To act as if I know the difference between irony and coincidence

[Timri]

When I don't really?
I kind of get it, then I get confused.
There can be an overlap, can't there?
Is it all down to expectation? So how can you know if something is truly ironic without actually being in someones head, thereby knowing exactly what their intentions are, rather than just going by what you assume their intentions/expectations are?
Am I even making sense?

But if u went into a cutlery draw for a knife and it was full of 10,000 spoons - its ironic. Id expect more than spoons

That's not ironic. That's mislabelling

It's also over-design (but not ironic). Can you imagine how large that drawer (sic) would be? To say nothing about being highly impractical unless cutlery drawer wrangling would be handled by domestic staff.

Isn't the Alanis song more about 'sod's law'? ( which prob doesn't exist in America which is why she called it ' Ironic'?)

Here are some examples of Sod's law

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod%27s_law

*ItsMeImHere Sat 12-Dec-15 08:18:57

Out of curiosity, could number 3 be construed as ironic too? The expectation of speaking to husband (and his expectation of speaking to wife) doesn't get met because the lines both cross.*

I would still say coincidence. You don't expect to only speak to your husband. The expectation is that while calling him you'll either reach him or leave a message, so crossing the lines and leaving him a message is a probable/expected result.

I'd call it a result either way.

It would seem that irony has to have a direct correlation to the subject's original desires, intentions, AND actions. A result occurring that is 180 degrees from what the subject desired or intended or expected and, most importantly, that seems to grow out of or be caused by the subject's original actions makes for true situational irony.

The politician's death as described above could be considered ironic if he pretty certainly could/would have been saved by the teenagers but for his prior decisions re the curriculum. The only murky bit there is whether teaching first aid is/was considered to be an expected reasonable part of a school curriculum at all. I agree that it's kind of ironic at least!

I would say that Irony has humour or black humour in it. Egosumquisum is Irony because the MP was against a bill that would have saved his life. Irony/sods law are the same kind of thing to me.

Coincidences are just things that happen by chance. If dh and I both started talking about the same thing at the same time, i'd say that was a co-incidence, but it's not ironic.

I used to work in a call centre for a bank.

I once took a call from a man that had a debit card transaction that he didn't recognise or remember, so wanted to raise a dispute.

The transaction was a donation to the Alzheimer's Society. THAT was definitely ironic.

OP, ironically you are confused because ironically is wildly overused, by people who do not know what it means.

For example, my use of it in that sentence is not using the word correctly, but is something you might often see.

Irony has a comment implied within it - it is putting a perspective on something, which might be a co-incidence, but might be a style of architecture, or cooking.

It is more akin to 'sarcasm' or 'wry comment' than 'co-incidence'.