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ABSTRACT
One of the compelling events during the 2020 spring coronavirus pandemic is the extent to which people call-out “irony” in regard to the speech and actions of other individuals, as well as, in some cases, their own behaviors. These frequent call-outs are evidence of the cognitive realization of some discrepancy between prior expectations and unfolding reality, but also reveal people’s communicative efforts to persuade others to adopt a negative view of those individuals who are responsible for the irony. This article explores several examples of irony call-outs in the context of both verbal irony and situational irony in the midst of the pandemic. My analysis suggests that what is considered to be “irony” always depends on the level of analysis from which such judgments are made. Irony may be salient from a personal point of view but non-ironic from a social/cultural perspective, and vice-versa. Our sense that an event is ironic may also change over time. Some call-outs of irony even focus on future “ironic opportunities” that would address different economic, environmental, and social justice challenges. These observations suggest several implications for theory and research on irony.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
8 Apt oxymoron pairs are not complete opposites of each other but have noun terms that are hyponyms of the adjective terms’ antonym (Gibbs & Kearney, Citation1994).
13 A related complexity in whether people experienced irony when now wearing masks or no longer using reusable bags in stores concerns their political attitudes. Recent surveys suggest that in the United State more conservatives than liberals are skeptical of social distancing and social isolation measures to possibly reduce getting or spreading Covid-19 (see “The Economist,” April 4, 2020). One possibility is that personal skepticism toward social distancing policies increases the likelihood of viewing mask wearing and no recycled bag recommendations as standing in ironic contrast to previous entrenched behaviors.
22 https://babylonbee.com/news/roman-authorities-investigating-jesus-for-violating-stay-in-tomb-order
29 Ibid.
31 https://www.wehoville.com/2020/05/11/opinion-savoring-silence-and-surviving-the-covid-19-pandemic/
33 There are methods for identifying verbal irony in discourse (Burgers, Van Muklen & Schellens, Citation2011), but these are useful for analysts and do not reflect psychological processes underlying verbal irony use.