Mmm. This could be argued as a form of historical irony…the caterer has become the last meal he delivered. It’d be more strongly so if he actually made it to his clients, and they turned out to be cannibals, though.
But if you want to define historical irony more narrowly than that, then, yes, this is Morrisettian.
Shortly after that song was released, I quickly grew to loathe the frequency with which German radio stations inflicted it upon their listeners. Of course, the vast majority of those listeners had a supreme advantage, in that they didn’t understand and could ignore the inane lyrics.
P.S. I’m not going to look them up, but as I recall, most of the incidents in the song were more “tragic” than “ironic”.
This fits the definition of “irony” as far as I’m concerned.
It took me quite a while to realize that the 3rd vulture was just shoes.
I think it counts as ironic. He was making a living delivering meals; now he has died by delivering meals, and in the process has delivered a meal. It’s maybe not smack dab in the middle of the bullseye of “ironic”, but it’s not Alanis-level off target.
P.S. Lest my screed be misinterpreted, I agree with Powers and Ianosmond that the situation in this comic is definitely ironic. I just wouldn’t cite Morissette as an authority on the subject.
Probably needs a “semi-geezer” tag. as I’m a full-fledged geezer, and Morissette is After My Time. (I recognize the name but don’t know if I’ve ever heard anything by her, and have no idea what the song — ? — others comments here are riffing on may be.)
But don’t mind me; I’ll just sit over here in the corner and gum my gruel. You rotten kids go have fun now (as long as you stay off my lawn.)
Funny thing is every dictionary definition of “irony” always seems too weak.
Merriam-Webster has for instance “: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result” which would make nearly any joke ironic.
I don’t know who compiles the google dictionary but it has: “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.”
That’s better because of the *deliberately* contrary. To my mind, I think irony should include some sort of cause coming to being via an effort to avoid but I’m not sure how best to express it.
….
At any event. Did Bill not see that this was a food caterer? Or that the vultures were planning to eat him? Seems fairly ironic that a food caterer becomes food. It’d be stronger if the caterer had more directly cause his own death but seems pretty darn good enough.
====
Shrug: The song was “Ironic” in which she lists things the following as “ironic”
A 98 year old man winning the lottery and dying the next day
A black fly in your Chardonnay
A death row pardon given two minutes after the execution
Rain on your wedding day
A free ride after you paid
Good advice that you don’t take
A guy terrifying of flying finally flying for the first time in his life and dying in a plane crash with his last thoughts being “This is nice”
A traffic jam when you are already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
Ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
Meeting a perfect guy and then meeting his wife
All the while asking “Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think” to which the answer is an obvious, no, we don’t.
A food caterer inadvertently delivering his corpse to vultures as food is, of course, a lot more appropriate. She should have worked it in.
woozy, I saw that he was a caterer. Still doesn’t say “ironic’ to me. Maybe if he delivering some bird item like KFC…
A better rule of thumb might be avoiding “ironic” at all.
Sure, if he was attempting to eat birds which directly led to him being eaten by birds, that would be more specifically and directly ironic, but I think it’s still close enough to fall within the overall rubric.
Especially as it’s the vulture citing the supposed irony — really, from his point of view, it would be, “Ooo, sweet catering!”
Huh, I was amplifying Bill’s comment, when Ian slipped in there…
The term “ironic” was featured in a Futurama episode.
Looks like I might not need to tell Kamino Neko about that. Unless that’s a coincidence.
Morissette’s examples were mostly cosmic irony – the sense that the universe (or the gods, when the ancient Greeks used it) were arranging matters to make fun of you, often by giving you your dreams (winning the lottery, meeting the man of your dreams) right before taking it all away again.
There’s also the theory that Morissette /knew/ the examples in the song weren’t ironic, which makes the song a rebuke to people who habitually misuse the word, not an example of same.
Brian – no coincidence, that’s me.
I figured, and assume the similar name/avatar on Gomics is as well. You can never totally discount coincidence on the web, but would have been fairly significant.
Rain on wedding day? I thought it was good luck not ironic. How is it ironic. BTW – it not only rained on our wedding day it rained twice and we were the lucky ones. The brother of one of our bridesmaid was married in the afternoon outside in the park – it rained during his wedding – what a mess. It rained again during our wedding in the late evening (after sunset), but we were inside – and believe me, of all the things that went on – that was one of the better ones.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Mmm. This could be argued as a form of historical irony…the caterer has become the last meal he delivered. It’d be more strongly so if he actually made it to his clients, and they turned out to be cannibals, though.
But if you want to define historical irony more narrowly than that, then, yes, this is Morrisettian.
Shortly after that song was released, I quickly grew to loathe the frequency with which German radio stations inflicted it upon their listeners. Of course, the vast majority of those listeners had a supreme advantage, in that they didn’t understand and could ignore the inane lyrics.
P.S. I’m not going to look them up, but as I recall, most of the incidents in the song were more “tragic” than “ironic”.
This fits the definition of “irony” as far as I’m concerned.
It took me quite a while to realize that the 3rd vulture was just shoes.
I think it counts as ironic. He was making a living delivering meals; now he has died by delivering meals, and in the process has delivered a meal. It’s maybe not smack dab in the middle of the bullseye of “ironic”, but it’s not Alanis-level off target.
P.S. Lest my screed be misinterpreted, I agree with Powers and Ianosmond that the situation in this comic is definitely ironic. I just wouldn’t cite Morissette as an authority on the subject.
Probably needs a “semi-geezer” tag. as I’m a full-fledged geezer, and Morissette is After My Time. (I recognize the name but don’t know if I’ve ever heard anything by her, and have no idea what the song — ? — others comments here are riffing on may be.)
But don’t mind me; I’ll just sit over here in the corner and gum my gruel. You rotten kids go have fun now (as long as you stay off my lawn.)
Funny thing is every dictionary definition of “irony” always seems too weak.
Merriam-Webster has for instance “: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result” which would make nearly any joke ironic.
I don’t know who compiles the google dictionary but it has: “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.”
That’s better because of the *deliberately* contrary. To my mind, I think irony should include some sort of cause coming to being via an effort to avoid but I’m not sure how best to express it.
….
At any event. Did Bill not see that this was a food caterer? Or that the vultures were planning to eat him? Seems fairly ironic that a food caterer becomes food. It’d be stronger if the caterer had more directly cause his own death but seems pretty darn good enough.
====
Shrug: The song was “Ironic” in which she lists things the following as “ironic”
A 98 year old man winning the lottery and dying the next day
A black fly in your Chardonnay
A death row pardon given two minutes after the execution
Rain on your wedding day
A free ride after you paid
Good advice that you don’t take
A guy terrifying of flying finally flying for the first time in his life and dying in a plane crash with his last thoughts being “This is nice”
A traffic jam when you are already late
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break
Ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
Meeting a perfect guy and then meeting his wife
All the while asking “Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think” to which the answer is an obvious, no, we don’t.
A food caterer inadvertently delivering his corpse to vultures as food is, of course, a lot more appropriate. She should have worked it in.
woozy, I saw that he was a caterer. Still doesn’t say “ironic’ to me. Maybe if he delivering some bird item like KFC…
A better rule of thumb might be avoiding “ironic” at all.
Sure, if he was attempting to eat birds which directly led to him being eaten by birds, that would be more specifically and directly ironic, but I think it’s still close enough to fall within the overall rubric.
Especially as it’s the vulture citing the supposed irony — really, from his point of view, it would be, “Ooo, sweet catering!”
Huh, I was amplifying Bill’s comment, when Ian slipped in there…
The term “ironic” was featured in a Futurama episode.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=268136
Looks like I might not need to tell Kamino Neko about that. Unless that’s a coincidence.
Morissette’s examples were mostly cosmic irony – the sense that the universe (or the gods, when the ancient Greeks used it) were arranging matters to make fun of you, often by giving you your dreams (winning the lottery, meeting the man of your dreams) right before taking it all away again.
There’s also the theory that Morissette /knew/ the examples in the song weren’t ironic, which makes the song a rebuke to people who habitually misuse the word, not an example of same.
Brian – no coincidence, that’s me.
I figured, and assume the similar name/avatar on Gomics is as well. You can never totally discount coincidence on the web, but would have been fairly significant.
Rain on wedding day? I thought it was good luck not ironic. How is it ironic. BTW – it not only rained on our wedding day it rained twice and we were the lucky ones. The brother of one of our bridesmaid was married in the afternoon outside in the park – it rained during his wedding – what a mess. It rained again during our wedding in the late evening (after sunset), but we were inside – and believe me, of all the things that went on – that was one of the better ones.