Have you ever expected to have a really great weekend but then end up having tons of work? And then when you tell your friends about your weekend work, what do they say? “How nice!”  In that annoying sarcastic manner.

Jack Nicholson, an American actor, film director and producer once said:

“My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.”

According to Wikipedia, irony (from the Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a situation, literary technique, or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance that goes strikingly beyond the most simple and evident meaning of words or actions.

Pure rubbish right?

According to me, irony is something you can’t prevent experiencing. This really happened to me once. My friend called someone stupid for always tripping. Then what do you know? Right then and there, he tripped down the stairs. It wasn’t really funny at the time, but now that I think about it, what goes around comes around!

While watching ‘Mr. Bean’ the other day, there was this scene which was actually a sensational example of irony, Mr. Bean going through great pains to not expose himself while changing into his bathing suit on the beach because a man is sitting there and when Bean finally gets his suit on, we find out the man is blind.  

Another example of irony is in the infamous book ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Romeo and Juliet has lots of examples of dramatic irony. The reader knows the plot and the ending. Basically they read the whole book knowing what will happen. In act one scene five, Romeo and Juliet dance together not knowing that the other is from their enemy’s families. The reader is informed about this.
When the nurse enters in act 2 scene 4, the characters just think that the nurse is just a stranger yet we all know from before, the nurse is there to talk to Romeo about Juliet. And these are just two examples. The climax itself is loaded with dramatic irony!

But honestly, have ever related to the events that occur in your life to irony? No, right? That’s because we never think of the as irony. After all, the supreme irony of life is that no one get’s out of it alive.

Just imagine the irony of a fire station catching fire! Amazing right?! But no so amazing for the people inside.

Irony has it’s pros and cons. Sometimes it’s a boon, and sometimes it’s a bane. For example – You’re at a mall parking lot at peak hour. You just tell your parents “There’s no way we’re getting a parking spot.” And then lo and behold! An empty parking spot! Great, isn’t it?!

Now, as a bane. You’ve just finished writing a crucial exam. You leave the exam hall and feel a huge pressure lift off your head and you have high expectations that you’ll top the class. But when the results come, you’ve slumped way to the bottom! You go home with a hope that you’re parents won’t be furious. But then, as you inform them of your results, you receive a sound thrashing and you are grounded for a whole month! Not the best day ever, right?

A fat man wearing a shirt that says ‘Small is beautiful’. A plastic surgeon getting a plastic surgery. The possibilities are endless!

I wanted to end this article with a really good example of irony. And so I shall.

“I thought that I would have a hard time writing this article and won’t have a lot to write. But it seems I’ve written a lot and it just took me 10 minutes!