Now THIS is ironic, Alanis Morissette! (And so is our featured image.)
Why am I dragging the old has-been, Morissette, into this? Because every time I hear her stupid song on the radio, about “irony,” there is barely an example of irony in her lyrics. And yes, I know, this topic has been beaten to death. But I’m going to do it again, ironically.
IRONIC
An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
(Okay, a little bit ironic, but we need context to make it truly ironic. Did he play the lottery every day?)
It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay
(That’s not irony.)
It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think
(No, that’s not an example of irony.)
It’s like rain on your wedding day
(If it never rains in your area, maybe this could be construed as irony. But you’d have to have been offered rain insurance and you poo-pooed it because it NEVER rains. Then you’d have irony.)
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
(But you pay all the time, right? So how is this irony?)
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
(THAT’S NOT IRONY!!!!!!!)
Who would’ve thought, it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
“Well, isn’t this nice.”
And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think
(That’s called bad luck.)
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought, it figures
Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything’s okay and everything’s going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything’s gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face
A traffic jam when you’re already late
(Not irony.)
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
(Not irony.)
It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
(If you needed a spoon yesterday and only had knives, now it would be irony.)
It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
(Not irony.)
And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think
A little too ironic, and yeah I really do think
It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought, it figures
Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
And life has a funny way of helping you out
Helping you out.
It’s like 85 plumbers flying to a plumbing fair
And a broken toilet keeps them from getting there.
Isn’t it ironic?
YES!
I think we need to go to the expert on this, Ironic Curtain.
ht/ JS
Or 85 democrats voting for a politician to clean up ethics named Clinton.
Or a democrat supporting Dreamers finding out that an illegal alien self-deported.
I ordered a ribeye and baked potato. It arrived to my table 20 minutes later.
Very ironic.
“You’re”, not “your”. Fix the meme.
Why would I fix the meme? The meme is ironic because “you’re” is spelled wrong.
Or, are you being ironic with your comment?
If that’s the case, well played.
-bfh
So glad I pretty much skipped pop music after 1988. I tried going back a couple of times. Couldn’t do it.
The primary meaning of irony, according to the OED, is
But another meaning, also quite proper, with citations going back hundreds of years, is
The 85 plumbers fit that second sense perfectly.
@Ted Nougat:
What would have been really, really ironic is if you’d ordered spinach, too. (-:
Enough irony to make an anvil.™
Best illustration of irony ever (George Carlin)
Diabetic getting run over by an insulin truck
An illustration of Irony from my own personal experience
I was doing badly in Honors English freshman year at ASU. Then I was given an assignment to write an essay illustrating a single abstract word. So what i did was plagiarize an essay from Reader’s Digest and got an “A’
What was my word — “Honor” ……. That’s a true story, Kay
Guy works on campaign of world famous and loud-mouthed Woman’s Right advocate, gets busted for sexual harassment, gets promoted and the victim gets fired.
Isn’t it ironic?
Woman is declared one of the smartest women on Earth, but claims she can’t figure out how to use the same government issued e-mail system that thousands of her subordinates use routinely.
Isn’t it ironic?
Guy is head of the most prestigious law enforcement agency in the world, but routinely turned his head and failed to enforce important laws whenever his political allies were the ones that broke the law.
Isn’t it ironic?
An old hag of a crone was expected to win the presidency but lost it to a white male! I don’t know if that is ironic but it sure does feel right, proper and GOOD!
Alanis is her name, musically plain,
she stopped in a Jersey diner just the same.
The waiter ordered for her, a spider sat down beside her and said “Yo, whats in the bowl bitch!”….
Alanis is her name, some would say musically plain,
she stopped into a Jersey diner just the same.
The cook recommended the special, I spider lowered and nestled and said, “Yo! Whats in the bowl bitch!”
I had to update my anon post folks
I stopped using ‘irony’ years ago because I assume Irony has a trademark.