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Warning: The following post is annoying, preachy, and not necessarily directed toward you. The word irony is bastardized at least twice a day, though, so it's definately meant for some of the forum users. I'm not smart enough to rant about the word irony, since it is a tricky definition, but I'll use someone else's words toward that aim:
There are several different kinds of irony, outside of the conventional definition (dramatic irony, situational irony), but none of those variations are related to the use of the word on these forums. The common appearance of the word "irony" on these forums is more akin to the musical stylings of Alanis Morissette, and equally inappropriate. So go forth with caution, and if you're using the word "irony" for anything you find funny or creepy, please stop. You're pissing off the picky, anal shitheads who read these boards.
Dave Eggers, in Mistakes We Knew We Were Making:
[Irony] is beyond a doubt the most overused and under-understood word we currently have. Let's define irony as the dictionary does: the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. (There are lesser definitions, but they all serve this main one.) When someone kids around, it does not necessarily mean he or she is being ironic. That is, when someone tells a joke, in any context, it can mean, simply, that a joke is being told. Jokes, thus, do not have to be ironic to be jokes. Further, satire is not inherently ironic. Nor is parody. Or any kind of comedy. Irony is a very specific and not all that interesting thing, and to use the word/concept to blanket half of all contemporary cultural production -- which some aged arbiters seem to be doing (particularly with regard to work made by those under a certain age) -- is akin to the too-common citing of "the Midwest" as the regional impediment to all national social progress (when we all know the "Midwest" is ten miles outside of any city). In other words, irony should be considered a very particular and recognizable thing, as defined above, and thus, to refer to everything odd, coincidental, absurd, or strangely funny as ironic is, frankly, an abomination upon the Lord. [Re that last clause: not irony, but a simple, wholesome, American-born exaggeration]. To illustrate the many more things that are not ironic, but are often referred to as such, let's look at some sample sentences, starring a wee wayward pup known as Benji, and see if we can illuminate some distinctions.
Sample: Benji was run over by a bus. Isn't that ironic?
No: That is not ironic. That is unfortunate, but it is not ironic.
Sample: It was a bright and sunny day when Benji was run over by a bus. Ironic, no?
Again, no: That is not irony. It is an instance of dissonance between the weather and tragedy.
Sample: It is ironic that Benji was on his way to the vet when he was run over by a bus.
Still: That is not irony. That is a coincidence that might be called eerie.
Sample: It is ironic that Benji was run over on the same day he misused the word ironic.
But see: This is, again, a coincidence. It is wonderfully appropriate that he was run over on this day, deserving as he was of punishment, but it is not ironic.
Sample: Is it not ironic that on the side of the bus that ran over benji was an advertisement for "The Late Show with David Letterman," a show which many consider often ironic?
Oh, oh: No. No.
[Irony] is beyond a doubt the most overused and under-understood word we currently have. Let's define irony as the dictionary does: the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. (There are lesser definitions, but they all serve this main one.) When someone kids around, it does not necessarily mean he or she is being ironic. That is, when someone tells a joke, in any context, it can mean, simply, that a joke is being told. Jokes, thus, do not have to be ironic to be jokes. Further, satire is not inherently ironic. Nor is parody. Or any kind of comedy. Irony is a very specific and not all that interesting thing, and to use the word/concept to blanket half of all contemporary cultural production -- which some aged arbiters seem to be doing (particularly with regard to work made by those under a certain age) -- is akin to the too-common citing of "the Midwest" as the regional impediment to all national social progress (when we all know the "Midwest" is ten miles outside of any city). In other words, irony should be considered a very particular and recognizable thing, as defined above, and thus, to refer to everything odd, coincidental, absurd, or strangely funny as ironic is, frankly, an abomination upon the Lord. [Re that last clause: not irony, but a simple, wholesome, American-born exaggeration]. To illustrate the many more things that are not ironic, but are often referred to as such, let's look at some sample sentences, starring a wee wayward pup known as Benji, and see if we can illuminate some distinctions.
Sample: Benji was run over by a bus. Isn't that ironic?
No: That is not ironic. That is unfortunate, but it is not ironic.
Sample: It was a bright and sunny day when Benji was run over by a bus. Ironic, no?
Again, no: That is not irony. It is an instance of dissonance between the weather and tragedy.
Sample: It is ironic that Benji was on his way to the vet when he was run over by a bus.
Still: That is not irony. That is a coincidence that might be called eerie.
Sample: It is ironic that Benji was run over on the same day he misused the word ironic.
But see: This is, again, a coincidence. It is wonderfully appropriate that he was run over on this day, deserving as he was of punishment, but it is not ironic.
Sample: Is it not ironic that on the side of the bus that ran over benji was an advertisement for "The Late Show with David Letterman," a show which many consider often ironic?
Oh, oh: No. No.
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