2008 Woodie Awards
...Of the Week
A clarification of all things IRONIC
Whitney Medved
Issue date: 9/12/06 Section: Detour
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"It's like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife…" Irony is a concept that people, including Alanis Morissette, love to throw around. More often than not though, their examples really fall under the category of "coincidence."
For example, the seemingly indestructible Steve Irwin, official wrestler of crocodiles and veteran swimmer with great white sharks, being killed by a usually docile stingray is in fact ironic. Seeing someone at the mall you haven't seen in four years, or as one ironic joke website claims "Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?" is in no way, shape, or form ironic.
I once had a teacher break it down like this: irony is "anything you would expect to happen in the opposite of a perfect world." This is by no means an official definition, but perhaps it will save one or two of you from making one of the most annoying, and regrettably common, malapropisms around town.
For example, the seemingly indestructible Steve Irwin, official wrestler of crocodiles and veteran swimmer with great white sharks, being killed by a usually docile stingray is in fact ironic. Seeing someone at the mall you haven't seen in four years, or as one ironic joke website claims "Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?" is in no way, shape, or form ironic.
I once had a teacher break it down like this: irony is "anything you would expect to happen in the opposite of a perfect world." This is by no means an official definition, but perhaps it will save one or two of you from making one of the most annoying, and regrettably common, malapropisms around town.