Irony. People such as Alanis will often tell you that irony is something like... I dunno....getting rained on during your wedding or dying on your first plane ride. Or something like getting run over by a Popeye's truck. Etc. etc. Many have debated with that that is truly irony. Well, let's take a gander at what wikipedia has to say:

Irony is best known as a figure of speech (more precisely called verbal irony) in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is understood. It can also be considered a twist of fate where an eventual occurrence relates back to a particular quote. All the different senses of irony, however, revolve around the notion of incongruity, or a gap between our understanding and what actually happens.

Buh? That sounds like lots of them Harvard talk. I'm not sure what notion of incongruity means, but to make things easier, here are lists of a types of irony and somewhat amusing examples.

Verbal Irony: Similiar to sarcasm, but it's much more implied and not as harsh and direct. A common example is Marc Antony's eulogy of Caesar. Yeah, I don't get it either, but in layman's terms, I think an example would be anything Stephen Colbert says about Bush and Republicans. It's said with a straight face, but it's verbal irony. Another example would be to say in a speech that "Being a lawyer requires great honesty, truth and a desire to fairly demand justice from a flawless system. At the heart of every litigation, an apology as all that is wanted."

Dramatic Irony: This occurs when someone describes a situation, unbenowest that what is said is wholly untrue. For example, this would be akin to Generic Reality Star A saying in the private room that "Generic Reality Star B is my best and most loyal friend on the show", when in truth, Generic Reality Star B is plotting the ouster/voting off/kicking out/firing of said Generic Reality Star A. Only we as the audience (sigh....and there is an audience) is in on the delidcious dramatic irony of Star B's true evil motives. Poor Star A. Moving on.

Situational Irony: This is the irony that most are familiar with. This is a combination of a unfair or unfortuate act that occurs to someone who is not expecting such results. Situational irony will often include the circumstantial or coincidental events that are not true ironies. For example, dying on your first flight ever after overcoming a fear of flying is a situational irony. Way to go, Alannis. But raining on your wedding day? No. Now, that WOULD be ironic if say, you were a weatherman who guarantees forecasts. Or a clown who died of sadness. I'm sure you can think of more.

Irony of Fate (Cosmic Irony):
This is like situational irony, but worse. It's so bad that normally in movies it'll make the lil' lady cry. It's also common for movie characters to turn upwards at God and shake a fist yelling "WHHHHHYYYY!!!!" It's a situational irony that is utterly tragic and makes one question whether there are dubious forces at work. A good example would be a fat person who after working hard to reach his target weight after years of hard work, decides to eat his first piece of fried chicken in years and choking to death on it. Sniff. That just...tears me up man. Twist of Fate Irony is often confused with "just plain shitty luck." There was to be some connection between the twistee and the twister. Like, if you work really hard to get somewhere, and that goal is not there when you reach it, that's just plain shitty luck. It becomes truly ironic is if there was some connection between your actions in reaching the goal and the goal not being there.

Alanis Morrisette: Yes, her song "Ironic", was indeed, NOT ironic. Most of the incidents mentioned (being late and stuck in a jam, winning the lottery and dying) are not examples of irony, but instead just unfortunate coincidences. Now, those incidents may have been ironic if you were late and stuck in a traffic jam, and you are the Director of Keeping Traffic Flowing. I think? I dunno. The point is, the next time you say "Man, that's ironic how so and so happened"...think about it. Do you really want to be some punk Canadian poser who calls everything ironic?

Posted by Victor on Thursday, September 07, 2006 at 7:17 AM | Permalink