare that had looked so good, but it conflicted with the sarcasm class and nobody back home would have ever forgiven Matan if she had forsaken acting like an innocent, too-trusting bezzahn for the sake of a class on some silly human poet.'*Bard, *' Matan would have thought petulantly. 
 
 The bezzahn understood sarcasm, yes. They had been constantly sarcastic for seventy-five years now. What they did n't understand, Matan was starting to realize, was when to let a joke *die. * 
 
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