# Ironically-named works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590 "2016-02-09T02:54:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/21 "2016-02-09T19:20:43Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Sing, sing, sing, sing > Everybody start to sing > La dee da, ho, ho, ho > Now you’re singing with a swing > > And when the music goes around > Everybody goes to town > But here’s something you should know > Ho ho baby ho ho ho]([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGM2HPM6BDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGM2HPM6BDc)) From Wiki: > [@](#): > > Though it has lyrics, which Prima wrote, it was performed as an instrumental by Fletcher Henderson and, most famously, by Benny Goodman. Let’s just say the better-known version of it wasn’t called “Play, Play, Play.” ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/22 "2016-02-09T19:53:11Z")
Robert Pirsig’s book **Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance** actually contained a disclaimer saying, _“This book should in no way be associated with that great body of knowledge relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice – and it’s not very factual on motorcycles either.”_ ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/23 "2016-02-09T21:01:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Jokes aside, it’s the Mi-nute, or short, waltz. Not a waltz intended to be performed in 60 seconds. That’s the amount of time you’re gone in, except that they took longer. 😛 I have never heard anyone pronounce the title of that composition as you indicated, but, I bow to superior knowledge. 🆒 BTAIM, aren’t they still “Waiting for Godot”? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/24 "2016-02-09T21:05:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > 😕 He really was so vain. He did think the song was about him. The irony is that the song actually IS about him, and therefore is he not vain in believing it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/25 "2016-02-09T21:05:47Z")
The only things ironic in _Ironic_ are the thing about the 10,000 spoons and the fact that a song called _Ironic_ is so jam packed with non-ironic events. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/26 "2016-02-09T21:20:02Z")
> [@quiltguy](#): > > I have never heard anyone pronounce the title of that composition as you indicated, but, I bow to superior knowledge. 🆒 Heck, _I_ don’t pronounce it that way. We Murricans are proudly iggerant of cultoor. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/27 "2016-02-09T23:19:17Z")
_Bill, The Galactic Hero_, isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/28 "2016-02-09T23:23:41Z")
> [@quiltguy](#): > > I have never heard anyone pronounce the title of that composition as you indicated, but, I bow to superior knowledge. 🆒 Because you live in an English-speaking culture, right? Chopin was Polish, living in Paris. And he didn’t even call the piece the Minute Waltz; it was so-named by his publisher, who decided it was a “miniature waltz.” Chopin’s own name for it was “Valse du petit chien” (Waltz of the Little Dog). It was inspired by a dog chasing his own tail. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/29 "2016-02-09T23:24:42Z")
The movie THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD is not good at all. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/30 "2016-02-09T23:57:45Z")
I don’t believe any tack was set aflame in **Blazing Saddles**. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/31 "2016-02-10T00:22:47Z")
_A Modest Proposal_ was quite intentionally neither modest nor a proposal. ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/32 "2016-02-10T20:58:49Z")
OJ Simpson’s Book _If I Did It_ is presented as a hypothetical. ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/33 "2016-02-10T21:02:18Z")
I’ve got the meta-example here. The song “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette doesn’t actually have much to do with irony. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/34 "2016-02-10T21:11:41Z")
> [@Mithrander](#): > > I’ve got the meta-example here. The song “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette doesn’t actually have much to do with irony. How ironic that Mr. Shine referred to it first, in post #25. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/35 "2016-02-10T21:16:55Z")
Life is Beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/36 "2016-02-10T22:28:12Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > How ironic that Mr. Shine referred to it first, in post #25. :smack: I swear I read the thread looking for my example before I posted it. Sigh … it’s like 10,000 opinions when all you need is a cite. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/37 "2016-02-10T23:51:40Z")
According to some interpretations, Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden.” According to other interpretations, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/38 "2016-02-11T00:09:45Z")
> [@Mithrander](#): > > :smack: I swear I read the thread looking for my example before I posted it. I know. It’s happened to me. It happens to most of us. But it doesn’t usually happen to give us as perfect a set-up. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/39 "2016-02-11T00:16:57Z")
“A Few Good Men” ---
**Author:** ![SantaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@SantaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SantaMan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590/40 "2016-02-11T01:07:23Z")
How about Emerson Lake and Palmer’s [“Lucky Man”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89g1P_J40JA) ? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ironically-named-works/745590.md?page=3)