Because there’s long been confusion about what exactly is considered ironic and what isn’t, we’re going back to the basics. We certainly don’t mean to insult your intelligence, pandas; we just want to make sure we’re all on the same page. According to UK Publishing House, “irony is a literary and rhetorical device built on contrast.”
So if there is a gap between expectation and reality, that situation might be ironic. Something must be incongruous or a bit “off” for a situation to be ironic. There’s typically an element of surprise or something that catches you off guard. It might make you say, “Wait a second…” Irony is often funny or amusing, but it’s not just a coincidence or bad luck. There must be a specific contrast present for something to be ironic.
There are several different types of irony that you might use or observe: verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony. Verbal irony can sometimes be similar to sarcasm, such as saying “What lovely weather!” during a thunderstorm.
Situational irony, on the other hand, occurs when the exact opposite of what you might expect happens. This might be a fire station burning down or a marriage counselor filing for divorce. And finally, dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something crucial that the characters in a story don’t know. A classic example is when Romeo takes his own life after seeing Juliet and assuming that she is already gone.
Now, irony and sarcasm can overlap at times, but they are not the same thing. UK Publishing House explains that sarcasm is a form of verbal irony, but it is specifically used to mock, ridicule, or convey contempt. Meanwhile, verbal irony can be used in many other ways. It doesn’t have to single anyone out or put anyone down. Sarcasm can be controversial, but verbal irony itself is not inherently rude at all.
As we can see from this list, irony occurs in real life all the time. There are even some famous examples in history, and lucky for us, Reader’s Digest has compiled a list of them. For example, did you know that the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous asked for whiskey in the hospital right before he passed away? Another fun, ironic fact is that the Bible is the most shoplifted book in America. But maybe that's okay because God is supposed to be forgiving...
Another ironic fact that might still sting for the subject is about Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com. Apparently, Kremen encouraged everyone he knew to join the site, including his then-girlfriend. Well, she ended up meeting someone else and leaving him for the man she met on Match.
Meanwhile, in 2009, the Guinness World Book of Records published that Jonathan Lee Riches holds the record for suing the largest number of people. Of course, Riches did not like that, and he ended up suing the company for publishing his “legal masterpieces.”
If you ever travel to Sweden and stay in their famous ice hotel, you might find it ironic that there is indeed a smoke detector in there. And if you were looking for information about cults in the mid-to-late 1990s, you may have come across The Cult Awareness Network. But hopefully, you steered clear of their advice, as by then, it had been taken over by the Church of Scientology.
