Quote:
Not unless your name is Alanis...
Coincidence, yes. Irony, no.

See, I never understood that complaint everyone has about her song.

I mean yes, the primary definition of the word "irony" is saying the opposite of what you mean. "Sarcasm" is also often synonymous with that definition of "irony".

But dictionary.com also tells me that another accepted sub-meaning of irony is the Alanis Morisette meaning: "Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs."

In fact, when it comes to common usage, I've found that usually when someone says "I was being sarcastic", they were saying the opposite of what they meant. And when they say "Gee, that's ironic", they mean the circumstances coincidentally happened in a manner opposite of what you would expect, i.e., being unexpectedly incongruous. Which I think fits the main definitions of both words, and also fits the lyric of her song.

The way Alanis used the word in her song fit perfectly with what I felt, at the time, was the common usage of "ironic".

(Note that I've been studying that lyric recently because I'm trying to come up with a good parody of it, so I've put some thought into this.)

But don't get me started on the common misuse of the word "parameters" in sci-fi movies (E.g., Commander Data)...

Edit: And now that I look it up, the Cmdr. Data use of Parameter is also one of the accepted sub-meanings...
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Tony Fabris