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You may be looking for Exclamation point and not even know it!

Look! It's an exclamation! Mark!

For those without comedic tastes, the so-called experts at Wikipedia have an article about !.

“!”

~ Metal Gear Solid on "!"

"Watch out!", "Arghh!", "OMG!", and "You're not Fred!!!" are all made possible by our friend the exclamation mark!

! or the exclamation mark is a letter of the alphabet! It is the uppercase form of the letter 1!

1 History
2 Use
- 2.1 AAAAAAnother Attempt to AAAAAdvertise?!
3 A warning!
4 The Future
- 4.1 Famous Examples
5 You should see these, also!!

[edit] History

[edit] Before '!'

Before the exclamation mark was used no one got excited. Excitement and amazement were pronounced works of witchcraft. Any person that was caught being excited or amazed at any act was swiftly beheaded, or at least given an unfair trial in Salem State Court. If a guilty client made the claim for insanity, they were given identical treatment due to the fact that being of unsound mind was also considered an act of witchcraft.

[edit] Origins

Many scholars believe the exclamation mark was the offspring of the 'full stop' or the 'dot on the end of sentences to finish things'. The theory goes that before becoming the exclamation mark, the symbol made its claim to fame selling world class fish through Indochina, before it threw it away for a life of service, helping emphasise words that show amazement and excitement or whatever. When this happened the theory suggests that the symbol was then deamed to be an 'exclaimer', at which point it became known as the exclamation mark!

An exclamation mark in action

[edit] In Foreign Languages

Although highly debated, some claim that the word ! originated from an Africanese letter expressed by clicking your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Others debate that this was a blatant case of word theft, and have gone so far as to petition for the arrest of Africa. example: this is my cousin from Africa, !ximbutu ([click]-zim-boo-two).

[edit] Symbol

Being a symbol the exclamation mark needed a symbol, as people couldn't go around saying and writing 'exclamation mark' on the ends of things. The '!' was invented by Barnum and Bailey. They wanted a symbol to represent fun, and (they being circus folk) thought it looks like a man balancing on a ball. The line on top of the dot made it distinguishable from the full stop thereby becoming the distinguishing feature of the exclamation mark!

[edit] Widespread Popularity!

The exclamation mark takes many forms

With the invention of the printing press all of a sudden there was this thing called the media! The media needed people to get excited to buy newspapers, and later on to watch the news!! And so soon '!' was everywhere, in every household, in every newspaper and at the end of every sentence!

[edit] Use

'!' is used mainly to denote an exciting sentence:

Wow, what a stupendous anomaly!

Like that! The exclamation mark can also be repeated to give more emphasis:

I win!!!

To proclaim false enthusiasm comparable to some whiny, fifteen year old girl:

HEYAA!!!!!!!! Omg, I LOVE you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edit] AAAAAAnother Attempt to AAAAAdvertise?!

To computers, the '!' is the first non-blank printable ASCII character so, according to AAAAAAAAAAnother Announcer Trying Aimlessly To Be Always At The Front In All Classified Ads And Associates Inc. guidelines it is a requirement that it always be used and overused in all listings and advertisement headlines at random.

For instance, a short classified ad:

Yo. Guido Da Killa Pimp. Your Female Escorts, call 555-1313.

is not going to get anywhere near the same visibility as:

AAAAAAA Another AAAAnnoying PimpRing, A division of Mafia Inc. All Female Escorts, Always, call 555-1313

which is not going to get the same visibility as:

!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAdorable Another AAAAnnoying PimpRing !!!! AAAAllways AAAtempting to AAAchieve A Top Position - All Female Escorts, Always, call 555-1313

even though the content is always the same! It's not enough to make 'em an offer they can't refuse, you aaalways must be first!

As '!' is a capitalized 1, this may explain the advertising efforts of credit card company Capital One. (What's in your wa11et?)

[edit] A warning!

Various organizations have already laid a claim to aaaall letter combinations such as AA and AAA; one particularly aaaaannoying would-be entrepreneur had the aaaudacity to misuse AAA AA as another attempt aaaaat aaaacessing the 'A1' classified aaaads position without aaasking permission and was promptly run down by aalcoholics from the local aaautomobile aaassociaaation. He didn't make it!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That's why it's safer instead to misuse the exclamation mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edit] The Future

You can make a difference!

The exclamation mark is loved by one and all, with the exception of the colon and its 'cloning experiment gone wrong' associate the semi-colon. But the use of our friend '!' is threatened. As people today become less expressive and less enthusiastic and more like mindless drones that actually like day-time TV, '!' is worried, worried that one day mankind may never see another 'Wow' or 'You're Not Fred' ended with the exclamation mark. Future generations may not get to experience the thrill that is when you end a sentence with '!'! So please, people, please, get excited! When conversing at work, when writing your resume, or when comforting a loved one who has lost someone through death, do not hesitate to use our friend '!'! Your children will thank you!