by Jon Winokur
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
Introduction
Note on Bonus Irony
Toward a Definition of Irony
Irony Versus …
Forms of Irony
The Annals of Irony
Irony Takes a Holiday
Irony in Action
Bastions of Irony
Masters of Irony
Against Irony
In Defense of Irony
Ironic, No?
Are You Ironic?
Index
Also by Jon Winokur
Copyright
* * *
i•ro•ny (ī’r-nē, īr-)
n. pl. i•ro•nies
1.
a. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
b. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.
c. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect. See synonyms at wit.
2.
a. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs:
“Hyde noted the irony of Ireland’s copying the nation she most hated” (Richard Kain).
b. An occurence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity.
3. Dramatic irony.
4. Socratic irony.
* * *
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fourth edition
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
—Horace Walpole, Letters (1776)
INTRODUCTION
Irony is a protean phenomenon. It’s a trope for saying one thing while meaning another or a way of looking at the world, a literary device or a pedagogical tool, a refuge for the witless or a secret handshake for the adept. Irony is an affectation for some, a genuine—even genetic—sensibility for others.
Lexicographers, critics, and philosophers don’t agree on a definition. Ever since the ancient Greeks, they’ve been arguing over what irony is and how it works. (If the Greeks didn’t invent irony, they gave it a name, eirōnia, for the artful pretense Socrates used to expose the ignorance of his opponents.) The noun (yronye) first appeared in the English language in 1502, the adjective (ironick) more than a century later (in Ben Jonson’s play The New Inn). By 1755, Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language defined irony as “a mode of speech in which the meaning is clearly contrary to the words,” with the example, “Bolingbroke is a holy man,” implying that Johnson thought Bolingbroke a swine. Through the ages, skilled practitioners have used irony with powerful effect, from Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal to the comedy of Sarah Silverman, from Jane Austen to Ali G, Shakespeare to Seinfeld.
Irony first attracted scholarly attention in 1841, when the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard published The Concept of Irony, a recondite critique of “pure irony” as “infinite absolute negativity.” Several landmark critical studies appeared in the twentieth century, most notably Wayne Booth’s A Rhetoric of Irony in 1974, an elaborate analysis that declares appreciation of irony essential to intelligent reading. In 1996, Alanis Morissette’s hit single “Ironic,” in which situations purporting to be ironic are merely sad, random, or annoying (a traffic jam when you’re running late, a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break) perpetuated misuse of the word and triggered debate over its meaning. Descriptivists, who see language as an evolving entity with the meanings of words ultimately determined by usage, excused Morissette’s looseness. Prescriptivists countered that such linguistic drift is an agent of ignorance and took Morissette to task for the barbarism, gleefully noting the irony of an unironic song called “Ironic.” In 1999, twenty-four-year-old Jedediah Purdy touched off a debate of irony’s cultural significance with his book, For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today, an indictment of the “despairing irony” plaguing America. Purdy was lambasted by critics who, ironically, missed the point. Irony made news again after the attacks of 9/11, when commentators pronounced it dead. (The reports were exaggerated.)
Despite—or maybe because of—all the attention, irony is probably less understood now than ever. Much of the confusion comes from the existence of different forms of irony, the two most prominent of which are verbal irony—saying one thing but meaning another while intending to be understood as meaning the other—and what might be called ambient or cosmic irony, our perception of the vagaries of the human condition. Then there’s dramatic irony, the effect achieved by allowing an audience to understand more than the characters; postmodern irony, a sardonic response to a dizzying age in which change is the only constant; auto-irony, whereby celebrities try to humanize themselves; and visual irony, in which an image contradicts itself, whether intentionally or not.
Irony has the uncanny ability to mirror itself: People misunderstand the meaning of the word irony; one of the meanings of the word irony is the misunderstanding of the meaning of words. Irony is a question that answers itself (“I need this?”) or an answer that questions itself. (Customer: “Is the soup hot?” Jewish waiter: “No, it’s cold.”) Irony plies the gulf between appearance and reality, between what is and what ought to be, between what we hope for and what we get.
This book is an attempt to edify and entertain with irony’s many facets. It’s a small book, to be sure, but I hope the reader will agree that less is more.
J. W.
Pacific Palisades
NOTE ON BONUS IRONY
Little ironies tend to attach themselves to big ironies so that just when you think you’ve reaped all the irony from a given situation, another one crops up. Are these little irony supplements the result of some naturally occurring ironization process? More research is needed. Meantime, examples of such irony appearing throughout the book are labeled “bonus irony.”
Toward a Definition of Irony
Irony is inherently confusing. Not only are its definitions confusing; it is confusing by definition.
—Jennifer Thompson, “Irony: A Few Simple Definitions,” Teachers’ Resource Web
Irony is the intentional transmission of both information and evaluative attitude other than what is explicitly presented.
—Linda Hutcheon, Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony (1994)
Irony deals with opposites; it has nothing to do with coincidence. If two baseball players from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father’s, it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence.
Irony is “a state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result.” For instance: A diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck. He is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.
If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein’s army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.
Darryl Stingley, the pro football player, was paralyzed after a brutal hit by Jack Tatum. Now Darryl Stin
gley’s son plays football, and if the son should become paralyzed while playing, it will not be ironic. It will be coincidental. If Darryl Stingley’s son paralyzes someone else, that will be closer to ironic. If he paralyzes Jack Tatum’s son that will be precisely ironic.
—George Carlin, Brain Droppings (1997)
Irony is a way of containing two opposites in your head at the same time.
—Douglas Coupland, “The Post Modern Ironic Wink,” To the Best of Our Knowledge, Wisconsin Public Radio, June 26, 2005
The word “irony” does not now mean only what it meant in earlier centuries, it does not mean in one country all it may mean in another, nor in the street what it may mean in the study, nor to one scholar what it may mean to another.
—D. C. Muecke, Irony and the Ironic (1982)
There are two broad uses in everyday parlance. The first relates to cosmic irony and has little to do with the play of language or figural speech.… This is an irony of situation, or an irony of existence; it is as though human life and its understanding of the world is undercut by some other meaning or design beyond our powers.… The word irony refers to the limits of human meaning; we do not see the effects of what we do, the outcomes of our actions, or the forces that exceed our choices. Such irony is cosmic irony, or the irony of fate.
—Claire Colebrook, Irony: The New Critical Idiom (2004)
Irony is the result of the human capacity for mental detachment from the stream of experience. Because of this capacity, human beings are able to step back from the rush of sensory experience and render it an object of contemplation.
—Glenn S. Holland, Divine Irony (2000)
Irony is really only hypocrisy with style.
—Barbara Everett, Looking for Richard (1996)
After crying, one puts on dark glasses to hide one’s swollen red eyes and save dignity.… The glasses suggest the presence of a critical situation whose unsuitable aspect is masked at once. Whoever puts them on wants, on the one hand, to receive sympathy for the uneasiness alluded to and, on the other hand, to arouse admiration for succeeding in not exhibiting such discomfort and for avoiding being too upset by it. In the same way, irony can be likened to a pair of “dark glasses,” “uncovering” what it apparently hides. Moreover, just as dark glasses “conceal what they display,” irony is a strategy for indirect speech. It is a “meaning-full” mask, and it has the prerogative of rendering flexible the borders of the area of meaning, allowing for their negotiation in accordance with the situation.
—Luigi Anolli et al., “Behind Dark Glasses: Irony As a Strategy for Indirect Communication,” Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs, February 1, 2002
Paradoxically … the people most likely to know the literal definition of irony are the people least likely to appreciate it in its modern form.
—Jonah Goldberg, National Review, April 28, 1999
Irony Versus …
There are those who insist on a strict definition of irony, while others are less demanding. It’s prescriptivists versus descriptivists in an age-old semiotic dispute. Prescriptivists maintain that linguistic permissiveness is an agent of ignorance, that effective communication requires precision and predictability. For descriptivists, who see language as an evolving entity, the meanings of words are determined by usage, the sole arbiter of legitimacy. It’s a battle that neither side can win because the combatants fail to distinguish among the many forms of irony, or even between its two most common varieties: verbal irony, saying one thing and meaning another, and ambient or cosmic irony, that fateful disjunction between expectation and reality at the core of human existence. But even without such ideological disputes, defining irony is a delicate enterprise. We can say what it isn’t with more confidence, so let us distinguish irony from various “confusables.”
IRONY VERSUS COINCIDENCE
Irony involves incongruity between what is expected and what actually happens; coincidence merely denotes spatial or temporal proximity. It is ironic that Beethoven was deaf, but merely coincidental that while two members of ZZ Top, Billy F. Gibbons and Dusty Hill, have long beards, the third member, Frank Beard, is clean shaven.
A lot of people don’t realize what’s really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidences and things. They don’t realize that there’s this like lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. I’ll give you an example, show you what I mean. Suppose you’re thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly somebody will say like “plate” or “shrimp” or “plate of shrimp” out of the blue, no explanation. No point in looking for one either. It’s all part of a cosmic unconsciousness.
—From Repo Man (1984, screenplay by Alex Cox)
IRONY VERSUS HYPOCRISY
A lot of what passes for irony these days is merely hypocrisy. For example, when it was revealed that William Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues, had a secret gambling habit, more than one commentator termed the irony “delicious,” and it was indeed a pleasure to see such a breathtaking hypocrite get his comeuppance, even though Bennett was publicly unrepentant. But it wasn’t irony; it was only hypocrisy. (It was ironic when, on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart commended Bennett for his indignation and for “standing up to the William Bennetts of the world.”)
It was said to be “ironic” but, again, it was just hypocritical, when Linda Chavez, President Bush’s nominee for Labor Secretary, was forced to withdraw from consideration after it was alleged that she had employed an illegal alien. Chavez had publicly criticized Zoe Baird, President Clinton’s nominee for Attorney General, for failing to make Social Security payments for a nanny she’d employed. Bonus hypocrisy: At the news conference announcing her withdrawal Chavez said, “I do believe that Zoe Baird was treated unfairly.”
Irony or ironic can be handy code when you can’t come right out and call a public figure a hypocrite. Thus did The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd point out the “irony” of Senator John McCain’s raising soft money to finance his campaign against soft money.
IRONY VERSUS SARCASM
Irony is subtle, sarcasm blunt:
Irony must not be confused with sarcasm, which is direct: Sarcasm means precisely what it says, but in a sharp, bitter, cutting, caustic, or acerb manner; it is the instrument of indignation, a weapon of offence, whereas irony is one of the vehicles of wit. In Locke’s “If ideas were innate, it would save much trouble to many worthy persons,” worthy is ironical; the principal clause as a whole is sarcastic—as also is the complete sentence. Both are instruments of satire and vituperation.
—Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English (1995 revised edition)
People who don’t get irony interpret it as sarcasm.
—Douglas Coupland, “The Post Modern Ironic Wink,” To The Best of Our Knowledge, Wisconsin Public Radio, June 26, 2005
Irony is essentially constructive, sarcasm malicious. Which doesn’t mean sarcasm can’t be fun:
To the Sports Editor:
Aren’t we just imposing our North American concepts of chronology and numbers in insisting that a Dominican youth have the right birthday in order to credit his performance in the Little League World Series? Certainly in the postmodern era, we should understand that people in other parts of the world don’t necessarily share our values. Regardless of his birth date, Danny Almonte’s feat in pitching a perfect game and striking out 16 of 18 batters will live in history. It belongs right up there with the feats of that other great New York athlete, Rosie Ruiz.
—William Tucker, The New York Times, September 2, 2001
IRONY VERSUS CYNICISM
Irony discriminates; cynicism does not.
The cynic, harboring at least a residual sense of his own superiority, stays home and denounces callow and frivolous party-goers. The ironist goes to the party and, while refusing to be quite of it, gets off the best line of the evening.
—Jedediah Purdy, For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today (1999)
—Douglas Coupland, quoted by Steve Rabey, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 11, 2000
IRONY VERSUS EUPHEMISM
Euphemism conceals, irony reveals, albeit by stating the opposite. Political correctness, that virulent strain of euphemism, often generates irony, as when, during the 1992 Rodney King riots (“rebellion” in some reportage), a Los Angeles TV newsperson referred to thugs who attacked white motorists as “community leaders,” even though they called themselves “gang members.”
IRONY VERSUS BULLSHIT
In his 2005 bestseller, On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University, deplores the spread of bullshit in American culture. Professor Frankfurt defines a “bullshitter” as someone who doesn’t care whether what he says is true or false. Irony, on the other hand, is a means of reaching or expressing the truth. The bullshitter disregards the truth; the ironist respects it. Bonus irony: On Bullshit, with its measured academic prose punctuated by the word bullshit, is an elegantly ironic book.
Forms of Irony
Irony resists categorization, but a few varieties can be distinguished.
AMBIENT IRONY (AKA SITUATIONAL IRONY, COSMIC IRONY, EXISTENTIAL IRONY, METAPHYSICAL IRONY, TRAGIC IRONY, THE IRONY OF FATE)
Irony exists in nature. It’s part of the human condition; it permeates reality like radiation from the Big Bang. Ambient irony happens, whether created by God or Destiny or dumb luck. It results from the difference between what we want and what we get.
Man proposes, but God disposes.