Irony is everywhere today, and we breathe it like air. Everyone talks about "irony" so much the definition has blurred somewhat.
For example, in 1995 Alanis Morissette wrote the song "Ironic," in which she described irony as "rain on your wedding day" or "a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break." As many commentators have noted, she actually just described situations that suck.
But in her defense, that might be the entire point. After all, wouldn't you call it ironic if she wrote a song about irony that was not actually about ironic events?
If it was intentional, then there was a gap between what she said (these events are ironic) and what she actually meant (this song is ironic). This particular variety is called "verbal irony," and it has a long pedigree.
Socrates was the first famous verbal ironist. His favorite activity was to go around ancient Greece pretending to be ignorant to trip others up when they tried to justify their opinions to him. Today's philosophers call this "Socratic irony." Most everyone in ancient Greece called it "being a jerk."
Sadly, Socrates couldn't stop being a jerk even at his own trial, and he drank poison for it. But the tradition continues.
"The Daily Show" became famous for its correspondent reports, on which actor/comedians like Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert ask questions that trip up unwitting local folk. Colbert since has gone on to star in his own spin-off, "The Colbert Report," in which his entire persona is one giant wink to the audience.
But the downside to verbal irony is it sometimes goes unrecognized, with disastrous results. For example, if you tried answering the rhetorical question earlier in this column about irony, you probably looked pretty stupid, talking to your newspaper and all.
Another instance took place on the "Late Show with David Letterman," which aired Michael Richards' apology via satellite after a racial-epithet-filled rant a few days earlier.
Many in the audience had not seen the video and misinterpreted the apology as a joke, forcing Richards and Jerry Seinfeld (another guest that night) to stop several times to insist they were serious.
We live in an era in which we've learned to defuse commercials asking sympathy for the caveman's plight or jokes riffing on popular films. Expecting irony has become almost our default stance, one that is initially skeptical things are as presented.
Though this is healthy in small amounts, the ironic stance is becoming more and more pervasive. Eventually, we might always expect irony and be unable to accept anything as sincere no matter what.
While the possibility is a tad absurd, some find it to also be debilitating in smaller doses. Author David Foster Wallace wrote in an essay about television, "Today's irony ends up saying: 'How totally banal of you to ask what I really mean.'"
Irony is an inherently destructive behavior, used to rip apart all sorts of ideas without having to propose a better choice. There's no silver bullet to stop its debilitating effects, but we can combat them through taking care to mean something when we speak.
Join a social movement, have a heart-to-heart talk with someone else, be something. As Pink Floyd began in its most famous album, "Breathe, breathe in the air.
"Don't be afraid to care."
Greg Brown is a junior in philosophy. Please send your comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.
