# Can you see the interrobang‽ **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 11, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931 "2003-04-11T00:57:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/1 "2003-04-11T00:57:09Z")
In Mozilla under Linux, this character is the interrobang: ‽ Does it show up for anyone else‽ Is this in the wrong forum‽ Will the mods move me for using this punctuation mark too goddamned many times‽ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/2 "2003-04-11T00:59:31Z")
All I see is a square box. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/3 "2003-04-11T01:04:20Z")
Er… well it looks the same in Netscape as it does in Mozilla, but that’s no surprise. But to me, it just looks like a stylized question mark, unless I enlarge the text a lot, and I can see it’s a ! melded with a ?. (I’m in Windows 2000.) What _possible_ use could that be? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/4 "2003-04-11T02:09:39Z")
Mac OS X and IE 5.0 here. I see a normal question mark. Guess it didn’t work in the title, either. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/5 "2003-04-11T03:06:52Z")
Well, **I** can see the interrobang, under Mozilla and also under Galeon (which uses Mozilla rendering), but not Konqueror. I doubt you’ll see widespread support for it anywhere other than Mozilla, which is a shame. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/6 "2003-04-11T05:37:07Z")
I’m in Opera 7.0, and all I see is a square box as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/7 "2003-04-11T07:32:31Z")
Just a square box in IE 6.0. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/8 "2003-04-11T14:22:58Z")
What’s an “interrobang”? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/9 "2003-04-11T14:27:50Z")
[Interrobang](http://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-int1.htm) explained. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/10 "2003-04-11T19:38:41Z")
Under Mozilla for Macintosh, I see a question mark, which is, of course, _almost_ right. But that’s probably coincidental: I think that a question mark is Mozilla’s default for a character it doesn’t recognize. I have a bit of history with the interrobang, but I won’t bore you with it here. Rather unpleasent, actually, though that wasn’t the interrobang’s fault. ---
**Author:** ![BuckleberryFerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f9b8f/32.png) [@BuckleberryFerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckleberryFerry)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/11 "2003-04-12T03:58:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*All I see is a square box. \*\* Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/12 "2003-04-12T05:10:58Z")
I see a space, and a question mark beside it. IE 6.0 and Mac OSX(I believe). ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/13 "2003-04-13T00:48:16Z")
Interestingly, I see a box with a " inside. Mac OS X running OmniWeb, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/14 "2003-04-13T05:40:10Z")
Aw, come on, **Chronos**. I wanna know! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/15 "2003-04-14T05:37:01Z")
‽ (Just testing to see if C&Ping the code in the title will put the character in a post.) (Yep. Iff you can see the character in the post, you can use the code in the title to put it in any post.) (Iff == `If and only if.’ It’s not a typo. :)) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/16 "2003-04-15T03:13:58Z")
I see fields of green… ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/17 "2003-04-15T05:16:28Z")
Strawberry fields forever? Fields of gold? Seriously though… all I see is a square box… Internet Explorer 4.0 F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/18 "2003-04-15T19:04:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Aw, come on, **Chronos**. I wanna know! (seriously, I was kinda hoping someone would ask) Ninth grade English class. I wasn’t doing so well, and I knew it. One day, the teacher drew a character on the board, and told us all that if we could identify the character by the next day, he’d give that person an automatic A. Actually, he gave us three days, but it was on a Thursday, and knowing Brother Joe, I knew that he didn’t mean “three class days”. Well, that afternoon after school, I stopped in to confirm it with him. “Br. Joe,” I said, “About that symbol you asked us to identify today… Could I get something in writing, about you giving us an automatic A for identifying it?” “Come on, Dan,” he said, “I’m a brother! Would I lie to you? Take my word on it.” Well, I couldn’t argue with that, and so I went home and started digging. After about a half-hour with Merriam-Webster and a good bit of luck, I managed to determine that that glyph was known as an interrobang. Not wanting to lose on a technicallity, I typed up a nice couple of paragraphs naming the character and describing its usage, and turned it in the next day. Whereupon Br. Joe, and the rest of the class, proceeded to laugh at me. “Surely, you realized that was just a joke! Of _course_ I’m not going to give you an A for that! Everyone else in the class knew I was joking, why didn’t you?” Getting kicked out of that school was one of the best things that ever happened to me, and I’m pretty sure that Br. Joe had a big part in making that happen. Thanks, Brother! ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/19 "2003-04-15T19:17:05Z")
I see… _four boxes!_ ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-see-the-interrobang-8253/167931/20 "2003-04-16T00:39:00Z")
Funny, **Chronos** , funny. Bro. Joe should feel bad. It’s things like that that drive people away from punctuation. 🙂