Irony

A young man explains irony.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7_tMu7Y9qI

Verbal Irony

• This is when a speaker says one thing but means another.

• Examples• You fall down and a friend says that you

are graceful.• Or your mother will be happy to hear you

have done so well! When you really received a poor grade.

Verbal irony example

• When a mother walks into a room and sees that her children, instead of doing their homework, are playing video games, she gives them a stern look and says "Once you're done with your very important work there, let's take some time out for recreation in the form of some chemistry problems."

More examples

• Lets take another irony example. A tennis player makes a comment; I couldn't win the match, thanks to the correct decisions of the referee. The statements clearly indicates that the tennis player was not at all satisfied with the decisions made by the referee. Indirectly, the player is blaming the referee for his loss. The statement is indicating the referee's inability to take correct decisions.

From Mean Girls some verbal irony

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmSBrmgdKts

Dramatic irony

• This is used in a narrative when an event occurs whose significance the audience understands but the characters do not.

An example

• In a horror movie, suspense is often built up by the use of spooky music. The viewers often know that someone is going to die or get ripped up, or, at least, something is going to jump out because of the music that THEY can hear--and, of course, the characters cannot.

• http://wn.com/dramatic_irony

Situational irony

• This is when something happens and a reversal of expectations occurs.

• In truth, a more fitting term would be "Expectational Irony", since that is what it covers. Situational Irony is when the outcome of some situation or action is the exact opposite of the intended outcome.

Example of situational irony

• Situational example: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge:Water, water, every where,And all the boards did shrink ; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink

• In this example it is ironic that water is everywhere but none of it can be drunk

From social studies

• During the time of the Pharaoh in ancient Egypt, Moses was born at a time when the children of Israel were increasing in number, thus, posing a threat to the Egyptian Pharaoh, who feared that these children would grow up and help the enemies of Egypt. However, Moses' mother tried to hide him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn baby boys to be killed and Moses was eventually adopted by the Egyptian royal family. In the end, it was Moses who was responsible for the downfall of the Pharaoh.

Real life situational irony

• Another example of situational irony is when, in 1974, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had to recall 80,000 of its own label buttons which promoted 'toy safety', because these buttons had sharp edges, used lead paint and even had small clips which could be broken off and swallowed!

Irony websites

• http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony

• http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Irony