The Interrobang Would Like a Word

Hello, I'm the interrobang (‽). The single punctuation mark you keep typing as “?!” or “!?” because no one ever taught you better.

If you already know who I am, spare me your reaction. I am aware of my name.

If you don't know who I am, I noticed your pause. That brief hesitation. The confusion mixed with skepticism and a touch of mild curiosity, I’m sure.

Exactly. That is my function. I exist to communicate the emotional mess you insist on typing around. I am disbelief and excitement at the same time. I am sarcasm without quotation marks. I exist for moments when tone matters, when words alone fail and collapse under their own weight. Yep, heavy stuff.

Text is bad at communicating nuanced feelings you know?

For example, you send a message. It lands wrong. You reread it. You soften it. You add “lols” and emojis like bubble wrap around your precious ego. You wonder if you sound angry, confused, passive aggressive. Unhinged even?

I can fix that. Here's what I can do for you...

I say, “This is a question, but let’s not pretend it’s polite.” I say, “I hear you, but I'm not sure I'm buying this.” I say, “Bullsh!t! Nonsense, explain yourself now.”

No other mark does this. Not like that. Not with this type of efficiency. Not even close. And yet, I am ignored.

Instead, you stack your punctuation like emotional debris. Question mark. Exclamation point. Question mark again. Who has time to type all that? Ugh. You build tone out of rubble and hope the reader assembles it correctly. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t.

And that name? Interrobang. I didn’t choose it.

It sounds like a mistake being corrected in real time. A word that triggers laughter, discomfort, or immediate dismissal. A word that distracts from the fact that I solve a real problem in written communication. Don’t judge me by my name.

With all due respect to my creator Martin K. Speckter, a true visionary who saw what was missing in typography, he may have underestimated how quickly people dismiss what sounds unserious. While he had great intentions and a solid rationale for the name, he gave me a name that guarantees I will not be taken seriously by the people who need me most.

But, here's the irony. You already use me.

Every time you type “?!” you are admitting that a single punctuation mark is insufficient. You need and desire more tools to communicate. You are acknowledging that tone matters, whether you want to or not.

So go ahead and keep breaking me apart. Go ahead and keep typing “?!”, and needlessly slamming emojis on top of emojis onto it to protect yourself. You pretend that it’s different this time. It’s not. And I'm tired just watching it. When you're ready, I'll be here. Whole. Accurate. Unused.

Obviously,

The ‽

Embrace me, here's how you can input interrobangs:

• MAC – Press Command + Control + Spacebar, search for "Interrobang," and double-click the symbol to insert it.

• On PC – Press and hold Alt, then type +203D on your numeric keypad, then release Alt to get ‽.

• If all else fails, copy and paste from the Wikipedia interrobang page!