Maggie's Farm

"You know something is happening
here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?"

I have always thought of the capacity for irony as a good, rule-of-thumb IQ test.

Language without an occasional twist of irony is like language without metaphor.

However, if you don't get the definition of the word correctly, you can't use the concept. The word is only properly used to refer to something addressed to a dual audience, or "as if" to a dual audience: one in the know, and one not.

The usage has been contaminated by the illiterate, and is now sometimes used to apply to the "incongruous" or "unexpected", as in "Ironically, we both showed up at the wedding in the same dress." The cutest way to say that would be "Funnily enough,..."

One amusing use of irony is to say stupid things, or ungrammatical things, with the assumption that those in the know will figure that you are using irony, while others will figure that you are plain uneducated or ignorant. Start with "nucular."

Anyway, world - let's get the usage down properly: there is no excuse for abuse of English, since it has now become our "national language."

Ed: Image of Dr. Bliss added to this post, entirely without irony.