1. Isn’t it ironic?
English III

2. Oh, the irony
Source: chicagonow.com
Source: quizlet.com

3. What is irony?
Definition: a contradiction between appearance and reality, between expectation and outcome, or between meaning and intention.
There are three types of irony in literature.

4. Verbal Irony
Verbal irony occurs when someone says something that deliberately contradicts what that person actually means.
Think: sarcasm
Example: “Oh, you guys are just really killing this material. Nice job!” – said to students who all bombed a test

5. Situational Irony
This occurs when something happens that contradicts readers’ expectations.
Examples:
-The fire stations burns to the ground
-A website that is anti-technology
-A marriage counselor files for divorce

6. Dramatic irony
This occurs when the reader or audience is aware of something that a character does not know.
Examples:
-In Romeo and Juliet, we know both of the characters are going to die before they do.
-In Star Wars, Luke does not know Darth Vader is his father until after the audience knows.

7. Why use irony? Authors often use irony to: 1. Add humor to a story
2. Develop the THEME of the story

8. So, is this really ironic?
Take a listen to some rockin’ 90s music:
Is everything in this song actually ironic?

9. So, how do we make it ironic?
The website College Humor gave us some examples:
An old man turned ninety-eight. He won the lottery and died the next day… of chronic emphysema from inhalation of the latex particles scratched off decades' worth of lottery tickets. A black fly in your Chardonnay… poured to celebrate the successful fumigation of your recently purchased vineyard in southern France.

10. A couple more examples
A death row pardon two minutes too late… because the governor was too busy watching Dead Man Walking to grant clemency any earlier. Rain on your wedding day… to Ra, the Egyptian sun-god.