Misidentifying irony.
George Carlin has short essay about how common it is for people to misidentify coincidence as irony.
“Irony deals with opposites; it has nothing to do with coincidence. If two baseball players from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father’s it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence. Irony is “a state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result.”
Not irony. He goes on:
If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein’s army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.
Irony.
And then there are those who think something is ironic when it is neither ironic nor coincidental. The last line of this news story about a murder/suicide involving a woman best known for bringing a loaded gun to her little girl’s soccer game : ‘”It’s shocking,” Weisberg said of the shooting. “And sadly ironic.”‘
But this is not irony. This is not coincidence. This is a Chekhovian certainty.
“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”
Tags: barry bonds, george carlin
Bravo, Matthew, bravo.
Bravo, Matthew, bravo.
george carlin is mad genius. i read his shit and watch his interviews all the time for inspiration.
he was very fond of words.
george carlin is mad genius. i read his shit and watch his interviews all the time for inspiration.
he was very fond of words.
i blame alanis morissette.
i blame alanis morissette.
you beat me to it.
you beat me to it.
How many misunderstandings could have been averted if this thing was a common key on your keyboard?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark
How many misunderstandings could have been averted if this thing was a common key on your keyboard?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark
That bit from Chekhov always makes me think of this (opposing) viewpoint from an interview with Hitchcock:
Enlighten me and our readers, Mr. Hitchcock. Explain suspense to us.
Right. Suppose this interview were a scene in a movie. We’re sitting here talking, and we don’t know that there’s a bomb hidden inside your tape recorder. The public doesn’t know either, and suddenly the bomb explodes: we’re blown to bits. Surprise, horror of public. But how long does it last, the surprise and the horror? Five seconds, no more. With suspense, however, we’re sitting there, and we don’t know that there’s a bomb hidden inside your tape recorder. But the public knows, and it also knows that it will explode in ten minutes. Obviously the public gets worried, anxious, says, “Why do they sit there talking, those two? Don’t they realize there’s a bomb hidden inside the tape recorder?” Suspense. But a second before the ten minutes are up, I bend over the tape recorder and say, “Aha! There’s a bomb inside here.” I pick up the tape recorder and fling it away. End of suspense. The secret is to never let the bomb explode. I had it explode, once, in the hands of a child who had boarded a bus, three minutes after the arranged time, and it was a very grave mistake. I’ll never make the same mistake again. People must suffer, sweat, but at the end they must heave a sigh of relief.
And do you like suspense, Mr. Hitchcock?
Far from it. I hate it. I hate it so much that I can’t even bear to stay in the kitchen when my wife is making a soufflé. Will it rise? Won’t it rise? I bought an oven with a glass door so I could see whether it was rising, but it hasn’t helped. I can’t bear to wait the necessary eighteen minutes to see if it’ll rise.
That bit from Chekhov always makes me think of this (opposing) viewpoint from an interview with Hitchcock:
Enlighten me and our readers, Mr. Hitchcock. Explain suspense to us.
Right. Suppose this interview were a scene in a movie. We’re sitting here talking, and we don’t know that there’s a bomb hidden inside your tape recorder. The public doesn’t know either, and suddenly the bomb explodes: we’re blown to bits. Surprise, horror of public. But how long does it last, the surprise and the horror? Five seconds, no more. With suspense, however, we’re sitting there, and we don’t know that there’s a bomb hidden inside your tape recorder. But the public knows, and it also knows that it will explode in ten minutes. Obviously the public gets worried, anxious, says, “Why do they sit there talking, those two? Don’t they realize there’s a bomb hidden inside the tape recorder?” Suspense. But a second before the ten minutes are up, I bend over the tape recorder and say, “Aha! There’s a bomb inside here.” I pick up the tape recorder and fling it away. End of suspense. The secret is to never let the bomb explode. I had it explode, once, in the hands of a child who had boarded a bus, three minutes after the arranged time, and it was a very grave mistake. I’ll never make the same mistake again. People must suffer, sweat, but at the end they must heave a sigh of relief.
And do you like suspense, Mr. Hitchcock?
Far from it. I hate it. I hate it so much that I can’t even bear to stay in the kitchen when my wife is making a soufflé. Will it rise? Won’t it rise? I bought an oven with a glass door so I could see whether it was rising, but it hasn’t helped. I can’t bear to wait the necessary eighteen minutes to see if it’ll rise.
hahahahahahhahahha…that is hilarious – didn’t know Hitch was such a worrywart
hahahahahahhahahha…that is hilarious – didn’t know Hitch was such a worrywart
Thanks, Justin.
Thanks, Justin.
He was. You can listen to a George Carlin bit and hear the way he must have tortured over the wording of each joke.
He also had serious rhetorical chops. Balance, listing, alliteration.
He was. You can listen to a George Carlin bit and hear the way he must have tortured over the wording of each joke.
He also had serious rhetorical chops. Balance, listing, alliteration.
All of them.
All of them.
I now imagine him following around the woman with the gun, walking with a friend, leaning over every once and a while, and whispering: “She’ll shoot, but when? When will she shoot? I can’t bear this.”
I now imagine him following around the woman with the gun, walking with a friend, leaning over every once and a while, and whispering: “She’ll shoot, but when? When will she shoot? I can’t bear this.”
his “diary’ thing is a fun read. i still have it somewhere.
his “diary’ thing is a fun read. i still have it somewhere.
I picked up on the same usage error of “ironic” and blogged about it as well. No matter what actually happened in this sad situation, when someone puts their gun and their right to use it so strongly in the forefront of daily life, it is not unexpected that it’s actually used in a tense situation. And in this case, to her detriment.
I picked up on the same usage error of “ironic” and blogged about it as well. No matter what actually happened in this sad situation, when someone puts their gun and their right to use it so strongly in the forefront of daily life, it is not unexpected that it’s actually used in a tense situation. And in this case, to her detriment.
i liked the post a lot
i liked the post a lot
me too. i was gonna say, ‘it’s like raaaaaiiiiiinnnn….’
me too. i was gonna say, ‘it’s like raaaaaiiiiiinnnn….’
many is the times I have been in English classes where someone will give a misreading of a scene, character, motivation, etc. because they fail to pick up on the irony at play. and mostly involving something by some British writer, those dry buggers.
many is the times I have been in English classes where someone will give a misreading of a scene, character, motivation, etc. because they fail to pick up on the irony at play. and mostly involving something by some British writer, those dry buggers.