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Actually I think 'Unfortunate' would have been the appropriate word in that song. Most of the situations described don't involve any direct negation of the protagonists intentions. The only possible qualifier is

'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..."'

... but the last line is still sarcasm, not irony.



I'm late to the thread but Ed Byrne expounds hilariously on your point in this classic standup bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg


Please clarify:

It's like 10,000 spoons, when all you need is a knife.

It's like meeting the man of your dreams, and then meeting his beautiful husband.

A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break.

Does the qualifier "it's like" affect its intent?


Take an example of irony--the story of Oedipus. Oedipus leaves his family specifically to avoid a prophecy that he would kill his father, and marry his mother. The action of leaving his home, by which he intends to stop the prophecy by removing himself from proximity to his parents, causes it to come true, because unknown to Oedipus he was adopted. Oedipus causes the prophecy to come true by accidentally returning to his biological parents.

So we have the action of a protagonist causing the opposite effect of what was intended--irony. The items Alanis lists are mainly really annoying.


Making sure I understand, is this 'irony'?

Alanis is a regional manager, overseeing several stores. Her office is located in a specific store. Alanis decices to institute a 'no smoking' policy on breaks for all stores, but not her own store (where her office is located - she loves to smoke cigarettes).

Corporate agrees and it becomes company policy. Impressed by Alanis's HR policy, they transfer her to an ailing store, where smoking is banned and she cannot undo corporate policy.


So, the protaganist must always make the action to be considered irony?


In traditional tragic irony, yes. If you look on wikipedia it seems the consensus is now that everything, more or less, is irony.


> Most of the situations described don't involve any direct negation of the protagonists intentions.

That was what I was pointing out.


You are being sarcastic.




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