So can we make it an option in the user settings*? I agree with brainpan: this is one amusing PM oddity (and see this for how I feel about them) can be awkward at best, annoying at worst. If someone with strict chatterboxing (jabborwocking?) wants to "make a funny" he or she can just escape the command and get the intended effect. Of course, this means some poor sap has to code it, but that's not my problem! {eg}

And shouldn't you escape that command with a backslash? I mean, after all, this is perlmonks...

Alakaboo

* I avoided the obligatory use strict 'Chatterbox'; joke. Or tried, at any rate.