Irony?
PBS today:
It just doesn't work for me. Trembling, I turn to the dictionary to see if it should (like the time I found out how to pronounce macabre... it turns out not to be mack-a-burr). Whew! MW's Unabridged OnLine says the metal is
/aɪrn/, /aɪərn/, or (Brits, I guess) /aɪn/ or /aɪən/
and the adjective "made or consisting of iron; resembling iron in some way" is
/aɪrni/, /aɪərni/ or /aɪ(ə)ni/
while "humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm that adopts a mode of speech the intended implication of which is the opposite of the literal sense of the words" is
/aɪrʌni/ or /aɪrʌnɪ/ sometimes /aɪərni/
So this is a sight gag - at least for me. And if the goat is pronouncing "irony" as /aɪərni/, then I don't see that he has a hoof to stand on, let alone stalk away on.
Labels: entertainment, humor, language, media
2 Comments:
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At 7:46 AM, June 02, 2010
Stan had this to say...
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At 11:10 PM, June 02, 2010
Gordon P. Hemsley had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->The same joke was used in Blackadder, where Baldrick's foolishness helped bypass the slight pronunciation problem.
I'm afraid I don't agree with MW. I do pronounce both forms of "irony" the same, and I don't recall picking up on anyone who didn't.
So the joke works for me. And when I read it in the paper, I LOL'd. :)
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