Adapted from "Irony and Sarcasm" by Roger Kreuz (MIT Press, 2020). Reprinted with permission from MIT Press. In February 1996, Alanis Morissette released the fourth single from “Jagged Little Pill,” ...

JON WINOKUR is the author of 20 reference books and anthologies, including, most recently, "The Big Book of Irony." WHEN it was revealed in 2003 that William J. Bennett, author of “The Book of Virtues ...

Like simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole, irony is a very useful figure of speech. Writers and other creative workers regularly make use of it, including comedians. It can, however, also ...

I’m shocked — absolutely shocked, I tell you — to find that Facebook has used members’ personal information for profit- making purposes. Question: Is that statement an example of irony or sarcasm?

Contrary to popular belief, “irony” is actually not a term invented by Alanis Morissette to describe First World inconveniences, nor is the greatest example of the technique found on a cotton shirt ...

On September 18, 2001, Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, declared, “I think it’s the end of the age of irony.” He was trashed for the sentiment. Only a month after the event, Michiko Kakutani ...

If irony abounds, but no one notices, does that mean irony is dead? Or does it mean we’re living in the most ironic of all possible worlds? That’s the question that comes to mind watching the ...