Picture this: your friend and you are watching a sitcom and a sassy sidekick walks into a room, carrying a four-tiered wedding cake. He trips, falls,
Zamislite ovo: ti i tvoj prijatelj gledate humorističnu seriju i vrckavi sporedni lik ušeta u sobu, noseći svadbenu tortu na četiri kata. Saplete se, padne,
and face-plants into the cake. Your friend doubles over with laughter and says, "It's so ridiculous! So ironic!" Well, quick, what do you do? Do you laugh along with the laugh track and let this grievous misinterpretation of irony go? Or, do you throw caution to the wind and explain the true meaning of irony? If you're me, you choose the latter. Unfortunately, irony has been completely misunderstood. We tend to throw out that term whenever we see something funny or coincidental. And while many examples of true irony can be funny, that is not the driving factor of being ironic. A situation is only ironic if what happens is the exact opposite of what was expected. If you expect A, but get B, then you have irony. Let's take the slap-stick cake situation as an example. When someone walks in precariously balancing something that shouldn't be carried alone, trips, falls, and makes a mess, it is funny, but it's not ironic. In fact, you probably expect someone who is single-handedly carrying a huge cake to trip. When he does, reality aligns with expectations, and so that is not irony. But what if the sassy sidekick walked in wearing a gold medal that he'd won at the cake walking event at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996? What if that sidekick was a professional cake carrier? Then, maybe there would have been a reasonable expectation that he would have been more skilled when carrying a ridiculously large cake. Then, when that reasonable expectation was not met by the tripping sidekick, irony would have been exemplified. Another example. A senior citizen texting and blogging. The common and reasonable expectation of more mature men and women is that they don't like or know technology, that they have a hard time turning on a computer, or that they have the old brick cell phones from the 1980s. One should not expect them to be connected, high-tech, or savvy enough to text or to be blogging, which must seem like some sort of newfangled thing that "back in my day," they never had. So when Granny pulls out her smart phone to post pictures of her dentures or her grandkids, irony ensues. Reasonable expectations of the situation are not met. That is irony. So while the cake dropper might not be ironic, there are all kinds of situations in life that are. Go out, and find those true examples of irony.
i zabije se licem ravno u tortu. Vaš prijatelj se presavija od smijeha i kaže: ''To je presmiješno! Tako ironično!'' Sada, brzo, što ćete uraditi? Da li se smijete sa svojim prijateljem i ignorirate tu groznu misinterpretaciju ironije? Ili se odvažite i objasnite pravo značenje ironije? Da ste ja, izabrali bi ovo drugo. Nažalost, ironija je potpuno krivo shvaćena. Imamo naviku razbacivati se tim terminom kad god vidimo nešto smješno ili slučajno. I dok mnogi primjeri prave ironije mogu biti smiješni. to nije glavna odlika ironije. Situacija je samo ironična ako ono što se dogodi je upravo suprotno od onog što se očekivalo. Ako očekujete A, a dobijete B, onda je to ironija. Uzmimo djetinjasti primjer sa tortom kao primjer. Kada netko ušeta pažljivo noseći nešto što ne bi smjeli nositi sami, saplete se, padne, i napravi nered, to je smiješno, ali nije ironično. Zapravo, i očekujete nekoga tko sam nosi ogromnu tortu da se spotakne. I kada se to dogodi, naša očekivanja su ispunjena tako da to nije ironija. Ali što da je vrckavi sporedni lik ušetao noseći zlatnu medalju koju je osvojio na natjecanju u nošenju torti na Olimpijadi u Atlanti 1996? Što ako je taj lik profesionalni nosač torti? U tom slučaju postoji racionalno očekivanje da će on biti sposobniji pri nošenju ogromne torte. I tad, kada sporedni lik ne ispuni to razumno očekivanje, to bi bio primjer ironije. Još jedan primjer. Stariji građanin koji koristit SMS poruke i piše blog. Od zrelijih muškaraca i žena, učestalo i razumno očekivanje je da oni ne vole ili nisu upoznati sa tehnologijom, da imaju problema upaliti kompjuter, ili da imaju velike stare mobitele iz 1980-ih godina. Malo tko će očekivati da budu povezani, upućeni u tehnologiju, ili sposobni slati SMS poruke ili da pišu blog, što mora biti nekakvi novitet koji ''u svoje vrijeme'' nisu imali. Pa, kada Bakica izvuče svoj smartphone da bi postavila slike svojih zubala ili svojih unuka, ironija nastaje. Razumna očekivanja u toj situaciji nisu ostvarena. To je ironija. Iako ispuštač torte nije ironičan, postoje raznolike situacije u životu koje jesu. Izađi van i pronađi prave primjere ironije.