Re: When insults had class

Like many, you've misused the idea of irony. Irony is the indirect
presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and
the context in which it occurs. Look at my sig, for a demonstration
of irony in it's proper context.

Irony is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or
incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is generally
understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history). The
"gap" in my joke was that I was ostensibly calling the guy a "***," which is
a common rude epithet on usenet. However, in the context in which I called
him that I was juxtaposing the rudeness of it in the medium with the elegant
putdowns of yesteryear. Therefore were was a contradiction between what I
was saying ("you ***") and what I was meaning ("you are putting forth ideas
of elegant putdowns in a forum in which the least elegant are usually used,
but with which I agree.") Therefore, the term "ironic" is perfectly
accurate for the joke I made.

And while I agree that anti-gay slurs aren't funny.. what I was making
wasn't an anti-gay slur but rather social commentary in an ironic way. I'm
sure most people got the joke, and the irony and contradiction of it.


Moe: What does your watch say?
Shemp: It don't say nothing, you have to look at it.

That's not irony, but bad humor. The ironic contradiction should be lost on
the purported audience "Moe" and all too evident to the real audience ("the
viewer.") The above is just a bad pun.




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