“I sure had fun this weekend: I studied for my math test and worked on a research project for world history.” If you hear one of your friends make such a statement, you’re pretty sure she’s not serious—in fact, she’s being ironic. That is, she’s saying the opposite of what she really means. Irony is created by a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, what we expect and what actually happens, what appears to be and what is. Whether your friend is being mildly funny, shrugging off the fact that she spent the whole weekend on schoolwork, or bitterly sarcastic about what seems an overwhelming amount of work is a matter of interpretation. The power and challenge of irony is that the meaning isn’t stated directly, but suggested implicitly.
