For anyone unfamiliar with the bizarre spectacle of Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (they’re the ones who show up at the funerals of AIDS victims holding “God Hates Fags” signs), here’s a write-up from their website’s protest schedule describing an upcoming picket:

“Temple University - WBC to picket the Laramie Project where they hate their brother in Filthydelphia. Yes, that is what this nation needs, more pushy loud-mouthed professors yip-yapping lies about Matthew Shepard. What part of SHUT UP do you silly wise (wo)men NOT understand?  Listen up false prophets, if not for you Matt would not be in hell - right now! You did that, and instead of being ashamed, you sin more and more behind it. Our message for Filthydelphia, and DOOMED american theatre troops is this: Matt Is In Hell! God Hates Fags! God Hates Fag Enablers! You will eat your babies! Bloody Obama!”

“In case you hadn’t realized, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you’re talking about? Or believe strongly in what you’re, like, saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical ‘you know’s and ‘you know what I’m saying’s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions? Declarative sentences, so called because they used to, you know, like, declare things to be true, as opposed to other things that are, like, totally... not?” -  Taylor Mali 

Why do some people end ordinary statements with question marks? 

Taylor Mali, who delivered the above quote on the HBO show Def Poetry in 2002, is best known as a comedian and slam poet. He was also a high school teacher (as he describes in another spoken word piece, which has racked up over a million youtube hits) and his website’s gig calendar lists more teaching work than anything else. It’s feasible to think he noticed the relentless rising inflection in his students’ voices - the “like”s and “y’know”s he sprinkles throughout the piece have a flavour of youth. Perpetual uncertainty doesn’t strike me as radically out of place in a group of youngsters facing a tall, muscular, slam poet champ of a teacher.