The Problem With Irony Detectors
Subnormality is a relatively new webcomic by relatively Canadian author, Winston Rowntree. According to Mr. Rowntree, his comics "contain weird characters, endless opinions and occasionally huge walls of text, but people seem to like them anyway." We certainly do.
Today, a shorter comic from Mr. Rowntree ...
Check out more Subnormality at viruscomix.com.
Actually, it's dramatic irony. Most people commenting on here are referring to situational irony. Anyone pretentious enough to point out the so-called 'lack of irony' in the comic should go and read a book on Greek tragedy, and learn the difference between narration and causality before they start deciding to be little Eberts.
Replystick people are sticks
ReplyGetting hit by a truck is not ironic, unless you're a superhero famous for withstanding forceful impacts on your person.
ReplyIf the fat person TOOK a dieting pill and died, then that's ironic. If the fat person was hit by a truck containing dieting pills, that's just a coincidence, because no one expects a truck full of dieting pills to make a fat person healthier.
A machine that is supposed to detect nothing but irony being capable of detecting everything but irony is, in fact, ironic.
Excellent work everyone. It's good to see there are others of you out there like me who need to boost up their pathetic self esteem by constantly, angrily bashing logical inconsistencies in online web comics.
ReplyIdiot, that's not irony, that's just the opposite of what you'd expect. Irony is the juxtaposition of what you think is true and what is true. If a fat guy got hit by a car full of skinny people, this is not ironic, this is just the opposite of what you'd expect, if a fat guy got hit by a car full of fat people, this is not ironic, this is just a coincidence, if a fat guy was walking across the street to go to the gym GET skinny and got hit by a car, this is not ironic, this would just suck, if a fat guy got hit by a truck carrying diet pills, THAT is ironic
Reply Hide All See All 6 Repliesstolen from the irony topic page
The dictionary definition of 'irony' from the top Google result, whose name cannot be posted:
"5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected."
To get technical, this is "situational irony," as opposed to verbal irony, which would only apply to context and meaning of what is said and not the subject it is about; therefore, to attempt to force verbal irony onto anything but words will automatically make you wrong. Good day.
Dramatic irony is when the reader knows something the characters do not know,like in the Oddyssey when the crew pisses off Poseidon.
@Yhellothar A fat guy getting hit by a truck full of diet pills, maybe, only if they improve his health.
@JZC That's what it's for.
@link Thank you, the cracked irony page is not entirely correct.
@Necroskull How come that is the only one I can ever remember?
A fat guy getting hit by a truck full of diet pills isn't ironic. I swear, every time somebody goes on an irony rant they wind up coming up with a snappy coincidence and calling it "ironic," and ironically they typically do it after demonstrating they know full well that snappy coincidences aren't ironic.
Demonstrating you know what isn't irony, then committing the same mistake you decried and calling it irony a sentence later? THAT is ironic.
seriously, you guys suck, there is nothing ironic about someone being hit by a car in any situation, because getting hit by a car is something that can happen when you walk across the street, there is no intention, you need the action to be the opposite of the intention, if someone took diet pills to get skinny but his body reacted badly and he GAINED WEIGHT, that is ironic, he did one thing to get one action, and the opposite of what he wanted happened, no trucks, nothing falling out of the sky, and just like the article said, none of you got it, you all suck, except @Blandure, he/she is totally right, and so is the dramatic irony person but that's not what he means, we want situational here, the rest of you friggin suck
if it detects everything but irony, couldnt it still detect irony? say, it beeps whenever it detects something. if it stopped beeping, you would know something was ironic.
ReplyOr, from an electric engineer's viewpoint, you could just invert the "irony detected" signal...
i'm pretty sure that's part of the joke.
aren't you a fucking obnoxious prick, cigar, you elitist piece of shit. "ooh look, an invention that's supposed to detect irony but ironically, detects everything but! oh ho, i got that, did you? you didn't? ha you pathetic plebe. it was HEEELARIOUS" because subtle wit is obviously the only way for something to be funny. fuck off, you pretentious faggot.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesAre you just tacking unrelated insults on to the idea behind this comic?
Of course he is he's a troll.
that's one hard workin' troll.
Obvious troll is obvious.
Poor lonely iheartjihad. All he/she/it needs is a friend to talk to and share his/her/its thoughts and feelings with. How could we hate such a person/bot?
/irony
ohh the [Fe]y
ReplyOh, you!
[Humanit]y?
whew! I am so relieved you are here to comment, Cigar. Cracked are screwed without you.
ReplyCongratulations, cracked. You finally got a good web comic. Feel free to read my posts on the other comics, they are scathing.
ReplyBest invention EVER.
ReplyHALLELUJAH. My first laugh on a Cracked featured Webcomic EVER. Thank God, I was starting to lose hope of ever getting a laugh out of one of these.
Replyyes, snap, not finding a joke that relies simply on describing irony (albeit in an incredibly stupid way) means that i was simply to stupid to understand it. of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that subnormality is an incredibly genius strip, and cracked has managed to showcase two of its worst.
ReplyI agree Ganon, even when people do like it they want to stand out from the crowd so they say it sucks just to be noticed and get attention. Sad.
Replystill cyanide and happiness has 2 be the best comic site on the net.
ReplyI like.
ReplyI think this is awsome i love the subnormality comics, its a pity cracked isnt posting the ones with 10 minutes of dialogue though, since that is what there known for.
ReplyThe failed irony detector is a metaphor for the failed irony of the comic. Ultimately, the joke is on you, the reader, and only Winston Rountree is laughing.
ReplyDoesn't that defeat the point of writing comics? Oh right, irony.
Tee hee.
ReplyWorthy of a chuckle. Still beats the hell out of WN
Reply