Unit 5 Situational Irony -DIRECTIONS: EXPLAIN WHY EACH EXAMPLE IS SITUATIONAL IRONY
Why is this example situational irony? Remember The Gift of the Magi story? The husband sold his watch to get his wife a silver hairbrush only to learn later that the wife sold her long hair to get him a new watchband.
Neither the husband nor the wife expected the other spouse to sell off something that would render their gift useless.
Why is this example situational irony? A member of PETA wears leather shoes.
PETA members work to protect animal rights, one would assume they would avoid products made from animal skins and it's unexpected if they wear leather.
Why is this example situational irony? An anti-technology group sets up a website to recruit new club members.
People who dislike technology aren't likely to be looking for clubs on the internet, so using technology to recruit is unexpected.
Why is this example situational irony? The cobbler's children have no shoes.
A cobbler is a professional shoemaker, so the expectation is that her own children would have many shoes, not zero.
Why is this example situational irony? A man is run over by the ambulance.
An ambulance brings injured people to the hospital instead of causing an injury that requires someone to go to the hospital.
Why is this example situational irony? A mother complains about her lazy children, not realizing they have been secretly making her a birthday present.
In this situation, the mother's ideas about her children are thwarted in an unexpected surprise.
Why is this example situational irony? The teacher fails the test.
Teachers are usually the create and give tests, so people assume they would be expert at passing tests.
Why is this example situational irony? The police station gets robbed.
The expectation is that professional crime fighters would be able to help themselves; in this case, by securing their own station.
Why is this example situational irony? A husband realizes it's his wife's birthday and rushes to make dinner reservations, only to find that she has forgotten what day it is and stayed at work late.
The husband expected to treat his wife, by the plans end up ruined anyway. It's only the reason why that's unexpected.
Why is this example situational irony? A rich lady pays $400 for a gold manicure to show off her beautiful hands... and then she turns out to be so allergic to the polish that her hands are forever scarred.
The rich lady wouldn't expect to be allergic to and injured by the gold manicure... ended up making her hands worse rather than better.
Why is this example situational irony? A man works hard for many years to save for retirement; on his last day of work he is given a lottery ticket worth millions.
The unexpected riches are ironic because the man lived a frugal life assuming he would have to work hard to earn enough to retire.
Why is this example situational irony? A post on Facebook complaining how useless Facebook is.
This is ironic because one would expect someone who dislikes Facebook to stay away from it instead of using it to make their point.
Why is this example situational irony? A child runs away from someone throwing a water balloon at him and falls into the pool.
This is ironic because the child ends up wetter than he would have been, thwarting his expectations of what would happen when he ran away from the water balloon.
Why is this example situational irony? A marriage counselor files for divorce.
This is ironic because the expectation is that a professional who coaches couples through rough patches would herself have a strong marriage.
Why is this example situational irony? A man leaps out of the road to avoid being hit by a car, only to have a tree branch fall on his head.
This is not the outcome the man expected because he thought he would escape being hurt.
Why is this example situational irony? A woman has been saving painfully to buy a golden watch. Just hours after buying the watch, her daughter arrives home with the same watch as a gift for her!
This is unexpected bc the woman worked hard and saved, and it turned out she didn't need to do that since she got it as a gift.
Why is this example situational irony? A fire station burns down.
This is unexpected because one would assume the fire chief would keep his own building safe.
Why is this example situational irony? A pilot has a fear of heights.
This situation is ironic because airplane pilots spend most of their time at work high in the air.
Situational irony definition
Type of irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.
Why is this example situational irony? A traffic cop gets his license suspended because of unpaid parking tickets.
Unexpected bc the traffic cop is usually the one issuing tickets, most people would assume he always followed the rules.
Why is this example situational irony? An officer is wounded when a bullet ricochets off his bulletproof vest and into his arm.
You wouldn't expect a bulletproof vest to help a bullet hit someone.