But at the same time, it feels important to note that while nobody does faux – almost mock!
No one knew about it, and the one guy in the office who was cycling to work would be almost mocked for wearing Lycra, a fluorescent top or cycle clips.
Instead, the German-born cross-country skier drew sideways glances from reporters for two prerace blood tests and an almost mocking request to answer a question in his limited Spanish.
"It almost mocks any attempts to get rid of it," he added.
As the gorgeous piano introduction builds into a swooning, string-heavy melody, Ferry's trademark over-enunciated, almost mocking vocals send me to a glamorous, if faintly seedy, early 70s London I never knew.
The self-help section in any bookshop is easy to mock — indeed, it sometimes seems that the titles of self-help books are almost mocking themselves — but there is nothing to mock about the people standing in front of the shelves looking for guidance.
We certainly have no trouble, given nature's virtually infinite variety, in identifying behaviors that appear, in human terms, to show creatures using objects in a symbolic manner that almost mocks the utility of the action.
While journalists, me included, were questioning and almost mocking Sarah and Bristol Palin's recent applications to trademark their respective names, the Kardashians had already drawn the blueprints for how to create and successfully exploit a brand name.
Waiting at the airport to fly back to Colombia's capital, I saw a billboard from the country's tourist board that, after spending time in Catatumbo, seemed almost mocking in its message: "Colombia: the only risk is wanting to stay".
James's coolness seems almost mocking in the face of our own excitement.
