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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.
Depends on whether there are repairmen in there or not. Illustration: Lindsay Mound
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.
Illustration: Lindsay Mound
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. |
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| There are no conversations. |
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| cauz |
July 30, 2014, 9:54 a.m. |
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| Eric Idle |
Nobody gets irony anymore, as we are now living in the post-ironic age. Once George Bush gets a library, our irony is dead. |
| Willem Dafoe |
In my experience, sometimes a movie just hits at the wrong time, gets the wrong press, or gets the wrong representation, and it gets misunderstood. |
| Ken Ham |
Based on the Bible, I believe that all the land animals were made on day six, and Adam and Eve were made on day six, and people try to make fun of us for believing that dinosaurs lived with people, but there are a lot of animals living today that evolution says lived with dinosaurs. |
| John Abizaid |
But all that having been said, you can't, in a city of a million people like Karbala, or 5 million like Baghdad, you can't be in all places at all times. |
| Peter Abelard |
The Son of God took our nature, and in it took upon himself to teach us by both word and example even to the point of death, thus binding us to himself through love. |
| Tony Campolo |
Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change. |
| Kirk Cameron |
Marriage is almost as old as dirt, and it was defined in the garden between Adam and Eve. One man, one woman for life till death do you part. So I would never attempt to try to redefine marriage. And I don't think anyone else should either. So do I support the idea of gay marriage? No, I don't. |
| Marc Jacobs |
No one ever said 'no' to me about anything. No one ever told me anything was wrong. Never. No one ever said, 'You can't be a fashion designer.' No one ever said, 'You're a boy and you can't take tap-dancing lessons.' No one ever said, 'You're a boy and you can't have long hair.' |
| Hans-Georg Gadamer |
The more language is a living operation, the less we are aware of it. Thus it follows from the self-forgetfulness of language that its real being consists in what is said in it. |
| Max Muller |
The first pages of memory are like the old family Bible. The first leaves are wholly faded and somewhat soiled with handling. But, when we turn further, and come to the chapters where Adam and Eve were banished from Paradise, then, all begins to grow clear and legible. |
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It isn't the worst thing to be, and a lot of times what people call arrogant is just being assertive which is necessary at times. It can be really harmful to others though.
This post is a comment.
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I had a dream I was at my parents house and it was summer. There were a lot of people I knew hanging out in the backyard. Some were my friends and some were my parents friends. I don't know why I was in the house. I found out we had these blue popsicles and I think I ate a few of them and I took one outside. People were barbecuing. I asked where my friends were and my parents said they were next door. I headed that way and my mom looked up and saw the sun and said "why is the sun on fire? it doesn't look normal". I looked up and I didn't see the sun but I saw what looked like the earth. It looked about 5 times bigger than the sun normally does in the sky and there was fire. I couldn't tell where between myself and what I saw the fire was. My vision was better when I looked at it though. I could see the earth in the sky 1000+ times better than my normal eyesight. I could see the mountains and the clouds and the trees and all of it was on fire.
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aoc sent money to people and some sent it back because they don't wanna be called a socialist
doesn't matter if they accept it because republicans call them socialists anyway
social democratic policies like the type aoc advocates for are v popular and effective for working class ppl
gop rhetoric is not long term beneficial, they convincing ppl that basic policies that help working class Americans are socialist. they doing more to rehabilitate the word socialist than any socialist ever could
younger ppl going to be comfortable with the term socialism
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the biggest take away from my years in the spam game is volume and scale.
find something that works, and do it 100 times. do it 1000 times. scale that bitch up to a million times.
you dont make profit and change from 1 sale. you make it from 10,000 sales.
in the words of freddie gibbes 'IM PUSHIN WEIGHT'
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The hipster-meta-mindset, believe it or not, is poisonous. Irony destroys cultures.
This post is a comment.
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I had a dream that I was in an insane asylum and they were testing drugs on people and they gave me one that they wanted to use to control people's bodies. It didn't work and it made people seize when they tried it. It killed a lot of people. They would try to activate the chemical at certain times and I think that corresponded to my real life stomach pain.
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I had a dream that involved this shopping center a lot for some reason. I went there with my parents and I went there with my violin to play a few times and it seemed like the past because I had my parent's old car. But then also in grad school, ppl were texting me asking where I was and I was like always at one of the places in the center. One was a steak n shake and ppl would text me and be like "where are you" and I'd tell them I was there and they asked me why and I was like I love milkshakes what don't you understand. And then I remember doing academic things and traveling with the lab but then having to leave one place early to go to France. One person knew that I knew this one guy that died and she was like asking me to tell other people what he had said to me and I was like I don't know. I think you guys know everything. I don't think he told me anything he didn't tell you but this really stressed me out for some reason that she thought I knew more. And I was sad and ppl didn'...
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what takes up too much of your time: thinking about adam sandler movies
This post is a comment.
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Carrots can be traced back about 5,000 years through historical documents and paintings. No one knows exactly when the first carrots appeared, because many people mistook them for parsnips, a close relative of the carrot.
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Something that is hard to reconcile is the experience of impersonal and personal love. Nature is very impersonal, and affection is very personal. I think often we confuse affection with love. We create exclusive relationships with others that often get overrided by our natural instincts- maybe a loving relationship is sabotaged bc someone ?fitter? in many ways came along and appealed to you as an animal. And then we say ?I thought we loved each other!? People use affection to justify all sorts of sacrifices and nature to justify all sorts of cruelty. Still, the world goes round and love exists on both a personal and impersonal level. You love your sister and you love the atoms which make up your sister which also make up the table in your kitchen and your worst enemy. And you experience that love by the same source that also allows you to evaluate which people and activities are worth your energy and which you reject. I don?t think reality is a matter of love vs. nature- - I don?t thi...
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