![]() ![]() The 2015 edition of The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage states that “the looser use of irony and ironically, to mean an incongruous turn of events, is trite. The first edition of “Fowler’s Modern English Usage” (1926) claims that “a protest is needed against the application … of ‘irony’ … to every trivial oddity.” Seventy years later, the third edition admitted that “this weakened use looks as if it has come to stay,” and the fourth edition, published in 2015, refers darkly to “vague, watered down newer meanings” of irony. The battle over equating irony and coincidence has been raging for some time. In short, the family resemblance between coincidence and irony makes them more like cousins than siblings. Coincidences may involve victims, humor, or criticism, but they are rarely truly humorous or poignant. They may allude to failed expectations, but they aren’t explicit echoes. Coincidences involve juxtaposition and incongruity, but they aren’t counterfactual and don’t involve pretense. From a family resemblance perspective, we might say that the concept of coincidence overlaps to some degree with the irony concept, but the number of attributes the two share is low. For them, it represents a form of imprecision that debases the language - an unforced error that one should scrupulously avoid. Referring to coincidences as ironic raises the hackles of prescriptivists, who regard such usage with clear distaste. But does that make such juxtapositions ironic? And does it truly matter what we call them? Things happen all the time, and sometimes things happen at the same time. For example, someone might rhetorically exclaim, “Isn’t it ironic that the rain stopped just as I was finishing my morning run?” In many such instances, “coincidence” would probably be a better descriptor, particularly when no greater meaning or import connects the two events. In everyday conversation, the term “coincidence” is often used as a synonym for situational irony. But exactly how does irony differ from related concepts like coincidence, paradox, satire, and parody? Coincidence The term has been applied to a number of different phenomena over time, and as a label, it has been stretched to accommodate a number of new senses. A song about irony is mocked because its lyrics contain non-ironic examples. A North Korean dictator bans sarcasm directed at him and his regime because he fears that people are only agreeing with him ironically. An American president posts a tweet containing the phrase “Isn’t it ironic?” and is derided for misusing the term. Uncertainty about irony can be found almost everywhere. This article is excerpted from Roger Kreuz’s book “ Irony and Sarcasm.”
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