The Irony of Ironic
Cidu Bill on Apr 20th 2008
My best guess is that we’re supposed to think Alanis Morissette has gotten the inspiration for “Ironic” (”It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife…”) but it turns out she’s somehow instead been inspired to write “Hand in My Pocket.”
Filed in Alanis Morissette, Bill Bickel, Brevity, CIDU, Guy & Rodd, comic strips, comics, humor, irony | 15 responses so far
arvy Apr 20th 2008 at 01:32 pm 1
I suppose that since the cartoonist thinks that he’s made an ironic joke (but one which, unbeknownst to him know is neither funny or ironic) we can say that there is some dramatic irony here.
I just can’t get past the fact that, unless there’s some much bigger picture I’m missing, this is the one of the laziest attempts at setting up a joke I’ve ever seen.
Kit Apr 20th 2008 at 03:29 pm 2
Bill, I never thought of you as an Alanis Morissette fan! Is she really left-handed?
Cidu Bill Apr 20th 2008 at 03:38 pm 3
Who said I was, Kit?
ChrisN Apr 20th 2008 at 05:43 pm 4
I’m a high school English teacher, and I frequently use Ms. Morissette’s song to teach irony. I play the song and tell the students to write down all the examples of irony they hear as the song plays. At the end, I reveal that there is, in fact, no irony in the lyrics of the song at all. The only ironic thing about the song is the fact that, despite the title, it’s not ironic. I mean, if the guy who was afraid to fly actually drove to the his destination only to have the airplane he WOULD have been in crash into his car, that would have been ironic.
eeyore19 Apr 20th 2008 at 07:49 pm 5
How do we know Alanis didn’t later recall all of the spoons and the man needing a knife and think “Hey, *that* could be a song!” Just because she wasn’t inspired to write about what she witnessed at that moment doesn’t mean she didn’t file it away in the back of her mind for possible song material later.
xopher Apr 20th 2008 at 08:16 pm 6
Is that the man of her dreams? And if so, where’s his beautiful wife?
I feel we’re witnessing some strange mafia play, like on “The Sopranos” when trash guys dumped garbage on businesses who wouldn’t use their services.
“Won’t buy our knives, eh? Well, here’s some spoons for ya. I got yer irony right here!”
Molly Apr 21st 2008 at 12:37 am 7
I would think her note should say “I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other one is writing down the lyrics I’m creating for a new song.”
Probably wouldn’t have made the top 100 that way, though.
Rasheed Apr 21st 2008 at 10:09 am 8
In some live shows, she met the man of her dreams, and then his beautiful… husband! Is that ironic, Teach?
Will Repair Apr 21st 2008 at 11:10 am 9
The man on the left is in need of a knife but she doesn’t see it.
arvy Apr 21st 2008 at 12:34 pm 10
“In some live shows, she met the man of her dreams, and then his beautiful… husband! Is that ironic, Teach?”
If she had undergone a sex change operation soley to have a chance to be with the “man of her dreams” but THEN met his beautiful husband, I’d say that was ironic.
If you were an elementary school principal who decreed that since lunches could conceivable be eaten with spoons and banned knives and forks because they were potential hazards, but then couldn’t open the crates full of 10,000 spoons because you had no sharp instruments, I’d say that would be pretty ironic.
arvy Apr 21st 2008 at 12:36 pm 11
Uhm, that should be “conceivably.”
I’m a teacher and I type things wrong all the time on this forum. Isn’t it ironic? j/k
Larz Apr 22nd 2008 at 01:52 pm 12
Maybe it’s just saying that “Ironic” is not a great song.
Or maybe it’s saying that she couldn’t come up with a good song if someone virtually handed it to her.
Count Shrimpula Apr 22nd 2008 at 03:00 pm 13
It’s just simple misdirection. It’s got you thinking Ironic (There’s 10,000 spoons being spilled when all that guy needs is a knife), and then cut to the shot of her notepad and she’s writing the lyrics to a different song (”One Hand in my pocket”). Expectations: Thwarted. Humor: Activated.
furrykef Apr 23rd 2008 at 03:54 am 14
My favorite example of irony — this is irony, isn’t it? — is when somebody on the internet says to somebody else, “your a moron”. (As opposed to “you’re”.)
tristara Apr 23rd 2008 at 10:47 am 15
I realize it’s probably too late for anybody to read this far down but:
<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-598″ src=”http://graphjam.wordpress.com/files/2008/04/funny-graphs-alanis-morissette-ironic.gif” alt=”song chart memes”