Semantics: Irony

[Deimos]

I recently bought a new mobile phone. When someone sends me an SMS and I choose to reply, there are a few common replies built in to the phone that I can choose from if I am too lazy to reply with my own words. One of these generic replies is "I love you too". Now if we take the "Reality Bites" definition of Irony (where the literal meaning is the opposite of the actual meaning) then this reply strikes me as a little ironic, since if you love someone then you are going to put in the effort to say it yourself.

The difficulty comes when one actually does love the person, but decides they are going to be ironic and use the template "I love you too" just to highlight its inherent irony. Now in this situation is there a double irony? Or do the two ironies cancel each other out leaving us with no irony at all?

Irony seems to be quite a popular topic for debate because lots of people kind of know what it is but are not entirely sure exactly how it works. What do you fine people think?

[hazza]

Irony is saying you hate fags and your son becomes gay.


Not being lazy.

[Ins0mniac]

Originally posted by hazza
Irony is saying you hate fags and your son becomes gay.


Not being lazy.

Well you obvioulsy haven't watched Reality Bites go rent it out on DVD.

[Tintin]

Reality Bites is a crap film. All it proves is that Americans don't 'get' irony.

[Ins0mniac]

Originally posted by Tintin
Reality Bites is a crap film. All it proves is that Americans don't 'get' irony. ]

It is not crap. So ner! Ner! Ner!

I know you are, I say you are so what am I?

You're just being anti-American!

*pokes out tounge*

[Goat Boy]

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

um? NO! (http://www.mellowfellow.com/ironic.shtml)

[Fuzzy Dice]

Irony is the fact that alanis morisette's "ironic" was written by a person who doesn't know what irony is. The whole song is a collection of events that are merely unfortunate:

"It's like raaa-aiaaain, on your wedding day!" That would only be ironic if, say, you were a meteorologist and had predicted a sunny day.

"It's a traffic jam, when you're already late." No. That would be ironic if you were a city planner, late for city planning meeting on how you'd solved the city's traffic congestion problem.

"It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife." Well that's not ironic, that's just stupid.

[Ins0mniac]

So we have four definitions so far.

The "Reality Bites" definition:
"When the actual meaning is the complete opposite to the literal meaning."

The "hazza" definition:
"Irony is saying you hate fags and your son becomes gay."

The "GoatBoy" definition:
"characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is; "it was ironical that the well-planned scheme failed so completely"

And the "Alanis Morissette" definition:
"It's Ironic when things finally go right and then they completely fuck up".

[Ins0mniac]

No I'd like to point out to everyone that Alanis Morissette's "ironic" isn't merely when things go wrong, but when things finally go "right" and then go wrong.

Which is still wrong but slightly more accurate.

[Goat Boy]

Alanis Morissette is actually quite clever. She wrote a song all about irony and didn't include any ironic situations. Thereby making the song itself an ironic statement.

[Ins0mniac]

Originally posted by Goat Boy
Alanis Morissette is actually quite clever. She wrote a song all about irony and didn't include any ironic situations. Thereby making the song itself an ironic statement.

Pure genius!

[DrDivad]

Originally posted by Goat Boy
Alanis Morissette is actually quite clever. She wrote a song all about irony and didn't include any ironic situations. Thereby making the song itself an ironic statement.

it's full of a kind of irony!

every damn line is ironic, well the chorus at least, i can barle y remeber that damn song


irony is subject to opinion

[tikdoph]

New and improved zgeek... with twice the daily recommended requirement of irony.

[Goat Boy]

Originally posted by DrDivad
it's full of irony!

every damn line is ironic, well the chorus at least, i can barle y remeber that damn song

um? NO! (http://www.mellowfellow.com/ironic.shtml)

[Ins0mniac]

I don't want to turn this into a political thread, but I think the "leader of the free world" is ironic.

[Mattryx]

Irony is where the Autobots get destroyed by a weapon the Decepticons have, that was originally created by the Autobots to destroy the Decepticons.

[utopian]

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like apples.

[wolfpac181]

Originally posted by Mattryx
Irony is where the Autobots get destroyed by a weapon the Decepticons have, that was originally created by the Autobots to destroy the Decepticons.

Was that the one where Wheeljack made that device that suspended movement. Ironhide was supposed to be on watch, but Carly (Spike's later on wife) distracted him. With no one scouting, the Decepticons were able to steal the weapon. Needless to say, Ironhide decided to retire from active duty from the Autobots. Ironically, Ironhide and Carly snuck behind Decepticon lines and reversed the polarity of the Suspention Device........

[Scythe]

Originally posted by wolfpac181
Was that the one where Wheeljack made that device that suspended movement. Ironhide was supposed to be on watch, but Carly (Spike's later on wife) distracted him. With no one scouting, the Decepticons were able to steal the weapon. Needless to say, Ironhide decided to retire from active duty from the Autobots. Ironically, Ironhide and Carly snuck behind Decepticon lines and reversed the polarity of the Suspention Device........

You don't get out much, do you?

[Mattryx]

Originally posted by wolfpac181
Was that the one where Wheeljack made that device that suspended movement. Ironhide was supposed to be on watch, but Carly (Spike's later on wife) distracted him. With no one scouting, the Decepticons were able to steal the weapon. Needless to say, Ironhide decided to retire from active duty from the Autobots. Ironically, Ironhide and Carly snuck behind Decepticon lines and reversed the polarity of the Suspention Device........

Hmmm, that sounds familiar.


Originally posted by Scythe
You don't get out much, do you?
You didn't spend your youth glued to the TV on saturdays from 6am till 9am?!?!

[Spingo]

I hate irony.

Why clothes get creases in them in the firts place is beyond me. :p

Yes, you can all hate me for that one.. Hey! Maybe I can start a new brach of comedy called "Ironic humour"?

[Movius]

Irony is a dead scene

[rosamund]

Originally posted by utopian
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like apples.

Leave and never darken my towels again!

Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted.

[wolfpac181]

Originally posted by Scythe
You don't get out much, do you?

I'm a Transformers buff, piss-off.
I have Every episode of old school Transformers, plus the unaired HeadMasters saga.

[Asmodeus]

A tragedy is a man about to have a fatal diabetic attack getting run over by a truck on his way to the drug store.

a coincidence would be if it was an insulin truck

irony would be if teh driver was having a diabetic attack while driving the truck


i think...

[Tintin]

What about a fire engine that can't make it to a call because it's caught on fire? (This has actually happened). :flame:

[Ins0mniac]

Originally posted by Tintin
What about a fire engine that can't make it to a call because it's caught on fire? (This has actually happened). :flame:

Or an ambulance that runs over and kills someone on the way to a scene?

[Tintin]

What about a petrol tanker running out of petrol?

I have come to the conclusion that all irony must involve a truck of some sort. Call it Tintin's version of irony.

[hazza]

Originally posted by Ins0mniac
Or an ambulance that runs over and kills someone on the way to a scene?

Irony would be an ambulance running over the victim.

[pleed]

Irony would be the toilet pooing on you.

[lmeyer]

:cool:
Further irony would be George W Bush being killed by a smart bomb dropped from a plane piloted by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Or Utopian getting his very first blowjob from Nandragon.:eek:

Oh! the horror!.

Bye!

[robotoverflow]

A Smart Bomb would be in bad in company with George W Bush.

[Tintin]

This is irony. (http://theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/27/1067233095573.html?from=storyrhs) "Hail kills 100 creatures

Hailstones killed more than 100 birds and animals, including a dozen kangaroos and wallabies, at the Gold Coast's Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary during wild weather on Sunday. "

See... the animals were in a 'sanctuary', yet they prolly would have been better off elsewhere.

[Asmodeus]

Originally posted by pleed
Irony would be the toilet pooing on you.

In mother russia, the toilet shits in you.

[sagit]

Originally posted by Fuzzy Dice
Irony is the fact that alanis morisette's "ironic" was written by a person who doesn't know what irony is. The whole song is a collection of events that are merely unfortunate:

"It's like raaa-aiaaain, on your wedding day!" That would only be ironic if, say, you were a meteorologist and had predicted a sunny day.

"It's a traffic jam, when you're already late." No. That would be ironic if you were a city planner, late for city planning meeting on how you'd solved the city's traffic congestion problem.

"It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife." Well that's not ironic, that's just stupid.


agreed. i'm sure some comedian used that as well..probably lots of comedians actually

[angel_b]

Originally posted by sagit
agreed. i'm sure some comedian used that as well..probably lots of comedians actually
Yeah, it was some Irish comic dude a few years ago. It was actually funny back then ... :p

[mysterious-dr-x]

Originally posted by Fuzzy Dice
Irony is the fact that alanis morisette's "ironic" was written by a person who doesn't know what irony is. The whole song is a collection of events that are merely unfortunate:

"It's like raaa-aiaaain, on your wedding day!" That would only be ironic if, say, you were a meteorologist and had predicted a sunny day.

"It's a traffic jam, when you're already late." No. That would be ironic if you were a city planner, late for city planning meeting on how you'd solved the city's traffic congestion problem.

"It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife." Well that's not ironic, that's just stupid.

sagit
agreed. i'm sure some comedian used that as well..probably lots of comedians actually

i saw a comedien once who was going on about this, he said pretty much what you said for the traffic one, something along the lines of.....

" 'It's like ten thousand spoons, when all you need is a knife.' thats only ironic if you've spent hours searching for a knife & then the next day you find that a spoon would have done anyway. & why would anyone have 10,000 spoons anyway, what would you possibly need that many spoons for!"

.....he was so funny, & irish.

[angel_b]

Originally posted by angel_b
Yeah, it was some Irish comic dude a few years ago. It was actually funny back then ... :p
Originally posted by mysterious-dr-x
.....he was so funny, & irish.
Deja vu :)

[Fuzzy Dice]

yesh. it was an irish comic. He was hilarious. I meant to quote him, but I couldn't remember his name.

[sagit]

ed byrne i think his name is

[angel_b]

*hands sagit a kewpie doll* :)

[wolfpac181]

Dual Irony:

$ man man

$ man woman

[m0loch]

Originally posted by sagit
i'm sure some comedian used that as well..probably lots of comedians actually
there was some comedian on Comedy Central that once did a bit on that song, ranting and raving and carrying on about how these events weren't ironic, that real irony was naming the national airport after the president that fired all the air traffic controllers.
beer came out my nose.