sarcasm and irony

This image is lifted from a website called idesignyoureyes.com and is from the English translation of The Airtight Garage by Jean Giraud (Moebius). The rest of the post has nothing to do with the picture.

I wonder if sarcasm and irony still hold onto the same share of language usage as they have in the past. Even a simple literal statement such as "The cat is in the house" can be made into a sarcastic and abrasive comment with the appropriate context and inflection. But, how can this inflection be conveyed effectively in a world where language media allows for fast editing and instantaneous redistribution? If a president or prime minister makes a comment about the cat being in the house with obvious ironic overtones then all hell breaks loose when news organizations report on it and editorials and blogs respond to the decontextualized statement. Consequently, those in power try to avoid communicating with irony, sarcasm and metaphor for fear of being misrepresented, and the overall effect is to diminish the effectiveness of our communication.

One could argue that it is more important to be literal and honest at all times, but this ignores the capacity of the human mind to make more of information than what is merely stated. This capacity is more essential to understanding than what can be conveyed by purely true statements.