mostly david ephgrave

There is no quicker way to weaken a jokey statement than using an exclamation mark! See, I told you. For me, exclamation marks are akin to wearing a novelty tie or t-shirt; seldom justified and the 'joke' wears thin almost as soon as it's started. It's not that they don't have their place (if I was trapped down a mineshaft I'd probably use one) - but that place isn't at the end of an amusing sentence.   Doing this usually suggests you’ve lost faith in your own sense of humour, and have tacked on some rogue punctuation last-minute to hammer the point home ; “Look, Mum. I’M BEING FUNNY ”. You might as well have attached an MP3 of a swanee whistle, or a short GIF of you shrugging at the camera. (I know all my computer terminology.) If Michael McIntyre was a punctuation point he’d be an exclamation mark: a big, fat one in Comic Sans.   Sometimes, if I’m writing a text or an email to someone who doesn’t know me very well, then th...