Who coined "irony deficiency"?

[Garson O'Toole]

Google News Archive displays a snippet from a 1961 review of a vampire
film titled "Black Sunday". The Los Angeles Times article remarks on
"tired blood" and then mentions "irony deficiency in the scenarists".

'Black Sunday' Unfair to Organized Vampires
Los Angeles Times - ProQuest Archiver - Apr 21, 1961
The problem In "Black Sunday" may be just tired blood on the part of
the un-dead or, perhaps, an irony deficiency in the scenarists. But
whatever it is, ...

Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File) - Los Angeles, Calif.
Author: CHARLES STINSON
Date: Apr 21, 1961
Start Page: 24  Pages: 1  Text Word Count: 534

Abstract (Document Summary)
In American-International's "Black Sunday," things are going from
unbearable to worse. Now back in Carpathia and Transylvania, when the
Count Dracula was head of the organization, being a successful vampire
was...

I cannot verify this cite because I do not have access to the ProQuest
Archive. The 1961 date is plausible because the 1960 Italian vampire
film Black Sunday (La Maschera del Demonio) was released in the right
time frame by American International Pictures. So maybe Charles
Stinson coined the phrase or propagated it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sunday_%281960_film%29

Garson


On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Who coined "irony deficiency"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I first heard (and thought very clever) "irony deficiency" a couple
> of days ago on NPR.  A British writer was criticizing Americans
> generally for this syndrome.   But it appears to be wide-spread (I
> guess I haven't been listening).  A quick Google Books search
> produces a use back to 1977.  Snippet view, in "Canada writes!: the
> members' book of the Writers' Union of Canada - Page 146; K. A.
> Hamilton, Writers' Union of Canada - Biography & Autobiography - 1977
> - 399 pages":
>
> "... discoverer of irony-deficiency, also known as the Canlit
> Malaise, and its cure, transcendental medication. His one-phrase
> reviews, Un-stable Boy (Equus) ..."
>
> (It seems to be known as "the Canlit Malaise" only here -- I do not
> find that phrase anywhere else in Google or Google Books, but its
> meaning seems self-evident.)
>
> Is the coiner of "irony deficiency" known?
>
> Joel
>
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