I am too chatty to confine myself to no words on Wednesday. So instead I have decided that every week I will choose one special word to highlight and adore. Something obscure but useful. Something constantly misused. Maybe just something that sounds cool.
I am starting off easy. This week's word is IRONY.iro·ny
noun \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\
plural iro·nies
1
: a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2
a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
3
a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony
This word is often confused with coincidence.
For instance, “A black fly in your chardonnay” is not an example of irony. It really isn’t even coincidence. It is just something that happened, and probably portents some sort of doom.
However, Alanis Morissette writing a song called “Ironic” and then including zero examples of actual irony is ironic.
Running into a friend at Starbucks? Coincidence. That friend working at Starbucks despite a severe allergy to caffeine? Irony.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to check if you are using the right word. Just stop and ask yourself, “Is this situation defying expectation in a hilariously cruel way?” If the answer is yes, you have irony. If the answer is no, you probably have a coincidence, and a good chance that whatever you are about to comment on is a. not that funny, and b. not that interesting.
Please enjoy this video of Alanis Morissette singing her seminal classic, “Ironic.”
Wait a second. Alanis does have irony in her song. Let me see what of the lyrics I can remember.
ReplyDelete"A Death row pardon two minutes too late" is an example of irony. So is "10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife."
However, "meeting the man of my dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife" - not ironic. And "rain on your wedding day" - not ironic.
"A free ride when you've already paid" - I can see how that would be considered ironic.
Okay that's all I can think of without actually listening to the song (which I don't feel like doing at the moment). :)
-A
I love this idea, Katie!
ReplyDeleteLOVE. IT.
Audra, according to the check that Katie proposed, “Is this situation defying expectation in a hilariously cruel way?”, the 10,000 spoons would only be ironic if she were in a knife factory or some other situation where spoons would be totally out of place. Same thing with the death row pardon. It would only be ironic if, for example, most people got pardoned in plenty of time except for this one person.
ReplyDelete