*comedy

Adding video to channels (Comedy) - requested by RedSky.

VHS transfer, one-sided audio... nice!

Hahaha, this is great. *quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by gwiz665.

"Wasn't one of those guys supposed to be a terrorist?"

Ah, that was great.

Upvote for cute clip, but that's not irony.

>> ^Payback:

Upvote for cute clip, but that's not irony.


It absolutely is.

Scanner Darkly has the same theme, its a must see.

A Scanner Darkly Remix from Super! Alright! on Vimeo.

TSIA - Three Stooges Intelligence Agency. At your command, sir.

..i bet that's exactly how things play out everyday.

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.

Three law enforcement agencies all trying to catch a (potentially non-existant,) terrorist wind up catching each other in three unconnected sting operations? That's irony.

Do they really have armed undercover INS agents? Just curious.

no matter what reality may dictate as to the possibility of this actually happening, this is still an awesome clip

Wait why is this under comedy? Is it because the acting, music, choreography, and writing are god awful? I mean, it can't be the ham-fisted irony, right?

*terrible

Adding video to channels (Terrible) - requested by griefer_queafer.

>> ^escape421521:

Three law enforcement agencies all trying to catch a (potentially non-existant,) terrorist wind up catching each other in three unconnected sting operations? That's irony.
Like I said. Loosey-Goosey.

>> ^Xax:

VHS transfer, one-sided audio... nice!


But watchable! VCRs still rule. No DRM, no subscription, etc.

Great, but what show was this from?

Home taping is killing music . . .
Sorry, wrong medium.

>> ^ant:

>> ^Xax:
VHS transfer, one-sided audio... nice!

But watchable! VCRs still rule. No DRM, no subscription, etc.

Wait, is that a fake badge? Zoom and enhance.

I don't know what the show is but it looks bleeding awful. Luckily it seems to have some comedy value.

pls tell me that isnt Amy from "chasing amy"

Is anyone having trouble with the audio? It's just garbled static for me.

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.

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.

>> ^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.

>> ^ledpup:

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."

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

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.

@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.

DOH!

>> ^dannym3141:

“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."With regard to my "loosey-goosey" thing and evolution of language, I rest my case.

Alanis Morissette has at least one example of, "true", irony for you purists.

"As the plane crashed down he thought, 'well isn't this nice'."

I find it bizarre how many people are attached to a hyper-specific meaning for the word "irony". Irony is a very broad term, and very few of the important uses of irony in classic literature would hold to the ridiculous standard many people seem to want.

Many, if not all, of the things in Alanis's song are indeed ironic, not just according to some new-fangled weak definition, but according to the way "irony" has been used for centuries. If anything, I think people are much more gun shy about calling something ironic than they used to be, because so many people are so attached to their very narrow definition. That's not to say that "rain on your wedding day" is ironic, but a "death row pardon, 2 minutes too late"... that meets with how the term ironic has normally been used.

Sarzy, in fact, I'd argue that dramatic irony is such a general-ballpark kind of definition that really big coincidences...


Coincidence has very little to do with dramatic irony. Dramatic irony means that a character is acting or speaking based on a belief the audience knows is wrong. Almost all stories involve dramatic irony - and it isn't some "lesser" kind of irony or something, it's just a description for a very broad range of situations. The fact that it's broad shouldn't bother anyone, unless they have some emotional attachment to calling people out for false positives.

Irony is an extremely common literary device, and it isn't wrong to see irony in almost all dramatic works and most rhetorical ones. For some reason, many want to change this useful term to instead refer to such a narrow range of things that the term would be useless. I assume this comes from a misunderstanding in freshman English or something - believing that all instances of irony must fit the exact form of an example.

I thought things like saying 'Isn't this nice' while a plane crashes and saying 'What nice weather we're having' while a hurricane rips off the roof is called being sarcastic, and has nothing at all to do with irony.
The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinking on her maiden voyage is ironic. Four U.S. Intelligence services bungling an investigation to the point where they're arresting/shooting each other because they're too hard-headed to share information with each other isn't ironic, it's just dumb. A terrorist suicide bomber getting the wrong address and blowing up a terrorist safe house would be ironic, because not only is it terrible terrorism, it'd still be terroristic.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

Wait, is that a fake badge? Zoom and enhance.


Zoom..., Enhance..., And flip it around so we can see the back of it!

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.

It isn't sarcasm (a form of irony) because there isn't any contempt. Definitions really help here.

Irony (from the Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a situation, literary technique, or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance that goes strikingly beyond the most simple and evident meaning of words or actions. Verbal and situational irony is often intentionally used as emphasis in an assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, or the irony of sarcasm or litotes may involve the emphasis of one's meaning by deliberate use of language that states the direct opposite of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection.

>> ^flechette:

I thought things like saying 'Isn't this nice' while a plane crashes and saying 'What nice weather we're having' while a hurricane rips off the roof is called being sarcastic, and has nothing at all to do with irony.
The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinking on her maiden voyage is ironic. Four U.S. Intelligence services bungling an investigation to the point where they're arresting/shooting each other because they're too hard-headed to share information with each other isn't ironic, it's just dumb. A terrorist suicide bomber getting the wrong address and blowing up a terrorist safe house would be ironic, because not only is it terrible terrorism, it'd still be terroristic.

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.

That's a pretty cheap comment.

>> ^Drachen_Jager:

Alanis Morissette has at least one example of, "true", irony for you purists.
"As the plane crashed down he thought, 'well isn't this nice'."

It was a show called "The Agency", and was a prime time drama about people working at the CIA, and was canceled several years ago.
>> ^CrushBug:

Great, but what show was this from?

Debating the definition of "irony" is the real definition of irony.

>> ^ledpup:

That's a pretty cheap comment.
>> ^Drachen_Jager:
Alanis Morissette has at least one example of, "true", irony for you purists.
"As the plane crashed down he thought, 'well isn't this nice'."



Free actually. Does Videosift charge you to post? What's your point?

I'm going to have to side with those who say the Wikipedia "Situational irony" is the only correct form in modern usage. Saying something sarcastic or contradictory does not indicate irony to me.

I will also agree that this video is not ironic, unless the initial circumstances were a training operation for inter-agency communication and cooperation.

I love the vanity of the precise definition of "irony" being a cultural flashpoint that always leads to long-winded debates.

I'm going to share something shocking to the purists among us: I told the receptionist I was there to see the "podiatrist," and she said "the foot doctor?" She regularly deals with latino patients, so she tends to optimize her language-use for communication. Terrible, I know.

This is irony.

A double agent sets up an elaborate sting operation on a terrorist that ends up being another double agent who is in the process of carrying out his own elaborate sting operation? Text book example of irony.

Just like a finding black fly in your glass of chardonnay at a party celebrating the successful fumigation of your vineyard. Or like rain on the wedding day of two meteorologists. Or like meeting the man of your dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife, who turns out to be the relationship advice columnist that encouraged you to get out of the house and meet the man of your dreams. Or like a no smoking sign on a cigarette break in the executive lounge of Philip Morris.

When I watched this, the part that struck me as ironic was the last line.

The word "terrorist" is used as a synonym to "enemy", but it literally means something else.

In this case it could reasonably be used to describe secret police who stalk and attempt to entrap people, and use extra-judiciary means to extract information. In the literal sense not "one of those guys", but all of the officers can be described as terrorists.

After hearing many things claimed as examples of irony, and every single one of them disputed, I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as irony.

As I understand it, Irony is the result of an action that runs contrary or completely opposite to the original intent of the action.

How the US fights terror.