A Factorial reader asked me to define irony.
We all understand what irony is intuitively, but it is difficult to define - Google has three pages of definitions. Common themes are that irony is:
- when the intended meaning of the words is the direct opposite of their usual sense
- the difference between how you might expect something to be and how it actually is.
Some examples of irony are:
- Jonathon Swift's essay A Modest Proposal, was hardly that as he suggested the Irish eat their own children.
- Calling something 'clever' when you really think it's stupid.
There are four main types of irony.
- Verbal irony occurs when we say one thing but mean the opposite. For example, your friend turns up in ripped jeans and you say 'I can see we're going to a posh restaurant tonight'. Verbal irony is sometimes confused with sarcasm, but sarcasm is harsher.
- Dramatic irony in movies and the theatre is when the meaning of a character's words or actions is the opposite of the real situation. The character cannot see this contrast, but the audience can. For example, Othello refers to Iago as 'honest Iago', not realising he is a villain.
- Situational irony is an incongruity between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. For example, a millionaire wins millions in a lottery or a boy breaks a date with his girlfriend to go to the rugby with his mates and sees his girlfriend there with another guy.
- Cosmic irony (or irony of fate) is situational irony taken to tragic extremes. For example, a poor person wins millions in a lottery and dies in a car accident two days later.
References:
Google
http://www.delmar.edu/engl/wrtctr/handouts/irony.htm
http://www.cvco.org/education/etohc/irony.htm
P.S. The Factorial reader also asked if Alanis Morisette's songs were ironic? I couldn't answer that question, but another Factorial reader emailed the following response:
Irish comedian Ed Byrne delivered the most succinct riposte to Ms Morisette’s song Ironic. Here’s the text of his now-famous routine.
I love that bit of musical parody. I'd love to see them do like a musical parody of Ironic by Alanis Morrisette, they could do a really wacky version with some irony in it. That would be an odd notion wouldn't it?
Cause that song really gets to me for that very reason, cause she wrote a song about irony and filled them with things that were supposed to be ironic and none of them were. They were all just unfortunate. I always think that song should have been called 'Unfortunate'. The only ironic thing about that song is that it's called Ironic and it's written by someone who doesn't know what irony is. Fairly ironic when you think about it.
I'm going to coin a new word, which is 'alanic', that's things that aren't ironic but you might think they were if you were a dozy Canadian bint.
I'm not being harsh, if you actually listen to the lyrics to the song. "Like a traffic jam when you're already late"- that's not ironic it's just a pain in the hole that's what that is. When was the last time you were late for something, got stuck in a traffic jam and said "Look on the irony on this, there's irony for ya. I'll tell ya I was in a fierce ironic traffic jam the other day I'll tell ya. The irony was ninety."
No, there's nothing ironic about being stuck in a traffic jam when you're late for something. Unless you're a town planner. If you were a town planner and you were on your way to a seminar of town planners at which you were giving a talk on how you solved the problem of traffic congestion in your area, couldn't get to it because you were stuck in a traffic jam, that'd be well ironic, "I'm sorry I'm late, you'll never guess".
"It's like rain on your wedding day", only if marrying a weatherman and he set the date. I could go on and I will.
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break, that's inconsiderate office management. A no-smoking sign in a cigarette factory - irony. It's not a difficult concept, Alanis. It's very rare you see an ironic no-smoking sign although if you ever see one of those that say thank-you for not smoking and you are. Fairly ironic.
The best line in that song has got to be the line "It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife." That's not ironic that's just bloody stupid. How big is your sink, Alanis? We haven't got 10,000 spoons between us have we? What do you need this knife for? To stab the bloke who keeps leaving spoons all over your house. But we'll give her the benefit of the doubt. Imagine you needed a knife for something, couldn't find one cause all you find was 10,000 spoons, could happen. And therefore you couldn't do whatever it was you needed the knife for then the next day it turned out that a spoon would have done.
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