THE IRONIC THREAD

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 12:35am

Post things that are ironic here.


A Firetruck catching on fire.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 12:46am

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It's a black fly in your C****nay
It's a death row pardon two minutes too late

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


Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
"Well isn't this nice..."


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
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn't it ironic...dontcha 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

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 12:49am

Isn't it Ironic how Alanis Morrisette writes a song about irony and ironically says nothing ironic in the song, but instead purely unfortunate matters.

[george95]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 1:28am

When I teach irony to my sophomores during our study of JULIUS CAESAR, I play "Ironic" to show them how common it is for irony to misunderstood in the media. For some reason, MTV reality show cast members seem to be really confused about irony too--you always catch them saying things in interviews like "It's so ironic that she was my friend when we moved in, and now she won't talk to me."

Irony in JULIUS CAESAR

-When the conspirators are at Caesar's house, they are there to lead him to his death, but he thinks they're there as friends.

-When Cassius says "We have the falling sickness"

-When Brutus goes on and on about how suicide is cowardly and he'd never do it, and then 5 minutes later he kills himself.

[Q]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 2:57am

For the sake of the thread and the unaware, I offer the following:

"Irony - The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; a statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. Three kinds of irony are commonly recognized:

1. Verbal irony is a trope in which the intended meaning of a statement differs from the meaning that the words appear to express.

2. Irony of situation involves an incongruity between what is expected or intended and what actually occurs.

3. Dramatic irony is an effect produced by a narrative in which the audience knows more about present or future circumstances than a character in the story."

[Perfectly Marvelous]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 3:41am

Stephen Lynch mentions irony in his song, "Halloween":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImnMucno1ew

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 9:11am

Going into labor on labor day.

[Trekkie2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 9:14am

Yesterday I lost internet access, and the troubleshooter thing told me to fix it... by going to their website.

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 9:23am

Hmmm, is that irony? What ever it is - it's funny!

[sally1112]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 11:19am

My 10th graders were discussing dramatic irony in A Separate Peace yesterday. They confuse it with foreshadowing. I tell them theme dramatic irony is when we know for sure that something will happen. Example, we know Gene will not die because he is alive fifteen years later at the opening of the novel to tell us his story in flashback.

[killertofu333]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 11:51am

"Isn't it Ironic how Alanis Morrisette writes a song about irony and ironically says nothing ironic in the song, but instead purely unfortunate matters."

Yep Alanis was SO Lemony Snicket in '95.

[george95]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 1:45pm

"Separate Peace" teacher, you are incorrect about dramatic irony being just about knowing something for sure. It is when the readers/audience have more information than the characters do. Scroll up, there are some pretty clear straight forward definitions.

I think that people commonly get IRONY confused with COINCIDENCE. Running into an old friend while out running errands-not ironic. Going into labor on Labor Day--not ironic.

I give my students an extra-credit opportunity by telling them to find examples in media of people mis-using the terms irony/ironic. Like I said before, its most ofen used incorrectly with reality tv show people---the same group of people who say things like "Last night, the new roommate went out to dinner with my brother and I." Ouch!!!

[sally1112]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 5:24pm

I didn't mean to imply that it is "just about knowing something for sure." My kids too smart for thier own good sometimes so they really pick up on the foreshadowing and they make good inferences. Then they think that that is dramatic irony, but we as the audience, don't know something for sure, we have just been given a clue.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 5:32pm

"I give my students an extra-credit opportunity by telling them to find examples in media of people mis-using the terms irony/ironic."


Like using the term 'retarded' when describing them?

[artscallion]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 5:34pm

I could be wrong. But my understanding of dramatic irony is that it involves more than just the audience having more information than the characters do. It has the added element of the characters then acting against their own best interest or intentions because of that lack the information. The irony comes from us watching them act this way while knowing that it would benefit them to act differently.

Updated On: 12/13/08 at 05:34 PM

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 7:05pm

Heres an interesting one for you scholars. What would you say is an ironic death? When my cat died, we were amused to see that she died on the date of her birth. The vet said "That's ironic" - but would this be what you call an ironic death?

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 7:15pm

I call that 'cat'astrophic.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 7:16pm

A couple of months ago I was hospitalized. My tv was stuck on LI news 12 so they brought me a Wii to play with. But the only thing that worked on the Wii was Wii Fit...I was in the hospital for asthma.

[Jane2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 7:26pm

After reading this thread, I'm unsure if I still know what irony is!

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 7:34pm

Me too, Jane2. This was just me trying to restore intelligence on BWW.

[george95]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 8:56pm

I wish I could say it was ironic that theaterdiva chooses to come onto threads just so say something catty/bitchy/grumpy but no, that's not ironic......its just........ah who cares.

The definitions of irony further up in the thread are fairly clear.

And no there is nothing ironic about a cat dying on his birthday--again that's coincidence being confused with irony.

The three most common types of irony:

situational: expecting one thing to happen and then something completely opposite actually happens

verbal: saying one thing and meaning another aka irony of tone aka sarcasm.

dramatic: audience/readers have information the characters do not, and as the poster said above, then we have to wince in our seats as we see the character do something we know is wrong.

Situational is the type people get wrong the most often---rain on your wedding day for example. If you researched the Farmer's Almanac about the day that has historically had the least amount of rain in your area, and you go out of your way to have your wedding on that day, and then you check the forecast and will cancel the wedding if rain is predicted, but then no rain is predicted, you have your wedding, and it rains anyway...well that could be ironic because it is the opposite of what is expected. But just rain on a wedding day? Why wouldnt it rain on a wedding day? Its just another day! Same with the cat dying on his birthday---its just another day; the cat has as good a chance as dying on that day as any other.

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 9:01pm

On tuesday it was sunny in the morning, so I didn't take my umbrella to work saying "Theres no way it's gonna rain!" it rained that afternoon and I was soaking. The next day, I took my umbrella to work expecting rain it didn't rain. On Thursday, I thought the rain had cleared up so didn't take my umbrella. It rained that day.

Is this irony or just bad luck/coincidence?

[george95]

Posted: 12/13/08 at 9:08pm

No that's not ironic because there needs to be a "situation" behind it (thus the same situational irony) If you had perhaps checked the forecast, or had your meteorologist-lover tell you there would be no rain, then there was there is something irony there. But just seeing the sun and saying there is no chance of rain is just an UNFORTUNATE COINCIDENCE. : )

[dramarama2]

Posted: 12/14/08 at 6:45am

Ahh, I see.

[Radiana]

Posted: 12/14/08 at 7:02am

Marrying a prince who turned into a frog. Does that qualify as ironic?