Ironic

Perhaps it's the English teacher in me, but I hate Alanis Morisette. She has ruined the word "ironic" for me (dontcha think?) Let me explain. According to Webster:

iro·ny
Pronunciation:
\ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural iro·nies
Etymology:
Latin ironia, from Greek eirōnia, from eirōn dissembler
Date: 1502

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

Long story short, when one says or does something and the actual thing that happens is completely away from normal. For example: A person who loves animals, is a vegitarian, sticks up for animals and has the bumper stickers and all gets eaten by a bear.

Morisette has changed irony to mean anything that happens that is not according to plan. For example, a traffic jam when you're already late. That's not irony, that's just bad luck. It would be ironic if the person was late because he was checking the traffic cameras to make sure there was no traffic jams.

In that song there are 2 instances of irony. One: the part where the guy dies in the plane crash and he says, "well, isn't this nice." Sarcasm is a form of irony. Two, the whole song, named ironic, is, ironically, not ironic. The name of the song should be "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Most of the time the word "ironically" should be replaced with "coincidentally" meaning two or more things happening, in an unexpected, yet harmonious way. However, ironically, you are probably going to read this, laugh, and continue to use "ironically" in bad ways. Ironically, this post, which was meant to be funny will, in fact, offend people. Oh, the irony!