{"id":1360,"date":"2013-10-07T13:35:26","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T13:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=1360"},"modified":"2013-10-07T13:55:36","modified_gmt":"2013-10-07T13:55:36","slug":"isnt-it-ironic-well-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/isnt-it-ironic-well-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Isn\u2019t It Ironic? Well\u2026 Is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Irony\"<\/a>Irony is one of the most misunderstood, underestimated, and abused forms of expression in the English language \u2013 and Canadian musician Alanis Morissette and her producers have a lot to answer for by confusing the matter further.<\/p>\n

Irony is quite hard to grasp, but clearly Morissette hasn\u2019t got a clue based on the lyrics of her popular song Ironic<\/em>. None of the examples she refers to in it are ironic at all, annoying yes, but not ironic \u2013 which in itself is ironic!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the examples she uses, \u2018It\u2019s like rain on your wedding day\u2019, \u2018A traffic jam when you're already late\u2019, \u2018A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break\u2019, or \u2018It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife\u2019 \u2013 no, no, no, none of these are ironic, just inconvenient occurrences.<\/p>\n

So, venting over, what is irony then? A simple way of putting it, is that irony usually signals a difference between the appearance of things and reality, usually used in a humorous way. To add to the complexity of an already complex subject, there are also versions of irony: verbal; dramatic; and situational.<\/p>\n

Verbal irony<\/b> is similar to sarcasm but without such malicious intent, like saying, \u201cIt\u2019s a lovely day\u201d when you\u2019re stuck in the middle of a blizzard, or in its most basic form, exclaiming \u201cOh, great\u201d when you\u2019ve broken or dropped something.<\/p>\n

Dramatic irony<\/b> is ironically best dramatised in Shakespeare\u2019s Romeo and Juliet. Let\u2019s set the scene \u2013 Juliet drinks the potion to make it appear she has died so that when she reawakens she can be free to be with her forbidden lover, Romeo. But alas, Romeo, believing her to be dead when he sees her in this state, kills himself in what we would also refer to as cruel irony.<\/p>\n

\"Irony2\"<\/a>Probably the most commonly used version would be situational irony<\/b>, which is best explained as an incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurred, or put simply, a trivial oddity. These are most used for comic effect, like some of these headlines from last year: \u201c'All-you-can-eat' diners banned for eating too much\u201d<\/i>; \u201cEmoticon inventor hates 'smileys'\u201d<\/i>; \u201cMan sues the Guinness Book of Records over 'most lawsuits' claim\u201d<\/i>; and unfortunately, \u201cDeath ends 'buried alive' record attempt\u201d<\/i>!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obviously a pet peeve and something that confuses us all at times, but if you\u2019re unsure, you can always check out www.IsItIronic.com<\/a> for a rating system of what\u2019s ironic and what\u2019s not. And while you\u2019re at it, Morissette\u2019s ridiculously incorrect versions of irony have created such a maelstrom of reaction since it was released, it has been parodied, criticised, and corrected across all forms of media.<\/p>\n

So hopefully that\u2019s cleared up some things for you, but if after reading this article about irony you\u2019re more confused than before, that would be ironic! What are some examples of irony that you can think of?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Irony is one of the most misunderstood, underestimated, and abused forms of expression in the English language \u2013 and Canadian musician Alanis Morissette and her producers have a lot to answer for by confusing the matter further. Irony is quite hard to grasp, but clearly Morissette hasn\u2019t got a clue based on the lyrics of(\u2026)<\/p>\n

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\n\t \t\t\t\tCONTINUE READING »<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,27,15],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-1360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language-learning","category-humour-offbeat","category-entertainment","tag-alanis-morissette","tag-ironic","tag-irony"],"yoast_head":"\nIsn\u2019t It Ironic? Well\u2026 Is It? - Listen & Learn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/isnt-it-ironic-well-is-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Isn\u2019t It Ironic? 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