The Irony Point

While this has never been an entirely serious site, my increasing use of irony in recent weeks seems to have confused some people. I had hoped that my ironic posts would be readily distinguishable from the more serious ones, but several people have now told me that this is not the case (including a longtime friend of mine who makes more use of irony and sarcasm than anyone else I know).

In order to hopefully put an end to such confusion (and libel suits) I have decided to try adopting Slate's recent suggestion for a sarcasm point, even though, ironically, the suggestion was itself ironic.

Thus armed, I imagine the politicians will now stop making comments that can easily be parodied_¡

Update, 4 September 2005: I've changed the name of the sarcasm point to the 'irony point'. Sarcasm is usually pretty obvious and shouldn't need telegraphing in such a crude manner. Irony, however, is more subtle.

Comments

[Martin on 15.02.05 at 22:06]

Since no one appears to want to comment...I thought you might appreciate this. Is this irony I ask? I trust you will remove this once read.

"A letter received by B&Q customer services Department in the UK.

Dear Sir/Madam

My congratulations to you on getting a yacht to leave the UK on 28th November 2004, sail 27,354 miles around the world and arrive back 72 days later.

Could you please let me know when the kitchen I ordered 96 days ago will be arriving from your warehouse 13 miles away?

Yours Sincerely"

[The Limey on 15.02.05 at 23:15]

lol

I'd say that's a pretty good example of irony, that may just be bordering on the sarcastic.

I'm inclined to leave it up, unless you really want me to remove it?

[Martin on 16.02.05 at 09:00]

I was relying on Rogets definition of irony = sarcasm.

No problem if you want to leave it up.

[bermuda bulldog on 16.02.05 at 09:43]

Martin,

I could have sent a similar letter to Big Savings Zone in Southside St. David’s who took approx. a year (11+ months) to deliver a kitchen that I paid my $10,000 deposit for in the beginning of November 2003. I was promised by Big "Shyster" Zone that my kitchen would arrive on/or about Tuesday December 30th 2003 from Canada. To be installed the first week of January 2004.

After too many screw-ups to list, except for the fact we had NO KITCHEN at all from April – November (it was ripped out April 15th, after Big Savings Zone said our kitchen was here and would be delivered in 2 days). Our kitchen was finally delivered and installed in November 2004.

Their invoice/bill arrived yesterday and not only did we not receive any discount for inconvenience / aggravation, they did also charge us for installation that we paid for ourselves, directly to their sub-contractor, who sent us his own bill.

[Point on 16.02.05 at 10:24]

Bulldog

After all that tremendous service I'm surprised thay didn't mark-up the sub-contractor's invoice as well!

[shipstones on 16.02.05 at 12:23]

We had an eletrician fix our two outside lights! $900. I should have known by the cowboy hat he was wearing! Do you know the guy?

[Martin on 16.02.05 at 12:38]

It's also good sometimes to know that other countries don't get it right either. We all to easily blame Bermuda.

Shipstones....

I don't know the sparky you mention, but I have hired his brother when I lived in the UK.

[Tiger Bay on 18.02.05 at 13:55]

My sarcasm here is direct; no symbol needed.

The Bermuda 2005 budget is showing up on the internet on sites from the royal gazette, the sun, ernst & young, pricewaterhousecoopers, and others.

Not a peep on the government website.

[Tiger Bay on 21.02.05 at 16:16]

Remembering Hunter S. Thompson:

"My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together."

(Replace with Bermudian politician of your choice and go gonzo!)

[shipstones on 21.02.05 at 23:48]

Martin, (a) he was Portuguese (b)I am not kidding do you know the sparky who wears a cowboy hat in Bermuda?

[Martin on 22.02.05 at 08:16]

Ships...

Can't say I know the guy - sorry. If it helps you get over the shock of the sparks - which it probably won't - I have a better one that that.

On Thursday 6th January, we had a pipe spilt in the kitchen. Water everywhere and the smell was dreadful. We phoned a plumber...told him what had happened...he said would be round as quickly as he could.

We turned the water off to avoid the flooding.

Two hours later - no plumber, so we called another who came round almost immediately and fixed it.

Last Wednesday (16th Feb}...the first plumber called us and said..."Where we in tonight so that he could come around and fix our problem?"

Strangely, he sounded upset when I told him we had fixed it!!

Would someone please beam me up.......this place amazes me.

[shipstones on 22.02.05 at 10:39]

LOL

[TJL on 23.02.05 at 09:56]

I'm personally not a fan of the new irony point... it's like playing poker with everyone's cards showing.

[The Limey on 23.02.05 at 13:06]

TJL - Believe me, I see where you're coming from. Irony isn't really irony any more if you telegraph its arrival. And even now I've started using the sarcasm point, as Dental Dilemmas made plain some people will still think I'm being serious.

The problem I have is that unlike The Onion, The Ironic Times or the Borrowitz Report, this site mixes serious stuff with (hopefully) funny stuff and while the difference may be obvious to you and I, to a lot of others it isn't.

What does everyone else think?

P.S. For those who have been asking, the sarcasm point is a subscript, emboldened letter 'i'. In HTML you can write it thus:

_{<strong>i</strong>}

but note that in comments although the <strong> tag is allowed the <sub> tag is parsed out (beyond my control).