Irony: anyone else confused?

[Kastigia]

Random topic I know but bare with me.

According to the fountain of all knowledge that be Futurama (and the Dictionary), irony is 'the use of words expressing something other than their literal intention'.

But hold on where does that leave sarcasm? There are all kinds of scenarios where you use words out of context where your not being ironic, but sarcastic or humorous.

And I may be way off the ball park here but what about ironic deaths. Ever heard of the Brazen Bull http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazen_bull ? There are different accounts but if we take ones were Perrilos died in the Bull then in my mind his death was ironic. His own greed and/or vanity leads him to propose the bull which in turn seals his fate. To die at the hands of his own creation seems to me ironic and thus an irony.

I'm confused escapists, so enlighten me. What the fuck is Irony?

 

[otakon17]

Needing a drink of water stranded in the middle of the ocean.

 

[RollForInitiative]

Dictionary.com actually provides a good example.

the irony of her reply, ?How nice!? when I said I had to work all weekend.

On "her" end, it's sarcasm. On "his" end, the words are ironic.

It's a matter of perspective. The two go hand-in-hand.

 

[baconsarnie]

One of my friends told me i didn't understand irony, which was ironic because we were at a bus stop at the time.

 

[Tharwen]

Sarcasm is a subset of irony, distinguished mostly by the intent associated with it.

 

[theonecookie]

One of my friends told me i didn't understand irony, which was ironic because we were at a bus stop at the time.

Great now I have to pick the pieces of my brain up thanks for that

 

[Xanadu84]

This explains the concept or irony in the present day, in its entirety.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/irony

 

[Zantos]

Not sure it's going to help, but still pretty funny.

Spoiler: Ed Byrne

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

(sigh) let's run this one over again. There are three types of irony:

Verbal Irony: Saying something but intending the opposite (otherwise known as sarcasm)

Situational Irony: An event that's the opposite of the intention or expectation. Can sometimes overlap with hypocrisy.(an anti-smoking advocate getting lung cancer, or if Bill Gates was caught with an iPod).

Dramatic Irony: In a story when the viewer knows something the characters don't. (like in a horror movie when you know the bad guy's hiding in the closet but the character doesn't and you know she's about to die.

The second one is the one most widely disputed because people think they're smarter than everyone else when really, a lot of things can be considered ironic even if some idiot on the internet thinks otherwise.

Here's irony in a nutshell:

 

[RandallJohn]

I was once corrected on the meaning of irony by Stephen Fry himself. So no, I'm not confused.

(I always assumed sarcasm was invoked)

 

[CODE-D]

I believe in the force and that forces name is irony and the world runs on it

Also webster is stupid, who says they get to make the rules and I stopped liking Futurama a long time ago.
But wikipedia is awesome

:is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions. There is presently no accepted method for textually indicating irony, though an irony (punctuation) mark has been proposed.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I view sarcasm as in stating something opposite in a conversation while irony is more like stating something opposite to something non conversational.
E.g. the noisy room you would never study in had now become the most quiet area, you wouldn't say "That's sarcasm" (if you're saying this out loud).

 

[Dr. Crawver]

first question is are you american?

I'm english, it seems half of our humour is ironic to an extent, so no, I can't afford to be confused, or else I would be shunned by all society