Tim Babb’s March Blog Madness: Day 18

So one of my Facebook “friends” posted the following picture with the caption “Irony defined” attached to it:

Really, chuckles? You’re gonna go with “irony” on that one? I’m no Grammar Girl, but I’m pretty sure I can define Irony:

irony
1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other’s false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony
2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony c : an ironic expression or utterance
3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

(Source: Merriam-Webster)

As it applies to the photo, I think we’re looking at point 3 in the definition, “incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result.” So tell me what is incongruous about a truck with flames painted on it catching fire? Nothing. That’s not ironic, it’s oddly fitting. I think a better caption would be “Overkill Defined.”

If you really wanted to go with “Irony defined” as your caption, you could use this picture:

(Is it ironic that I’m spending a whole blog harping on grammar when this blog undoubtedly has a ton of grammar mistakes in it? I believe it is.)