I'm all for humour. But if we have to put up a flag or a smiley face to indicate that we have made a joke. . . . Well, then, maybe we had better recognise (a) that we are not very good at humour; and (b) that we are being REALLY patronising to our audience.
All I ask is that you credit your readers with having a sense of humour. Why do you you feel the need to cram what you call "your attempts at irony" down our throats with redundant GIFs? Sounds like the old Nazi threat that, "Ve haff vays of makingk you laff."
Lighten up, old chap.

I'll tell you why it needs marked - because history here has demonstrated that there are sufficient number of people in the world who either do not have a sense of humor or misunderstand the author. The use of "smilies" is common internet parlance. This is not a formal debating society. I would urge Paal to continue doing whatever he thinks works.

By the way, Tasman, you will find man other "markers" for humor in posts here at TOD. I suggest you get used to them or maybe you can tell Professor Goose that he should stop writing on his site as he sees fit?

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Dr. Albert Bartlett
Into the Grey Zone

How about you get adblock and stop ruining threads?