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,
想象一下: 你和朋友正在看一出情境喜剧 剧中一位时髦帅气的配角走了进来 手捧着一个四层的婚礼蛋糕 他滑了一跤 跌倒了
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.
还一头栽进蛋糕里 你的朋友笑弯了腰说道: 这实在太可笑了!多讽刺啊! 好了,这时候你会做什么呢? 你会就这样忽略这个严重对‘讽刺’的误解 然后跟着你的朋友大笑吗? 还是,你会先把礼数放一边 然后好好解说‘讽刺’真正的含义呢? 如果你是我,你就会选择后者 很不幸的,‘讽刺’一直被完全误解了 我们往往把它随意地用在任何 我们认为好笑或是凑巧的情况 虽然很多讽刺的例子是好笑的 但这并非是讽刺之所以为讽刺的关键 唯有在发生的事和预料的完全相反的情况 才叫 ‘讽刺’ 如果你预期的是A却得到B 那就是 ‘讽刺’了 再回头看看刚刚的蛋糕例子吧 当有个人摇摇晃晃的扛着一个 他不该独自拿的东西 滑了一跤,跌得一踏胡涂 这好笑但不讽刺 事实上,你大概预料得到 一个单手拿着一个大蛋糕的人会跌倒 当他真的跌倒了,预料和现实相符 所以这不是 ‘讽刺' 但要是这个人走进来的时候 戴着他在1996年亚特兰大奥运 扛蛋糕比赛赢的金牌呢? 又或者他是一位专业的蛋糕送货员呢? 如果这样,我们就会合理的预计 当他扛着一个大到荒唐的巨型蛋糕时 会更加游刃有余 那么,当这个预期没有成真的时候 '讽刺'就出现了 再举一个例子 一位长辈传简讯又写部落格 一般我们会预期比较 嗯....'成熟'的人们 不喜欢或不了解科技 他们会有开计算机的困难 或是还在用80年代的黑金刚 我们不会预计他们会如此信息化 , 高科技化 或是厉害到能传简讯 写部落格 因为这些玩意对他们来说一定会太新奇 也不会出现在他们的"想当年...”老调子中 因此,当老奶奶拿出智能型手机 发布她的假牙 或是孙子的照片时 '讽刺'就出现了 合理的期待和当下情况不符 这就是 '讽刺' 因此,虽然那个人搞掉了蛋糕并不讽刺 生活中还是有各式各样十分“讽刺”的情况 起身去发现这些真正的“讽刺”吧!