RoR: Forum

Hahahaha!

Post 1

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 5:33am

It's my understanding that you have confused irony with sarcasm.

It would be ironic if the man in London had been a weather forecaster who had forecast excellent weather, and met the American on the basis of that forecast.

Interestingly, it's ironic that a joke about someone misunderstanding irony is posted...by someone who doesn't understand irony!

Tim - hope I'm still on your Christmas card list :-)

Post 2

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 6:23am

I love it. Reminds me of The Onion type of humor. For all you non-Americans here's what I'm referring to:

http://www.theonion.com/?pre=1&issue=

Sam

Post 3

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 6:35am

Fraser,

Sorry to rain on your parade, but:

IRONY: an expression of meaning, often humorous or sarcastic, by the use of language of a different or opposite tendency.

What you are talking about is one particular definition of irony or being ironic:

IRONIC: Poignantly contrary to what was expected or intended: madness, an ironic fate for such a clear thinker.

There was a whole discussion of sarcasm, irony and cynicism on SOLO science a while ago.

http://solohq.org/Forum/SoloScience/0083.shtml

Post 4

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 6:39am

Before I check out the discussion in the Science thread, I hypothesise that the definition of irony has now been adapted to include sarcasm, precisely because people were using the term incorrectly.

What is the point of defining irony as both sarcasm AND something specifically termed irony? I'm sure this is covered on the science thread...

(Of course the joke is still funny, and it looks like Tim will be correct.)

Post 5

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 7:17am

Ooh, ooh, I get it! What's ironic is that the man didn't really grasp the significance of irony, he only thought he did!

Post 6

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 7:37am

Wouldn't it be ironic if I took that at face value?

Post 7

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 7:41am

Fraser,

A word can have more than one definition.

Maybe that "other" definition does originate from people that never could grasp "true" irony in the first place.

Post 8

Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 7:51am

Americans do indeed lack a proper understanding and use of irony, sarcasm, understatement, litotes, etc. They're often crude and vulgar -- not refined and insightful -- about the various cultural issues.

But the English and Europeans lack a proper understanding and use of moral outrage and visceral passion. In many instances their emotionally-repressed, morally-superior statements and acts regarding cultural issues are mean, nasty, petty, shabby, sad, weak, pitiful -- and utterly impotent.

Post 9

Friday, August 19, 2005 - 12:38am

Andre,

I hope you have not interpreted any of my comments made as vindictive in this manner. I do suffer from constant urges to make smart arse comments, but that's pure attention seeking rather than mean-spiritedness.

(Edited by Fraser Stephen-Smith on 8/19, 2:40am)

Post 10

Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 10:43am

Not at all.

Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 11:45am

Americans are by and large more kind and generous and interested in fair play that citizens of any other country. Constant irony and sarcasm, in lieu of honesty, is a sign of of unhealthy, post-modern sense of life.

Post 12

Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 1:00pm

Forgive me for not reading the thread in the science forum, maybe this has all already been discussed -

When I was studying linguistics and discourse analysis in school I do recall it being discussed on a few occasions that Americans do not tend to "get" sarcasm etc. not so much due to naivete but because they approach interactions with the expectation that a good communicative partner will adhere to Grice's Conversational Maxims (quantity, quality, relevance, manner) and which include being as clear, informative, and honest as possible. It is often portrayed as ignorance but actually is more of a benevolent attitude toward the speaker.

Post 13

Saturday, August 20, 2005 - 6:05pm

At first read, I thought it was pretty funny that the person telling the joke was making fun of a man for not knowing something the joker didn't know.

I've never heard irony be used as sarcasm before.

Post 14

Sunday, October 30, 2005 - 4:05pm

I do not understand why, in all this fuss, no one seems to want to tackle the root of the problem--semantic illiteracy. If any one has seen the latest Tim Horton TV commercial promoting "his" new tea. The female customer is very impressed with the tea, which she is told is "steeped". Fascinated by the word, she adopts it without any understanding of the word, and uses it to compliment her neighbour's beautiful flowers by exclaiming how "steeped" they looked.

This attempt at ironic humor would have been funny if it wasn't so tragically true--popularly, we, Canadians and Americans alike, have become semantically illiterate.

Post 15

Saturday, November 5, 2005 - 2:33am