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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Daily Cascade #1096403 added September 2, 2025 at 5:45pm
Restrictions: None
On Wise-cracking vs. Wit
Prompt:
"There's a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words."
Dorothy Parker
How short is the distance between wise-cracking and wit, and what do you think of wise-cracking people vs. people with wit?
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Both wise-cracking and wit live in the town of humor, in their essence. They are, however, not the same thing.
To begin with, wise-cracking is shallow, usually exaggerated and spilt out as a reaction, but it is quick. It can also be funny in a way to shock, mock, sass, or rebel. I think I've used up my wise-cracking on my poor mother just only once or twice and her reaction cured me for life.  Still, wise-cracking can be a snappy comeback or a jab, which was never my forte, anyway.
I can usually think of comebacks after the fact and after many hours or days, once I've finished stewing in my disillusionment. 
An example to a wise-crack to someone who has arrived late: “Oh, glad you could finally join us—did you stop to invent the wheel on the way here?”
A witty way for the same situation, that may be more clever and less biting could be: “Ah, don't worry! You’ve arrived just in time—punctuality, after all, is only a matter of perspective.”
After all, wit is like a candle's flame, steady, giving off light, and lingering in the mind, whereas a wise-crack goes off in a flash. Unlike a wise-crack, wit has more finesse. It is thoughtful, layered, and often shows one's intelligence mixed with humor. Then, mostly, wit has more of a staying power.
As Aristotle said, "Wit is educated insolence." That, I guess makes wise-cracking just a streetwise loser, in comparison. Yet, Voltaire said, "A witty saying proves nothing." True, it proves nothing, but it doesn't bite like a wise-cracking quick utterance or insult, either.
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