In her 1996 hit “Ironic,” Alanis Morissette famously sings that irony is “like rain on your wedding day” and “a black fly in your chardonnay.” Sorry ...

Adapted from "Irony and Sarcasm" by Roger Kreuz (MIT Press, 2020). Reprinted with permission from MIT Press. In February 1996, Alanis Morissette released the fourth single from “Jagged Little Pill,” ...

Like simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole, irony is a very useful figure of speech. Writers and other creative workers regularly make use of it, including comedians. It can, however, also ...

As the great British comic, Ricky Gervais once implied, England and America may not so much be divided by a common tongue, but by their distinctive use (and in the case of the Brits, their abuse) of ...

When writing a script, the situations you put your characters in are key. These moments are what ultimately provide insight into who they are, while also moving the story forward. There are many ways ...

In fairness to Alanis, pop singers and Canadians aren’t the only ones who struggle to understand irony. There’s an entire line of cognitive research dedicated to understanding the concept (as well as ...

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...