I'm 39 and still have trouble differentiating between ironic and coincidence

[Janice Johnson]

Alanis Morisette said something like,"Imagine being 21 and the whole world telling you you're an idiot who doesn't know what Ironic means." I'm 39 and I STILL have trouble seeing the difference between ironic and coincidence. I recently took a online test that asked something like, "Is this irony or coincidence? Tommy bought Eric a $10 burger meal at Burger King in Hialeah at 2 PM as a surprise show of goodwill for Eric. Eric bought Tommy the SAME $10 meal at 2 PM at another Burger King in North Miami as a surprise show of goodwill. " I chose ironic and the answer was,"Eric and Tommy being each other the same exact meal for each other at different Burger Kings at the exact same time for the same reason is actually a coincidence, not ironic. My thinking was them buying the same exact meal for each other for the same reason was irony...

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by Janice Johnson

Alanis Morisette said something like,"Imagine being 21 and the whole world telling you you're an idiot who doesn't know what Ironic means." I'm 39 and I STILL have trouble seeing the difference between ironic and coincidence. I recently took a online test that asked something like, "Is this irony or coincidence? Tommy bought Eric a $10 burger meal at Burger King in Hialeah at 2 PM as a surprise show of goodwill for Eric. Eric bought Tommy the SAME $10 meal at 2 PM at another Burger King in North Miami as a surprise show of goodwill. " I chose ironic and the answer was,"Eric and Tommy being each other the same exact meal for each other at different Burger Kings at the exact same time for the same reason is actually a coincidence, not ironic. My thinking was them buying the same exact meal for each other for the same reason was irony...

Let me give this a try, here is an example I use of irony:

Casey Stengel managed the Yankees to 7 World Championships including 5 in a row (1949-53), the 7 championships tied Joe McCarthy for the most World Championships and 5 in a row is a record. In 1960 his final game as Yankee manager took place in Pittsburgh at Forbes Field, the Yankees lost that game (the 7th game of the World Series) and Casey was relieved of his job as Yankee manager, ending his historical run in that position.

Fast forward to 1962, he has been retained by the Mets to be the team's very first manager, the Mets lost their first 9 games in a row before their historic 1st victory which took place at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

[dakert]

Thank you Duster78, I was trying to think of the skunk's name in the Disney movie No Deposit No Return

[dee2364]

Ironic means that something plays out in an unexpected way, usually with a twist.

A coincidence is when two or more similar events that have a-one-in-a-million-shot of happening at the same time or very close together happens.

Examples of irony:

1. The sinking of the Titanic, because it was heavily advertised as completely unsinkable but then wound up not only sinking but being the most famous sinking ship of all time.
   
2. On the Dick Cavett Show, a health nut named Jerome Rodale, who promoted organic food claiming that he never felt better in his life, immediately dying right after.

Examples of coincidence:

1. One day, thinking of an old song you hadn't heard in years. You enter a store, and it's playing over the PA.
   
2. Two women who work at the same job that everyone notices look and sound alike. They become best friends and learn that they each married a guy named Mike, have three kids and own a chocolate lab. They do research and they learn they were twins separated at birth.

I remember the silly fallout about the song. Most of the things that Alanis sang about were ironic, but everyone harped on the "rain on your wedding day" line. And people didn't get that the whole point of a song is to convey a mood and Isn't It Ironic was about capturing those moments in life when something bad happens in a way that comes across as life playing a cruel joke. It conveyed the idea, so I don't know why people cared so much about "rain on your wedding day."

[Janice Johnson]

Originally Posted by dee2364

Ironic means that something plays out in an unexpected way, usually with a twist.

A coincidence is when two or more similar events that have a-one-in-a-million-shot of happening at the same time or very close together happens.

Examples of irony:

1. The sinking of the Titanic, because it was heavily advertised as completely unsinkable but then wound up not only sinking but being the most famous sinking ship of all time.
   
2. On the Dick Cavett Show, a health nut named Jerome Rodale, who promoted organic food claiming that he never felt better in his life, immediately dying right after.

Examples of coincidence:

1. One day, thinking of an old song you hadn't heard in years. You enter a store, and it's playing over the PA.
   
2. Two women who work at the same job that everyone notices look and sound alike. They become best friends and learn that they each married a guy named Mike, have three kids and own a chocolate lab. They do research and they learn they were twins separated at birth.

I remember the silly fallout about the song. Most of the things that Alanis sang about were ironic, but everyone harped on the "rain on your wedding day" line. And people didn't get that the whole point of a song is to convey a mood and Isn't It Ironic was about capturing those moments in life when something bad happens in a way that comes across as life playing a cruel joke. It conveyed the idea, so I don't know why people cared so much about "rain on your wedding day."

About ironic, a LOT of the examples she gave were just plain bad luck. The man being afraid to fly FINALLY getting the courage to fly and the plane went down! The 98 year old man dying the day after winning the Lottery was plain bad luck, but he was also REALLY old. The man REALLY should have been YOUNG like 28 for the ironic point to REALLY stick. Her meeting the man of her dreams and then meeting his beautiful wife , ouch, was plain bad luck too, but I remember thinking a,"She could STILL have a chance to date/marry him if he and his wife divorce or wife dies, but there's no chance if it's a HUSBAND. Alanis recently updated the lyrics to HUSBAND, Which would REALLY suck.

10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife is bad luck but you could try to use the spoon as a knife. The traffic jam when you're already late could work to your advantage. If you're already late, you could use the traffic jam as your excuse to why you're late. It's when you were EARLY and then the traffic jam making you late occurred when this could be bad.

The rain on your wedding day is plain bad luck especially if it's an OUTDOOR wedding.. Alanis could have made this line hit harder if she said something like,"Beautiful, bright, sunshine and then suddenly pouring rain on your wedding day (Florida has a LOT of days like this. The other day, it was HOT, beautiful, bright sunshine, and then out of nowhere, pouring, torrential rain! It was shocking! )

The death row pardon 10 minutes too late is plain heartbreaking.

The no smoking sign on your cigarette break is ironic, but more of an inconvenience.

Alanis could have added a line something like,"A man bailed his best friend out of jail, best friend soon framed him for a crime!" That would be ironic.

Alanis line about life going bad when you thought it was going to go good is ironic.

She songs the opposite too, thinking you messed up and turn something REALLY good happens is ironic.

[Janice Johnson]

A woman said she was taking a shower and noticed her bathtub tiles looked outdated and she thought,"My bathtub tiles could use a good grouting!" She went to Google and without even looking up "Bathtub tiles grouting," Google gave her ads and links for bathtub tiles grouting! She was freaked out. I don't blame her. Is the Google giving her bathtub tiles grouting links and ads when she merely THOUGHT about her bathtub tiles needing a good grouting irony or coincidence?

[Dude111]

No such thing as 'coincidence' . Everything happens for a reason.....

[ThisLittlePiggy]

I have to agree that the examples in her song are not irony. They are bad luck. Irony is when you expect a certain usual outcome but get something really different. Rain on your wedding day isn't shocking unless you forgot to check the weather forecast.

[ThisLittlePiggy]

Originally Posted by Dude111

No such thing as 'coincidence' . Everything happens for a reason.....

When the student is ready, the master appears.

[ThisLittlePiggy]

Originally Posted by Janice Johnson

A woman said she was taking a shower and noticed her bathtub tiles looked outdated and she thought,"My bathtub tiles could use a good grouting!" She went to Google and without even looking up "Bathtub tiles grouting," Google gave her ads and links for bathtub tiles grouting! She was freaked out. I don't blame her. Is the Google giving her bathtub tiles grouting links and ads when she merely THOUGHT about her bathtub tiles needing a good grouting irony or coincidence?

I think this is a good example of coincidence.

[dee2364]

Regarding the whole issue of bad luck and irony, they're not mutually exclusive. Events can be bad luck and ironic at the same time.

Anyway, one of the reasons why I think people picked the song apart was that there was a huge backlash against female singer-songwriters like Alanis Morisette and others in the 1990s. Not too soon after the female empowerment wave (Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge, etc.), the recording industry happily gave us Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, The Spice Guys, Shakira, Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus and Fergie, and now we're almost 25 years into singers who sing about their body parts, twerk on stage and degrade themselves in other ways.