The Culture of the Interrobang
- Posted by: Anne Trubek
- on October 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Is the combination question mark and exclamation point a sign of the times?
On Monday I discovered the interrobang, and I have been thinking about it all week. And no, not because I am a grammar nerd, but because I think ‽ may just sum up something about our clever yet confused culture.
The interrobang is a combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Many of us use this punctuation when we type ?!, but a real interrobang is a merger of these two symbols: ‽
Punctuation expresses an attitude, an idea, and slant. Often we relegate punctuation to the background, deeming it a mere convention or formality. But with each colon, we make a point: one idea explains a previous one. Cause and effect. Sometimes we signal connections between ideas; punctuation can refine relationships between points. Although words can make an impact, punctuation, clauses, and syntax do a lot of work, too.
Punctuation has a history, and we can learn about our past by learning about the lives of punctuation marks. The interrobang is, I think, the only punctuation mark invented in the twentieth century.
Martin K. Speckter is credited with inventing the interrobang in 1962. He was an advertising executive, and needed a better way to express rhetorical questions in his copy. He designed the punctuation, and then solicited suggestions for what to name it. He chose interrobang, which combines the Latin for question (interro-) with a proofreading term for exclamation (bang).
So very Don Draper, circa Mad Men Season 2, no ‽
The interrobang was popular in the 1960s, and Remington added an interrobang key to some typewriters. Then it fell out of favor, and did not rise to the level of a comma, or other standard forms of punctuation.
When my friend said to me, on Monday, “Do you know there is a word for ?!” I was amazed. And smitten by the little fellow (though it took some research to realize a true interrobang superimposes the question mark and exclamation point). I tweeted my new fact, and it was new to many a follower. But then I met with some undergraduates, and to my surprise they had all heard of the interrobang. ‽
Is the interrobang having a revival, I wondered? Why do the young ‘uns know more about obscure punctuation than English professors and bookish types? I learned it is a popular mark in comic books, which are arguably the literary form of our age. Googling about more, I found an interrobang subculture of sorts. Did you know there is a place that sells handbags and accessories on Etsy called “Interrobang: Young, Indie and Grammatically Correct” ‽
It has got me thinking, this punctuation. Might we describe our current cultural zeitgeist as surprise superimposed over curiosity, mixed together with attitude? Is the interrobang a 1960s, type-based version of WTF? A certain informal, witty, knowing, WTF way of approaching the world? Many clever Facebook status updates and comments could be defined, as Wikipedia does the interrobang, as “A sentence ending with an interrobang (1) asks a question in an excited manner, (2) expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or (3) asks a rhetorical question.”
Could the interrobang be the punctuation mark for our age‽ Guy Debord coined the term “Society of the Spectacle” to describe the late 1960s, and slacker took off to define the 1990s. Might we use the interrobang for ourselves?‽ Aren’t we at once curious and cynical, world-weary yet bemused, and always pretty darned informal?
One of the most talked-about TV shows of the past few years is about advertising executives in the early 1960s. These are the guys who put ‽ on the keyboard. Is the interrobang why we love Mad Men so?
DISCUSSION: 22 Comments
I believe that the interrobang has already been universally simplified to wtf. No need for special characters.
I don’t know if you could say the interrobang is a way of approaching the world… But this article has got me thinking – would a measurement of the density of question marks / interrobangs on the internet function as an accurate proxy for the puzzlement / WTFness of society?Someone write a program! (It’s not that urgent, actually…)
Oh, my typography senses are tingling! Why havn’t I ever heard of this‽ (hehe, my first ‽ usage! Seriously though, I doubt that this relatively new character will ever really catch on as serious grammatical mechanism. It’s just too quirky and given it’s marketing origins I have a feeling that grammar nerds will have trouble giving ‽ any sort of respect.But then again, perhaps my 17th century counter part said the same thing about the questionmark…
This is a super sweet interrobang:
from a cool project on designboom.
I think you meant “Do you know there is a word for ‘?!’ ?”Or possibly, “Do you know there is a word for ‘?!’ ?!”depending on how it was said.:-)
Love this post! I wish I would have discovered the interrobang years ago. Anyone know of a keyboard shortcut for the symbol?
Isn’t this just asking for something even more meaningless than an overused !!!!!!!!! I vote for folks trying harder to actually express themselves using words.
That symbol certainly expresses How I feel about a certain USDA program that is trying to be forced on those who own even one animal. T he day I found out about this horrendous USDA program that would put more govt surveillance on me just because I own g horses if it ever came about (believe me, they are trying to get this thing passed into law asap!) was the day I felt my America was gone!
NAIS (The National Animal Identification System), is a so-called disease tracking food safety program the USDA is forcing on those who own even one chicken or any other farm animal. Many are being signed up without their knowledge or permission. Non-food animals such as horses, llamas, parakeets, etc are included in this program. Over 90% oppose this program yet the USDA continues to force this unwanted program on those who need it least.
Under NAIS you register your premises, microchip all critters at your cost, report all their movements, births, deaths to a database, then risk losing them to depopulation if disease is suspected in a 6 mile radius! Currently, only sex offenders/child molesters are tagged tracked and register their premises. Animal owners will be tracked closer than illegals, drug delaers, sex offenders or that guy that blew away 13 people and wounded others at Ft. Hood.
Protection from disease is why we are told NAIS is needed, but the real reason is for the benefit of big agriculture/factory farms so they can sell meat globally. But they do not have to tag/ track individual critters. They get ONE lot number for each animal group. And the tracking of any animals stops at slaughter, after which many food safety issues occur.
See nonais dot org for more info on the program that will affect everyone who eats.
Love it!! The shortcut for it in Word is 203D+Alt+X!!
I believe the term Interrobang predates Mr. Specter’s “invention” by several years. My recollection is that I first heard it from Mel Kammandy (sp?), the production manager at a large typesetting company in Hartford, Connecticut in the late 1950s.
I have trouble seeing it. Literally. Because of the combination, the exclamation point portion of the symbol barely extends above the coincident lower portion. While my over-40 eyes can make out the rest of the text easily enough, the interrobang is difficult to distinguish from a question mark.
Many years ago, I began combining the plus (+) symbol with a forward slash (/) as a shortcut for “and / or”. Almost anytime I see someone breaking the rules of the establishment, I applaud.
Oh yeah, if it needs a name, it’s simple: The Andor.
The interrobang is unnecessary. The brief, punchy sequence of a question mark followed by an exclamation point (?!) works just fine. In fact, I believe “?!” works BETTER, because it definitively and unequivocally expresses both feelings, and is typographically clear (easily seen, read, and understood), whereas the interrobang is confusing and hard to see, and can even be misread as something entirely else, such as a the proofreader’s mark to indicate the start of a paragraph. In other words, if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.On the other hand, there is a clear grammatical need for an exclamation point combined with a comma (imagine an exclamation point with a comma in place of the period at the bottom). This would be very effective in sentences such as this one: Why do we need the interrobang, he wondered? Notice that standard usage puts the question mark at the end, when in fact it should follow the first part only. If the comma after “interrobang” were instead an INTERROPAUSE, it would work great to pose the question yet continue on with the sentence, and then we could correctly place a period at the end of the sentence (after “wondered”).
I like this idea. I use “!?” in my writing all the time. I think combining them into one mark is great. I have to get used to the name, though.
I’m ok with the interrobang, but I really like the interropause. I agree that it would be more useful and more applicable as a remedy. As John Luc, would say, “Make it so.”
Btw, on a similar note, I disagree with the rule of always putting the quotations outside of the period. Sometimes it makes more sense to put them inside, e.g., They were known as “Outcasts”.
Use it as often as possible and love it too.
I’ve been using ?! for a long time now simply because it’s the perfect way to punctuate a sarcastic question! Now that I know there is an actual name for this, it makes me more excited because it’s a tell tale sign that the literary world is catching up with the sarcastic nature of the younger generations. If I had a penny for everytime I’ve received a text that says “Wtf is her problem today?!” or “Did you hear what that customer said to me?!” I would be rich! I agree though that it’s more effective to write it like ?! instead of together as one symbol though. When I was reading the first sentence of this artice, I thought at first that there was a smudge in my screen over the question mark. It is very hard to see the exclamation point unless your looking for it. Maybe it would look better in a bigger font. HeatherJo3 : Im excited that you put a shortcut on here to make the Interrobang on Word, I really want to try it in a bigger font and see how it works in my next blog or e-mail. Sadly, Im sort of computer challenged and I still dont know how to make the symbol. Do you hold shift maybe before the numbers 203? Or do you press 203D then Alt and then X? Or I was thinking 203D then hold Alt down and press X at the same time? I’ll mess with it and see if I can make it work. Thanks!!SteevR : I love your Andor! Brilliant! and/or is so commonly used, +/ would be a very common replacement. I look forward to sharing that one on my facebook blog today, and I will be sure to credit you for your creativity! Soon enough, I would not be suprised if many 20 somethings on facebook and twitter and +/ ‘ing all over the place! John Landsberg : The same thing I said to SteevR also applies to you, I look forward to sharing your Interropause today on my blog! I would love to find a way to make this symbol, because I would use it ALL THE TIME! Questions followed by a statement are so common, Im suprised that I havent seen this idea before. Very very cool.Hooray for the Interrobang, the Interropause, and the Andor!
sorry, but the interrobang symbol belongs to another culture, the 60s, which was looking for new ways to define itself and others. we don’t suffer from the same malady today, we know who we are and we don’t care. the sentiment belongs to us, but the symbol does not. it’s too complicated, not clear. today, we create the symbols we need and they’re not cute, they’re practical, they work, they’re not from ad men, they’re from us
The interrobang could be a rhetoric form of grammar where the existence came into effect by some prominent writer making a mistake. And wala, a new symbol is born given a reason to define the interrobang.
Now if we study the culture of English grammar, well, enough said here at least. …
In 1970 a friend studying in the USA. introduced me to “the interbang” in an excited letter, and we used it briefly in our typed correspondence. It was easy to backspace and superimpose the -bang. For some reason I remember the -bang sticking up over the interro-, but that’s unlikely unless I saw it in ZAP Comix or somewhere as an expressive graphic.We enjoyed the novelty but quickly learned that it’s more an emotional notation than punctuation. It worked well to indicate utter stupefaction and exasperated disbelief –common enough sentiments at the time– but in most other contexts simply took the place of that howitzer of adolescence, the exclamation row –!!!!– and took longer to type. So after a year or so it drifted away, like most novelties. You can only scream so often per page without writing Hitlerese.As for ironic potential, irony that needs a determining mark to announce itself needs to be rewritten. Proust can subvert the meaning of a page-long sentence with the last word or two and the result is dazzling, but who wants to hurdle fifteen demanding clauses only to stumble on a lurking interrobang?I can dig thefool, man, but have to point out that the sixties haven’t ended, just gotten wierder.
I don’t care much for the interrobang. Sometimes I use ?!, sometimes !?. It depends on where I want my emphasis.