There’s a great scene in the film ‘Reality Bites‘ when Troy (played by the oh-so-hot Ethan Hawke) is asked to define irony by Lelaina (Wynona Ryder). It went like this:
Lelaina: Can you define “irony”?
Troy Dyer: It’s when the actual meaning is the complete opposite from the literal meaning.”
Which is a HELL of a lot better explanation than what Alanis Morissette's 1996 song, Ironic gave us, even if ultimately, she was herself, being ironic. Because finding '10 thousand spoons when all you need is a knife' is NOT ironic, Alanis. It's just shitty bad luck.
But I digress.
The Oxford Dictionary's defines irony like this:
Irony: The expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.
But irony is best defined in pictures, and here are 25 that do it perfectly:
1. Not helping there, buddy...
2. Literally.
3. You had one job, frypan people. One job.
4. 'Merica.
5. Wow, those flames are really life like. Oh wait...
6. First rule of anarchy club: Don't tell anarchists what to do.
7. Cemetery irony perfection.
8. Not so hidden now.
9. Pesky water.
10. If only we had some scissors...
11. But they might not be entirely aware of that ...
12. That dog is basically saying 'so what else you got?'
13. I mean we "can" but that doesn't mean we necessarily want to.
14. You're welcome.
15. I think we can all appreciate how wonderful this is.
16. I think we can close this case.
17. #goals.
18. Maybe go back to the drawing board?
19. No more struggling. Oh, wait...
20. It's not a 'catch fire' alarm.
21. The secret to minimalist living. Own no more than two of the same thing...
22. Due to unforeseen circumstances. That he totally should have foreseen.
23. No, please, design the largest buildings in our towns. We feel totally safe.
24. But not right now while you're driving, of course...
25. And this perfection.
26. Finally, for those who don't remember, BP spilled a shit tonne of oil into the Gulf of Mexico once.
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