# misuse of ironic **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2000, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434 "2000-09-08T00:21:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/21 "2000-09-08T16:43:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zette \* > \*\*The other day I was reading a safety poster about not getting distracted and how you can be hurt if you don’t pay attention, and while I was reading it I smashed my toe into a pallet. > > Is that situational irony or what? I was reading about how to prevent injury, and injured myself in the process. Is this a correct use of the term?\*\* Kind of like the way Christopher Reeve broke his neck riding a horse, while making a video about equestrian safety. ---
**Author:** ![TampaFlyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TampaFlyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TampaFlyer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/22 "2000-09-08T17:41:28Z")
I’m glad others realize the lack of irony in Alanis’ song. I had also wondered if she was trying to be ironic by listing things that were NOT ironic. I decided she probably just misunderstands the word, although I do like the song. Maybe it should’ve been called “Bummer”. I’ve seen examples of irony that I would instead call hypocrisy, such as a minister getting caught with a hooker, or an anti-drug crusader getting busted for heroin. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/23 "2000-09-08T18:21:57Z")
There’s also dramatic irony (which can also appear in other forms of literature than drama, incidentally), in which the audience/reader has access to important information hidden from the characters. For example, if, in a mystery, the audience knows who the murderer is, and then sees the same character in a friendly chat with the detective, that’s dramatic irony, because the detective (presumably) doesn’t know yet. At least, that’s what my English teachers from seventh grade on up have been telling me. ---
**Author:** ![bpaulsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/73ab20/32.png) [@bpaulsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bpaulsen)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/24 "2000-09-08T19:54:10Z")
How about (and I don’t know if this is right or not)… Nancy Reagan appeared on a TV sit-com to give her “Just Say No” message… The sit-com was “Different Strokes” Brian ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2000, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/25 "2000-09-08T22:23:03Z")
I was going to move this thread, but it seems to have developed into definitions of irony. So I’ll leave it here for now. For now. ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2000, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/26 "2000-09-09T01:27:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The story of the couple and the Christmas gifts [O. Henry’s “Gift of the Magi”] that’s an example of symmetry, not irony. But [brittanica.com](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,43771+1+42812,00.html) sez: > [@](#): > > Dramatic irony depends on the structure of a work rather than its use of words. In plays it is often created by the audience’s awareness of a fate in store for the characters that they themselves are unaware of… The surprise ending of an O. Henry short story is also an example of dramatic irony So we still don’t have consensus… Dammit. I’ve looked at a kajillion websites that mention irony. There’s dramatic irony, verbal irony, situational irony, cosmic irony, literary irony, sarcasm. Some types of irony seem to be completely unrelated to other types of irony. In my mind, someone being sarcastic is a _completely different_ type of event than a firehouse burning down. They shouldn’t _both_ be considered irony. No wonder Alanis was confused. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2000, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/27 "2000-09-09T02:43:55Z")
Well I think I have a perfect example at my website. An ewxample of irony or the misuse of, you can decide for yourself… [http://leftfieldsports.com/archives/story09\_05.htm](http://leftfieldsports.com/archives/story09_05.htm) ---
**Author:** ![jbird3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jbird3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbird3000)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2000, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/28 "2000-09-09T03:32:35Z")
You’re a city planner on your way to a convention in your home city to boast about how you solved the traffic problems in your city, and you get caught in traffic. That’s irony. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2000, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434/29 "2000-09-09T15:37:06Z")
…_Ozymandias_, by Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear – “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.’ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misuse-of-ironic/32434.md?page=1)