Struggling to understand the difference between irony and unfortunate events. My partner is quite smart and I don’t want to make a fool of myself.
EDIT – Thanks everyone, your responses have really helped. Hopefully I’ll be less likely to make a fool of myself describing something as ironic, in the future.
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There are multiple meanings of irony.
There is the sarcastic meaning, where you say the opposite of what you mean, usually to be funny. Example: Someone doesn’t react to some piece of good news and you say “Don’t get too excited”.
There is the outcome that is different than the one intended. Example: You decide to start exercising to improve your health and then suffer a heart attack the first time you go for a run.
Then there is the literary technique where the audience fully understands the significance of something the protagonist says or does, but the protagonist themselves does not. Example: Someone on the Titanic sees the iceberg and says “It’s so beautiful I could die”.
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