Agreed. Another perfect example of something I hate but somehow works here is the use of all caps for IRONY.>> ^shuac:

Normally, I criticize people for misusing the word 'irony.' More often than not, people confuse it with coincidence but, like a drowned lifeguard, it applies perfectly here.

Normally, I criticize people for misusing the word 'irony.' More often than not, people confuse it with coincidence but, like a drowned lifeguard, it applies perfectly here.

4 more comments have been lost in the ether at this killed duplicate.

You missed my favorite part, at 2:19 the little kid goes ... 'I just wish a lifeguard was heeere...'

aaaa-dorable

also, the kids settle down by the end, Jeeez, nobody with any patience on this board.

>> ^garmachi:

I was very disoriented at first. Then the kids started screaming. Then it made sense visually. Then... I pressed mute. Finally, it was awesome.

Your video, Jim Carrey and Will Ferrel - Lifeguard On Duty, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'jim carrey, will ferrel, lifeguard, jacuzzi' to 'jim carrey, will ferrell, lifeguard, jacuzzi' - edited by calvados

I saw this guy perform live when I was in college, he had some real good material.

One of my favorite skits was him working as a lifeguard and going on a bathroom break.

Yeah, I agree. It's damn difficult. I haven't fully grasped it. That's probably why I'm not a comic genius. I think I stuffed up the cancer one. That fits the definition of irony on wikipedia. We seem to agree on the lifeguard one, but how is the seatbelt example irony? It's unfortunate, but that seems about it for me.

> ^dannym3141:

@<a rel="nofollow" href="http://sarzy.videosift.com" title="member since November 8th, 2007" class="profilelink"><strong style="color: rgb(0, 136, 0);">Sarzy
“any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same."
How exactly does saying "Nice weather we're having!" during a hurricane NOT constitute irony? The surface meaning and the underlying meaning are completely at odds. I'm not sure you've got an exact grasp on it yet.
However neither has your opponent because your examples are ironic - except i believe the lifeguard one. If a lifeguard caused someone else to drown, that might be ironic. Life guards put themselves at a higher risk of drowning by going into dangerous watery situations. I think we can agree loosely that lifeguards are there to save others from drowning, so a correct ironic sentiment would be if they caused someone else to drown. Like, if a lifeguard yelled at a guy swimming to be careful, which distracted the swimmer who swallowed some water and drowned. (which would be situational irony - something put in place to save his life caused his death)
Or something..
Irony is a difficult one to fully grasp, it's really easy to see something as ironic and then later realise oh yeah actually it's not ironic. I think it goes to show how most people have no clue, some people have a bit of a clue, and only rarely does anyone actually have a decent grasp on it - people who don't get it right aren't stupid, it's just a relatively difficult concept.

Hey Sarzy.

"Someone being wrong about something isn't automatically irony." No, that's not what I was saying at all! If the guy is perfectly aware that they won't be arresting anybody and yet still comes out with a crazy line like that, they are being ironic! It's all about intonation with verbal irony (hard to express in text). "All languages use pitch semantically, that is, as intonation, for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question."

Have look at linguistic usage disputes and cosmic irony.

"It's a death row pardon two minutes too late" is an example of the "irony" Alanis Morrisette used. It's confused with cosmic irony, but it's really 'the mere "coincidental or unexpected"'. It's a popular understanding of irony. "A lifeguard drowning" is the same thing. One doesn't expect a lifeguard to drown, but it isn't ironic because it doesn't "describes a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results." What if someone held a lifeguard underwater and they drowned? How would that be ironic in any way? Maybe you'd have more of an argument with some context, like the lifeguard went to save someone's life and ended up drowning (or near drowning) in the attempt while the victim escaped alive. Or as dannym3141 suggests, they kill the person they're trying to save.

Take a look at the bulletproof glass example on wikipedia. It's (situational) irony because bulletproof glass should stop bullets and normal glass shouldn't. If it were normal glass the bullet would go straight through and miss the president. Because it is bulletproof, it bounces off and hits the president. Situational irony. Compare that with your seatbelt example. Does anyone claim that a seatbelt would save your life in an incident that occurs underwater? I doubt even the wildest marketer would claim such a thing. It's not irony because seatbelts should assist in a collision with another vehicle, an impact collision, where the impact would normally kill/heavily injure you. Water isn't going to do that. A response of "but seatbelts should save your life!" ain't going to cut it.

My example of "pleasant day" when it's raining is an example of verbal irony (i.e. "a disparity of expression and intention: when a speaker says one thing but means another, or when a literal meaning is contrary to its intended effect."). You don't need to try to belittle it (or me) with "lesser-used" and "if it's irony at all." I'm not trying to attack you or bring you down.

Having read the situational irony as described in wikipedia, I think the video title is correct. It is ironic. The expected result is one or more terrorists being arrested; the actual result is that they're all COPs (of a form). My example ("four arrests in one!") is a verbal irony statement because clearly you can't arrest any of the people.

I must admit, I don't really like situational irony, it can be so easily confused with coincidence and unexpected situations, and so one ends up with endless discussions about irony (such as this one). If only we could only ditch it and go back to dramatic and verbal irony I'd be a lot happier. Nevertheless, the examples on wikipedia are pretty good. It needs to be read closely, so the expected/actual dilemma can be uncovered.

On re-reading your initial comment, your cancer drug example is a good example of situational irony. The lifeguard and seatbelt ones, one the other hand, would need a lot more context before they could become ironic.

>> ^Sarzy:

>> ^ledpup:
Well, this may be a trap, but Sarzy, none of your examples are ironic. They're all Alanis Morissette irony. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony. E.g. The image of a person holding a sign that says "I can't afford an actual sign" is a perfectly good example of irony. All your examples are just things that happen. Irony is all about truth and the assertion of it by proposing its negation. Eg Saying "Gee, what a pleasant day we're having" when there is a hurricane outside that is ripping off the roofs of houses. That's ironic.
Irony has to be the most misunderstood of all English words.

No, my examples are all correctly ironic -- going by the information on the wikipedia page you linked to, they are situational irony, which is almost always what people are referring to when they call something ironic (whether they're using the term correctly or not). Your hurricane example, if it's irony at all (which is debatable), would be dramatic irony, which is definitely a lesser-used variety of the term.



And I really don't see how your example would make this video ironic. Someone being wrong about something isn't automatically irony.

@Sarzy

“any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same."

How exactly does saying "Nice weather we're having!" during a hurricane NOT constitute irony? The surface meaning and the underlying meaning are completely at odds. I'm not sure you've got an exact grasp on it yet.

However neither has your opponent because your examples are ironic - except i believe the lifeguard one. If a lifeguard caused someone else to drown, that might be ironic. Life guards put themselves at a higher risk of drowning by going into dangerous watery situations. I think we can agree loosely that lifeguards are there to save others from drowning, so a correct ironic sentiment would be if they caused someone else to drown. Like, if a lifeguard yelled at a guy swimming to be careful, which distracted the swimmer who swallowed some water and drowned. (which would be situational irony - something put in place to save his life caused his death)

Or something..

Irony is a difficult one to fully grasp, it's really easy to see something as ironic and then later realise oh yeah actually it's not ironic. I think it goes to show how most people have no clue, some people have a bit of a clue, and only rarely does anyone actually have a decent grasp on it - people who don't get it right aren't stupid, it's just a relatively difficult concept.

I don't know that it's lesser-used, Sarzy, in fact, I'd argue that dramatic irony is such a general-ballpark kind of definition that really big coincidences (like the scene in this video) get false credit for being ironic. And it happens SO MUCH, that, yes, eventually, the definition of irony will evolve. It'll become less-special. The actual result and intended result being "exact opposites" (like when my lifeguard drowns) will no longer be required with this new definition.

I'd bet that if even more time goes by, your and you're will merge into a single word that's less confusing to the kiddies out there. Apostrophe-s will be used, at whim, for plurals. To and Too will also merge as will there, their and they're. Language evolves just like living things. When's the last time you used the word ere?

ledpup's assertion that irony is the most misunderstood word in the English language, preceded by his (or her) incorrect examples of irony, is itself...technically not ironic. Dramatic irony, sure why not? But proper "exact opposite" irony? Nope.

However, you're correct that the video above isn't ironic. It could have been, if the sentence "Wasn't one of those guys supposed to be a terrorist?" was phrased differently. For example, "Great, four arrests in one! Nice work people."

>> ^Sarzy:

This is Alanis Morissette irony, at best. Like Shuac said, a lifeguard drowning, that would be irony. Finding out that a certain cancer medication actually causes cancer, that would be irony. If your car fell into a lake and you drowned because your seatbelt wouldn't come off, that would be irony. A bunch of cops accidentally targeting each other? Not irony.
But of course, the English language is always evolving, and it seems like the definition of irony (in this context at least, because irony obviously has a few other meanings as well) is broadening to essentially refer to anything that is a weird coincidence. Under that broader definition of the term, yes, this is ironic. Which means that the title of this video is probably more appropriate than Deano intended.

Well, this may be a trap, but Sarzy, none of your examples are ironic. They're all Alanis Morissette irony. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony. E.g. The image of a person holding a sign that says "I can't afford an actual sign" is a perfectly good example of irony. All your examples are just things that happen. Irony is all about truth and the assertion of it by proposing its negation. Eg Saying "Gee, what a pleasant day we're having" when there is a hurricane outside that is ripping off the roofs of houses. That's ironic.

Irony has to be the most misunderstood of all English words.

>> ^Sarzy:

This is Alanis Morissette irony, at best. Like Shuac said, a lifeguard drowning, that would be irony. Finding out that a certain cancer medication actually causes cancer, that would be irony. If your car fell into a lake and you drowned because your seatbelt wouldn't come off, that would be irony. A bunch of cops accidentally targeting each other? Not irony.
But of course, the English language is always evolving, and it seems like the definition of irony (in this context at least, because irony obviously has a few other meanings as well) is broadening to essentially refer to anything that is a weird coincidence. Under that broader definition of the term, yes, this is ironic. Which means that the title of this video is probably more appropriate than Deano intended.

This is Alanis Morissette irony, at best. Like Shuac said, a lifeguard drowning, that would be irony. Finding out that a certain cancer medication actually causes cancer, that would be irony. If your car fell into a lake and you drowned because your seatbelt wouldn't come off, that would be irony. A bunch of cops accidentally targeting each other? Not irony.

But of course, the English language is always evolving, and it seems like the definition of irony (in this context at least, because irony obviously has a few other meanings as well) is broadening to essentially refer to anything that is a weird coincidence. Under that broader definition of the term, yes, this is ironic. Which means that the title of this video is probably more appropriate than Deano intended.

It's certainly not an according-to-Hoyle example of irony, like say, when a lifeguard drowns. More like a bargain brand, loosey-goosey kind of irony that's popular with the kids today.