the truth that can only be heard as sarcasm

At the duet's climax Joelle says the literal, defining truth about herself — and it cannot land, because in this register a flat statement of one's own perfection can only be received as a joke. Gately hears each true sentence as "sarcasm," "acting-out," a yutz-move, and keeps begging her to just say a straight "No." The failure isn't that she won't transmit; it's that the truth she transmits has no channel that will carry it undistorted — the most important thing she says is the one thing structurally guaranteed not to be believed. [sweep · shared-ground entertainment-self, irony-sincerity]