I little post on irony for Kit...

Kit, these are the best examples I have found online. Sorry it took me so long to reply! I always think of the Alanis Morisette song. This is addressed below. Irony: He died in the "living" room. Oxymoron: "Jumbo" shrimp. At least I think that's it! This is cornfusing....confusing...oh help!


verbal irony (often sarcasm) - when what is said it the opposite of what is meant. Example: "Nice shirt." when you hate the shirt.

dramatic irony - when the audience knows something important that the character doesn't. Example: In "Oedipus Rex", the audience knows Oedipus' past, but he doesn't.

situation irony - when an example of a situation is the opposite of what is expected. Examples: a lifeguard drowns, a policeman is arrested, a fire station burns down.

The only ironic part of Alanis Morrisette's song "Ironic" is that NOTHING in the song is actually ironic (situational irony - with a title like that, you'd expect many examples of irony instead of none).

"A black fly in your Chardonnay"
"Rain on your wedding day"
"A free ride, when you've already paid"

As a friend of mine once said, "Alanis, these things aren't ironic; they just SUCK!"


H. W. Fowler, in Modern English Usage, had this to say of irony:

Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware, both of that “more” and of the outsider’s incomprehension.

Irony has some of its foundation in the onlooker’s perception of paradox. In June 2005, the State of Virginia Employment Agency, which handles unemployment compensation, announced that they would lay off 400 employees for lack of work because unemployment is so low in the state. The reader’s perception of a disconnection between common expectation, and the application of logic with an unexpected outcome, both has an element of irony in it and shows the connection between irony and humor, when the surprise startles us into laughter. Not all irony is humorous: “grim irony” and “stark irony” are familiar.