Irony, Illustrated

Irony. The term people love to use… incorrectly. On TV, in literature, between friends — people misapply and misuse the word a million times a day. Even the pop anthem dedicated to the trope gets it wrong (or does it?). But you oughta know all this by now.

The fight over what is "ironic" and what isn't can be traced all the way back to Biblical times when Eve said to Adam, "The irony is that I don't even like apples." Adam took exception, and thus began the greatest of language debates. 

More recently, this debate took hold of our entire office, pitting friend against friend, coworker against coworker, intern against another company's intern because we only have one intern. To save the company, we decided to get to the bottom of this once and for all with an illustrated guide to the difference between irony and mere coincidence.*

*Note to the dogged usage experts: We're only concerned with the definition of Situational Irony here — the most confusing of all the different kinds. We know that Rhetorical, Dramatic and Cosmic Irony exist and we trust that you can google them.

The main point to remember about Situational Irony is that it is a direct result of an action intended to produce the opposite effect. An easy way to distinguish between irony and unlucky coincidence is to check if there's an action or intention involved.

An elevator company's out-of-order elevator may be a bummer, but it's not strictly ironic. It's just an unfortunate and surprising juxtaposition of facts. Of course, if an elevator repairman broke the machine while performing preventative safety measures, we'd make the leap from coincidence to full-blown irony.

Meg felt lonely, so she organized a support group to help her feel better. When no one came, Meg felt even more alone than she did before. (Don't worry Meg, there are restaurants made just for you.) Here's a great example of Situational Irony. Meg took an action that was supposed to alleviate her loneliness, and the result was the exact opposite of what she intended. Sad, but truly ironic.

Got it? Good. That's all for the usage lessons for today. And don't worry, we won't lecture you about how you misuse the word 'literal.' We'd rather leave you with this pun instead.