Main content
Irony
Irony, puns, and sarcasm are some of the toughest concepts in English. This video attempts to explain all three.
Want to join the conversation?
- Is there a difference between irony and sarcasm?(25 votes)
- Yes, there's a slight difference. Irony is saying the opposite of what you mean, while sarcasm is saying something ironic but with a spiteful intent. So usually when someone says, "I was just being sarcastic," that person means that he or she was saying something ironic.(28 votes)
- THIS IS IT! The FINAL grammar lesson in Khan Academy! We made it!(13 votes)
- Wouldn't it be ironic if the course master were to add another one?(13 votes)
- So puns are like Homophones are they?(9 votes)
- Not all of them. A pun is just a play on words, which can be something like,
"The queen from Siberia had an cold, icy temperament towards the visitors from the Bahamas, who had year-round warm temperatures."
The pun being the queen from a cold place having a "cold, icy temperament" directed at the people who had warm temperatures. A weak pun, yes, but it's a pun nevertheless aha(14 votes)
- what is the most common form of irony?(5 votes)
- Dramatic irony.(26 votes)
- I have done it
grammar course 100%(8 votes)- Congratulations, join the club of people who endure to the very end!(12 votes)
- if i say that i hate ice cream but i actually love it ,is that considered ironic?(1 vote)
- I don't think so. There are three types of irony: situational irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony. You could place your idea in verbal irony, but there are better ways to put it. Let me explain.
SItuational irony is something that you didn't expect to happen, but it happens. Like if there is a really good catcher that is really good at catching the ball, and fails to catch it. That is ironic because no one expected him to miss the catch, and yet he did.
Verbal irony is the use of words that you use to say something that has an entirely different meaning. Like when you're outside on a rainy day and you say "Oh, what a lovely day." Unless you actually like rainy days, it implies something entirely different, or simply being sarcastic in many ways. :)
And dramatic irony is when the reader or viewer knows something that the main character, or other characters do not. It happens a lot in horror movies (though I've never seen one, and don't plan to). But it also could be used like for a surprise birthday party for a friend of yours. All the guests know about it, but for the one who they are throwing the party for. It creates anticipation and suspense. That is dramatic irony.
You could put your sentence in verbal irony if you wanted to be sarcastic, or not at all. That is up to you to decide. Hope that was helpful!(20 votes)
- How does Irony have anything to do with English, and will I use it when I am an adult?(6 votes)
- Irony is not specific to English. It is a situation that is basic to social life. Unless you are a writer, you will not "use" irony, but you will see it in whatever you read or watch. Once you can recognize it, it's fun.
Here's an example. President Jimmy Carter's sister was an evangelist who had the gift of healing. But she died of cancer. Many people pointed out the irony in this situation.(8 votes)
- Is Irony affected by the change of expectation?(2 votes)
- That depends on the expectation. If something happens that you did not expect to happen than it is situational irony. You find that a lot. You might have an enemy that creates some sort of trap but instead falls into his own trap.
There are also more ironies through books and movies you can find. If someone says something, but mean something entirely different than what they are saying, then that is called verbal irony. It often helps show the speakers frustration or disappointment. Or that they have other plans that were intended.
And finally, there is something the audience for a story or movie can know but the character does not. That is called dramatic irony. Like a surprise party. Everyone except for the person who they are throwing the party for knows about it. So it's the anticipation of how the person will react that creates some suspense. Not a lot, but there are better examples all over the place!
I hope this helped with your question, and if not then tell me. You might have to rephrase the question so that we can help answer it. Thanks for asking and have a great day!(12 votes)
- When David was talking about the bear with the hat the first thing that came to my mind was Freddy Fazbear form FNAF lol.(7 votes)
- Congrats yall ! We have made it to the last lesson! All you need to do is the final quiz, unit test, and course challenge! Good luck! >:d(6 votes)
Video transcript
- [David] Hello, grammarians. Today I wanna talk about
the concept of irony, which is a very difficult
concept to nail down because it means so many things. But let's begin with the
best definition I can muster, which is that irony is
the difference between expectation and result. Now, this contains a lot within it. So, that means that irony is not only the engine of
surprise, but also jokes. All jokes in English function on this engine of the difference between expectation and result. You expect to hear one thing and then a joke plays
with your expectations. There's nothing less funny than explaining why things are funny. But this is why things are funny. So, today we're gonna talk about three different kinds of irony. And I'm going to give
you an example of each. Now, the first kind is
called situational irony. In situational irony, everyone is aware of the discrepancy of the difference between expectation and result. And a really classic example of this is the O. Henry short story
The Gift of the Magi. And it's about a couple who are very poor, but who love each other very much. And each one wants to get the other a really nice Christmas present. The man has a very lovely watch and the woman has really lovely long hair. And, unbeknownst to the other, the woman buys her husband a watch chain and the man buys his wife a comb. But, in order to do that, he sells his watch to buy her the comb and, in order to buy him the watch chain, the woman sells her hair. And so, they give each other
gifts that are now useless. This watch chain and this comb. For the hair that isn't there and the watch that isn't there. And the irony is that
they are now aware that the lengths that they
went to for the other kind of ruined each other's gifts. That's situational irony. It's kind of a happy ending, 'cause it proves stuff is just stuff and they love each other very much. That's situational irony. Everyone is aware of the discrepancy. Irony variant number two
is called dramatic irony. This means that there's
an unevenly distributed awareness of the difference. Specifically, that there's an audience. So, this is the sort of thing that really only comes into play in
fiction or in dramatic work. So, we're talking about a
play or a movie or whatever. So, let's say we've got a play. Here's our stage. Here's our audience down here. We have one character here, character A, who really doesn't like bears and is talking about if
he ever meets a bear, he's probably gonna punch
that bear right in the face. And here is character B, who is a bear, but is a bear in disguise
wearing a hat and a tie. Now, character B knows
that character B is a bear. The audience knows that
character B is a bear. Character A is unaware. So, we have this unevenly
distributed awareness of the difference between
expectation and result. Character A expects that
character B is not a bear. But character B and the audience knows that the opposite is true. That's dramatic irony. Now, the third kind of irony
we're going to talk about today is called verbal irony. So, the irony of words. And this one's a little different, because verbal irony is the difference between a stated meaning
and an actual meaning. And this means that it can
come in a couple of flavors. The most notable, and
perhaps the most confusing, is called sarcasm. And sarcasm is when you say a thing, but it actually ends up meaning
something quite different, usually the opposite. So, let's say an anvil,
very heavy metal object, falls on my foot, breaks my foot. I am in extraordinary pain. If you asked me how I was doing and I wanted to use sarcasm, I would say something
like, "Oh, I'm just great." And I'm signaling, with
my tone and also context, to indicate that the opposite is true. To say, "I'm actually terrible. My foot is broken." That's sarcasm. Now, related to sarcasm is the pun, which is usually a joke that
plays on multiple meanings. So, again, let's take this case. Let's say my foot was crushed by an anvil You ask me how I'm doing. I would say, "I'm feeling
a little flat today." No, not a great joke, sure. But what I'm trying to express is that I am both playing on the
notion that I don't feel well, I feel a little flat, and that my foot has been
squished by a heavy object, literally rendering it flat. That's what a pun is. And, again, I recognize
that, by explaining the joke, I have made the joke unfunny. I apologize. So, to review, let's put
all of these together into one giant ironic situation. So, let's say you're watching
a sitcom on television. And this sitcom takes place
in someone's apartment and that apartment has a
thing called a Murphy bed. Now, what a Murphy bed is is a bed that folds up into the wall to save
space in a small apartment. It's got this little handle up here. You grab it, you pull it down, it becomes just a regular bed. Otherwise, it's kept
folded up into the wall. So, let's say we're watching a sitcom that takes place in a small
apartment that has a Murphy bed. Let's say that our main
character has just come home from the airport with her visiting cousin. So, again, this is a sitcom. This is all happening on your television. So, this is all inside the frame. Now, unbeknownst to our
protagonist, let's call her Anna, and her cousin, let's call her Bella, a lion has crawled into the Murphy bed while the two of them were out. I promise this has a point. So, hidden behind this wall
is a lion on top of this bed. Now, ignorant of all of this, Bella asks her cousin "Is
the Murphy bed comfortable?" To which Anna replies "Yeah. It's perfect for lyin' on." I think you see where I'm going here. So, dramatic irony. We, the audience on the
other side of the screen, are aware that this entire that this entire time there's a
lion hiding in the Murphy bed. We know this. Anna and Bella do not. Bella asks if the bed is comfortable. Anna assures her that it is. We know, as the audience, it is not. There is a dangerous
savanna predator in the bed. That's dramatic irony. Situational irony, when they
pull that Murphy bed down and expose the lion, they will see the difference between these expectations and this result. And that is situational irony. You thought one thing was true and now something very
different has happened. That's the difference between
expectation and result. Beds don't usually have lions in them. You expect them not to have lions in them. You pull down the bed. Boom, there's a lion in it. Situational irony. Finally, it's perfect for lyin' on. Now, Anna does not realize this, but she is unwittingly punning on the fact that there is
a lion on the Murphy bed. So, this is verbal irony. Because, in fact, there is
a lion lyin' on the bed. So, there you have it. Encapsulated in one ridiculous case, here are all three
basic examples of irony. So, situational irony, dramatic
irony, and verbal irony. You can learn anything, David out.