"ironically" again

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Therefore, it's ironic that his demise came about
while he was doing his job, except in this case he did*n't* avoid
getting killed by one of them."

  Huh ?  Why would it be "ironic" that he was killed doing his very dangerous job? If he was going to be killed, doing his very dangerous job would be the most likely time for it.

  And the "except" baffles me completely here.

  To my mind it would be "ironic" for, say, a stuntman to be killed by hitting his head after tripping on a sidewalk.  It would be tragic, but hardly "ironic," for him to die while leaping from a tall building as part of his job.

  Is a death "ironic" by definition if the person didn't expect to die at that time ?  I don't think so.  There's more to "irony" than that.

  JL

David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: David Bowie
Subject: Re: "ironically" again
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Wilson Gray
> Ron writes:

> "[I]f one is setting out to make a movie about dangerous creatures,
> one does not really expect to be killed [by a dangerous creature], so
> the sense of irony in which things turn out to be the opposite of what
> one might expect also works here."

> Works for me.

Me, too. My first reading of the irony involved, though, wasn't from
anything in the text itself, but from the larger context that the reader
was expected to know: that this was *Steve f-in' Irwin*.

After all, this is a guy who makes his living *not* getting killed by
dangerous creatures. Therefore, it's ironic that his demise came about
while he was doing his job, except in this case he did*n't* avoid
getting killed by one of them.

--
David Bowie http://pmpkn.net/lx
Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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