"Ironic" by Alanis Morissette will have its 20th birthday on February 27. Since its release, there has been controversy in the literary world as to what defines irony. Morissette said in an interview with the London Times back in 2008 that she has learned the definition of irony, but she doesn't need the harsh backlash that some grammarians have been giving her. Don't get me wrong, "Ironic" is a great song; it was a Top Hit back in 1996 and won a few awards too. Personally, I have the song on my iPhone, and will occasionally channel my suppressed high school angst when I jam out to the music. But, to settle the dispute of what irony truly is, I'm going to drop some knowledge on you all with my so-called "expertise" in the English language.
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines irony as "the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny," and "a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected." Here's an example of irony:
Timmy is afraid of the dark but he gets the best sleep when his room is pitch-black.
Why is this sentence ironic? You would expect that anyone with the fear of the dark would not be able to fall asleep in a pitch-black room because the anxiety of the fear would keep them up at night and not allow them to get any sleep at all, right? Well, this is an example of irony because despite his fear, Timmy gets his best night's rest when his room is in utter darkness. Still confused? Here's another example:
The Titanic was deemed to be the most unsinkable ship. In 1912, it sunk after crashing into an iceberg on its maiden voyage.
This statement is ironic because you would expect the "unsinkable" ship to not have sunk on its first trip, but did anyways. That is irony.
So, let's break down why Morissette's lyrics were not necessarily ironic. We'll look at the chorus:
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought, it figures
"Rain on your wedding day"? That's ironic, right Hunter? WRONG! That's just an example of a bad coincidence. Irony and coincidence are not the same, a common mistake that most people make. Now, if the lyric went like this:
The weather forecast said that there was a 0 percent chance of rain for our wedding on Saturday, but it was pouring through the whole service.
That, my friends, is ironic.
You want to know what else is ironic? Life. Yeah, you read that last word right: life. Every single moment of our lives, we have experienced irony in one way or another.
Just the other day, I did my homework and I was prepared to go to class the next morning, and later figured out I left everything in my dorm when I walked into the classroom that day. Some of you never thought you would have made it this far in life, but look at you now! Life is full of surprises and astonishment, which makes life one, big, fat, and ironic tragicomedy. Life is an incredible story in which YOU are the protagonist, and don't be afraid when life throws you lemons (or tomatoes, if you think "all the world's a stage").
I reflected a little bit of my life recently when it comes to involvement on campus. Around this time last year, I would have never thought I would be the type of guy who would join a fraternity. Now, I am an executive board member of a fraternity that had recently obtained its charter and will be initiated later in the semester. Truth is, you'll never expect anything because nobody knows your future; even you! You may think this sucks and this makes life awful, but it's not. Sometimes, you just have to make the best of whatever happens. That feeling of never knowing what will happen next is what I believe makes life pretty interesting, if you ask me!
Betcha didn't expected a short life lesson at the end of this article, now did you?.. How ironic.
