Introducing the quexclamation mark

Unveiled today by PirileePirilee amid much hype, the newest member of the punctuation family is designed to underscore moments warranting both exclamation and a call for clarification - excitement and confusion, absurdity, vexed wonderment. The "quexclamation mark" has been mulled over in the Pirilee studios for a month now; the germ for the production of a more flexible punctuation symbol was an increasing distaste for the visual stamp of a question mark and exclamation point used together (!?) in emails.

While the creator, the illusive J. Self, was perfecting the lines of concurrent enthusiasm and query, Self came across the failed "interrobang" symbol, designed by Martin K. Speckter in 1962 to advance the cause of rhetorical questions in copy.


According to Wikipedia, "The interrobang failed to amount to much more than a fad ... It has not become a standard punctuation mark." What did Speckter lack? In the opinion of this author, a willingness to step outside the bounds of traditional architecture was lacking in Speckter's lopsided attempt to revolutionize punctuation. Speckter may also have brought a new punctuation symbol into a hostile world simply unready for such radical typographical advances. Indeed, little occurred on the typographic timescale between 1962 (was the interrobang doomed by the backlash from the First Annual Swiss & Wielder Hoop and Stick Tournament of the same year?) and the dreaded emoticon plague of the 1990s - an indication that change in the field of punctuation is fought slow and hard won.

Is the quexclamation mark superior to the interrobang? It has several benefits: 1. Symmetrical design. 2. Lends itself to running writing and serifs. 3. Its physical character indicates the tension and excitement of two emotions competing to pull the reader in one or the other direction. Assuredly, the quexclamation mark is highly compatible with any number of fonts. The interrobang, in contrast, remains only in a few, including Microsoft WingDings; a sure sign of its obsolesence.