Double smilies

[jack]

Do you ever use double smilies, like ending a sentence ":( :)" if you want to joke that you're sad about something but emphasise that you're not ACTUALLY sad, or ":) :(" if you joke about something, but want to make it clear that you think it's actually unfortunate?

I feel I may be too pedantic [sic]. It's even more grammatically awkward than ending a bracket sentence with a smilie (which is annoying, but has established work-arounds).

Comments

[alextfish.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it's something I do very much, but I think it's understandable, and a good solution to the circumstances you describe.

It's like the very useful interjection "Yeah, no, ..." or "No, yeah, ..." which Language Log wrote about :)