There is perhaps no worse argument on the internet on what is or is not ironic.
I am not sure why, of all words with shifting and various definitions, people have decided that irony is the one they will make their prescriptivist last stand on.
yeah i mean the other component of this is that unless you believe that some stuffed shirts writing dictionaries are the lords of language then the meaning of irony has demonstrably expanded to mean any particulary fortuitous ore unfortuitous coincidence
There is perhaps no worse argument on the internet on what is or is not ironic.
I am not sure why, of all words with shifting and various definitions, people have decided that irony is the one they will make their prescriptivist last stand on.
Personally, I find the abuse of "literally" to be much worse.
There is perhaps no worse argument on the internet on what is or is not ironic.
I am not sure why, of all words with shifting and various definitions, people have decided that irony is the one they will make their prescriptivist last stand on.
Personally, I find the abuse of "literally" to be much worse.
That is
literally
the most positive, constructive, insightful comment on the forums.
I don't really care but if someone wants to explain it to me I might.
Splitting infinitives is kind of a fake rule. It's a holdover cultural shibboleth, from the era where the wealthy, educated elite would follow Latin rules for no good reason other than to show off that they knew Latin rules. In Latin, you can't split an infinitive. English ain't a Romance language, so it ain't technically beholden to that particular rule.
Sounds good. It didn't seem like a problem which was why I wanted someone to explain it. I think it might have sounded better done 'correctly' but the improvement would have been minuscule.
Also if you followed the no-split-infinitives "rule," "To boldly go where no man has gone before" would be "To go boldly where no man has gone before" and that just ain't cricket
There's also dramatic irony, where a character makes decisions ignorant of information that the audience is privy to (like the end of Romeo and Juliet).
Blow up the rain in a wedding day line into a full vignette
An immaculate outdoor ceremony has been set up in a beautiful rose garden, with a large table of delicious food off to the side for the reception. It's a perfect setting to get married in. The bride thinks to herself that they've made this day perfect in every way and nothing could go wrong
And then lightning strikes and it starts to rain and everything gets ruined by the rainstorm
That's absolutely ironic
The line in the song is nothing but " it's like rain on your wedding day," but given the context of that line, such as the title of the song, it's obvious that the line is intended to invoke a scenario like the one described above, and if you insist on interpreting it at face value then you're just assuming bad faith on the part of the songwriter for no real reason
Unless it's something inherent in the description, such as the aforementioned meteorologist getting hit by a meteor, irony of the sort you're describing requires context. The setup you gave above is definitely ironic and I would argue the statement "nothing could go wrong" is what makes an otherwise coincidental act ironic. Irony is a literary concept so there are no hard and fast rules for something either being or not being ironic. It's situational. So "rain on your wedding day" isn't inherently ironic. If you have an indoor wedding, the rain effects nothing. If you have an outdoor wedding scheduled for a day with rain in the forecast it's not ironic because the rain should be, if not expected, at least anticipated. Hell no rain on your wedding day is ironic if you're expecting a huge storm that day so you spend a bunch of time and money at the last minutes moving to a new indoor location only for the storm to miss completely and the weather outside to be perfect. For "rain on your wedding day" to be ironic, the rain would have to be precipitated (pun!) and one of the only things that could possibly have ruined the wedding. That's cosmic irony for sure. The Morrisette song has none of that and conflates irony with a bunch of really weak premises.
+1
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
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Gif or Jif.
Based on context no one should be confused, though Gif has the least possibility of confusion.
Case closed.
An object which contains high levels of Fe is very Ironic.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
yeah i mean the other component of this is that unless you believe that some stuffed shirts writing dictionaries are the lords of language then the meaning of irony has demonstrably expanded to mean any particulary fortuitous ore unfortuitous coincidence
http://www.audioentropy.com/
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Choosy moms choose Jif
One's an image type, the other is peanut butter, done
all of this is true plus also they are homophones
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Personally, I find the abuse of "literally" to be much worse.
SE++ Forum Battle Archive
That is
literally
the most positive, constructive, insightful comment on the forums.
Also, apparently Weird Al makes a mistake when he splits an infinitive?
I don't really care but if someone wants to explain it to me I might.
Splitting infinitives is kind of a fake rule. It's a holdover cultural shibboleth, from the era where the wealthy, educated elite would follow Latin rules for no good reason other than to show off that they knew Latin rules. In Latin, you can't split an infinitive. English ain't a Romance language, so it ain't technically beholden to that particular rule.
So, the song's still golden.
Steam: Feriluce
Battle.net: Feriluce#1995
Unless it's something inherent in the description, such as the aforementioned meteorologist getting hit by a meteor, irony of the sort you're describing requires context. The setup you gave above is definitely ironic and I would argue the statement "nothing could go wrong" is what makes an otherwise coincidental act ironic. Irony is a literary concept so there are no hard and fast rules for something either being or not being ironic. It's situational. So "rain on your wedding day" isn't inherently ironic. If you have an indoor wedding, the rain effects nothing. If you have an outdoor wedding scheduled for a day with rain in the forecast it's not ironic because the rain should be, if not expected, at least anticipated. Hell no rain on your wedding day is ironic if you're expecting a huge storm that day so you spend a bunch of time and money at the last minutes moving to a new indoor location only for the storm to miss completely and the weather outside to be perfect. For "rain on your wedding day" to be ironic, the rain would have to be precipitated (pun!) and one of the only things that could possibly have ruined the wedding. That's cosmic irony for sure. The Morrisette song has none of that and conflates irony with a bunch of really weak premises.
Nah, the entire discussion regarding spoiling a piece of entertainment is much worse.
Who would win in a fight between Superman and Goku?
Would Batman's plane be able to take off if it's on a treadmill made from Spider-Man's webbing?
Could Jesus build a hell so righteous that he himself would be sent there?
And Wiegel, and Dangle, and Junior.
Judging by the ERB, Superman
Speaking of absurd english "rules"...
"Never end a sentence with a preposition."
Hahahahahahaha no.
People cling to grammar rules they were taught in school like nothing else
cling wrap
Does teaching two spaces after a period count as a grammar rule, because maaaaaaaaan.
Nope, that counts as old-world typewriter bullshit.
I see what you did there.
But I want to shit all over it and this is as close to topical as it's going to get. Let me have this.
Yes Larlar, it counts as a grammar rule