What you sandwich declarations of disbelief (in a another person's statement) between on the
internet when you don't realize that *cough* is not even a close approximation of actually coughing. See, when the words are spoken, you may actually be able to mask the words by feigning a cough or sneeze. Typing the word "cough" only makes you look about as stupid as the people who think they need to type
sarcasm in parentheses at the end of every witty, sarcastic
thing they say.
Some Guy: I
got a 5000 on my SATs.
Another Guy: *cough* Bullshit! *cough*
Some Guy: I was obviously joking, asshole. And this is the
internet. typing
stars around the word "cough" really doesn't begin to accurately simulate coughing.