How Ironic!

Irony is probably the most misunderstood concept in English Language.

Many people say:

"He was walking down an even road when he fell down. How ironic!" 

                                                    OR 

"All I needed was a spoon. Ironically, I was provided with 10 forks."

Both examples above are not ironic situations. How do we actually use the idea of irony?

Here are some good examples:

• He went to the hospital for his medical check up and got hit by an ambulance on the way there.
• I found a dollar on the street, not thinking of how valuable it was. A minute later, I got in a bus and I was a dollar short for the fare.
• Manufacturing fire extinguishers for half of your life and died for not having a fire extinguisher.

Irony is the opposite situation of what you expected to happen, often referring to the same cause (hospital, a dollar, fire extinguisher). Ironies are usually used to express humor or empathy.

The most annoying misconception of irony is in a pop song called "Irony".

Below are parts of the lyrics:

"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"   

and so on...

A rain on your wedding day, isn't an irony—unless you love rain. Because a weather that you love actually ruin the best day of your life! Well, the whole song is an irony. Because a song called irony was written by a composer who obviously has no idea of what irony is, which is ironic. Get it?

Here's an amazing video by WhatYouOughtToKnow to explain 3 types of irony. You might use some of them in your everyday life without knowing that you've used the concept irony correctly!

Learn Well!

Alice