Ed Halliday's Blog - Posts Tagged "ironic"
Ironic?
Hi All.
I was recently confronted with someone determined to undermine my credibility as an English speaking personage, and to this end they asked me, out of the blue, to define irony! Faced with the tricky task of trying to remain calmly composed whilst trying to fabricate a response, I came up with the following:-
Irony is a description of a type of event or happening which under normal circumstances would affect the subject in either a detrimental or beneficial manner, but under the current unusual circumstances has little or no effect, resulting in a comedic moment.
It's not perfect, but it worked. I would, however, love to hear if anyone has a better potted definition or can improve on mine so I can memorise it for next time.
The ironic thing is that the person who originally asked me for the definition didn't even understand the response, so still has no idea what it means!
Cheers,
Ed Halliday
Author of Burnt Toast and Bent Noses, The Almost Perfect Plot, The expected demise of Bernard Fish, The Grinning Dog.
I was recently confronted with someone determined to undermine my credibility as an English speaking personage, and to this end they asked me, out of the blue, to define irony! Faced with the tricky task of trying to remain calmly composed whilst trying to fabricate a response, I came up with the following:-
Irony is a description of a type of event or happening which under normal circumstances would affect the subject in either a detrimental or beneficial manner, but under the current unusual circumstances has little or no effect, resulting in a comedic moment.
It's not perfect, but it worked. I would, however, love to hear if anyone has a better potted definition or can improve on mine so I can memorise it for next time.
The ironic thing is that the person who originally asked me for the definition didn't even understand the response, so still has no idea what it means!
Cheers,
Ed Halliday
Author of Burnt Toast and Bent Noses, The Almost Perfect Plot, The expected demise of Bernard Fish, The Grinning Dog.
