The Big Book of Irony by Jon Winokur

Author:Jon Winokur [Winokur, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-12-09T23:00:00+00:00

Daniel Negreanu

(Reuters/Steve Marcus)

[Daniel] Negreanu is one of the most fascinating examples of the new poker face. During most games, his face is so confusingly animated—with friendly gibes, eyebrow arching, snatches of song, and sudden mimic impulses—that his rare spells of straight-faced concentration seem like just another ironic stratagem.

—Kevin Conley, “The Players: A New Generation Makes a Card Game a Career Choice,” The New Yorker, July 11 and 18, 2005

IRONIC ATTIRE

Young people like to dress ironically, and the ironic T-shirt is the quintessential ironic garment, cheap yet highly effective. Bad rock bands are universal fodder for ironic T-shirts. There are regional variations, of course: A Future Farmers of America T-shirt is ironic in approximately half the country, that is, in the big cities and the coastal states, but not in the heartland. A lime green polyester suit is ironic in Manhattan, but not in Tulsa. There’s considerable irony in logowear, according to one commentator:

When you see someone sporting a shirt with the manufacturer’s name inscribed in bold letters across the chest, it’s hard to ignore the irony. Here the apparel wearer is paying the company to promote its name, rather than vice versa. For the privilege of being a walking billboard, one forks over many times what one would normally pay for the same product. So next time you wear a pair of shoes with that logo, or a pair of pants with some large initials stitched on them, or a shirt with a brightly painted name, remember, you’re inadvertently advertising the company. The word “advertise” comes to us from Latin advertere, meaning “to turn toward” or “to pay attention.” The word “inadvertently” derives from the same source. In other words, by not paying attention, we are paying attention.

—Anu Garg, A.Word.A.Day, posted on February 3, 2003, at wordsmith.org/awad

Burberry’s signature checked print was briefly de rigueur among trendy young Londoners who wore it as an ironic comment on class stereotypes, but older customers were oblivious to the irony. Hush Puppies were a dying brand until young New Yorkers began wearing them ironically in 1994; now they’re sold in malls nationwide. And while young people dress themselves ironically, old people dress their dogs ironically.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.