WITH APOLOGIES TO ALANIS MORRISSETTE

One of my favorite pastimes for many years was to be smug when I heard Ironic by Alanis Morrissette. I would be overjoyed to point out to those listening to the song with me that actually none of the examples that she uses in the song were ironic. If you win the lottery and die the next day or rain on your wedding day or get a free ride after you have already paid, that is not irony. That is coincidence. Irony is if a diabetic is run over by an insulin delivery truck. But every single one of the examples in her song are not examples of irony. 

It made me feel good to point this out. I felt like I was in on a secret and I was to be admired because of this. I would smugly proclaim that I had some unique knowledge and that I should be seen as a super smart person. 

It always struck me as odd that she would write the lyrics that way. She is a smart woman. How could she possibly not understand the definition of irony? 

And then it hit me. I wasn't letting in people on the joke about the song. I was the joke. Yes, Alanis had anticipated this reaction of the "intellectual elite" and wrote the song purposefully with no real example of irony. And she did this to make people like me look like assholes. 

And it worked. 

Very well. 

But the ironic thing about the song Ironic is that it is not about irony. Ironic is not a description of the song and its meaning. Ironic is the joke in itself. 

I try to keep this in mind these days whenever I am feeling too full of myself. There is always a perspective that I have not examined.  

Well played, Ms. Morrissette. Well played indeed.