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The Irony of Irony*

Sarah Stodola

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Everything I'm about to say stems from one thought that has continually run through my mind over the past couple of years; Celebrity worship relayed with irony is still celebrity worship.

Irony has become the defense mechanism of choice for the intelligentsia in its censure of pop culture. However, the term has come to be a term that is used pretty loosely; and for all of its cultural aloofness, the so-called intelligentsia hasn’t even been able to pin down the correct use of the word.

I first learned of the many misuses of "irony" when Alanis Morissette came out with her hit song, "Isn't it Ironic?" I was in high school, and I loved it, until my older brother told me how stupid it was because most of the things Alanis was referring to actually contained no irony. I have been suspicious of the word ever since.

Irony - or whatever it is that passes for it these days - has become the tool that wannabe intellectuals use to mask the fact that they are just as mesmerized by pop culture as everyone else. It's not considered respectable to be attracted to pop culture in the intellectual world, so self-appointed members of this world have been forced to make up an excuse to write and talk about pop culture. I wouldn't be able to count the number of twenty-something hipster writers who gush on and on about everything pop culture, proclaiming that the use of irony puts them in a different league than the celebrity media whores who gush about pop culture only for the sake of gushing about pop culture.

From what I can tell, what these folks label "irony" is actually "making fun of pop culture." They read the gossip columns with rigor, and then make fun of the content in order to cover their tracks, and then call it irony so it sounds smart. That is not irony. And it certainly isn't intellectualism.

I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (I actually moved to Fort Greene this past weekend) - a places that purports to be the center of creativity in not only New York City but likely the entire world. Everyone here thinks they're smart. And it's true that there are a lot of really interesting people here. But there are also a lot of people who hide behind irony. What they seem to fail to understand is that there are a lot of really important, really worthwhile things written in this world that are composed completely without irony. Sincerity, seriousness, straightforwardness; all these things have their place. Irony has its place, too. But it's not the only thing out there worth employing.

Zoe Williams wrote an essay recently for The Guardian that more than a couple of New York literary types have mentioned to me; which is strange, because most people in New York - even the literary types - don't usually bother to read anything written in British publications. The essay deals with the historical uses of irony and the rampant misuse of the term today. In it, she says that "just because you ironically know you're wrong doesn't make you right." In other words, being wrong with irony is the easy way out. It's passive. It means you don't have to think hard enough to come up with anything original. Making fun of all the pop culture out there and calling it irony is infinitely easier than coming up with an intelligent alternative to pop culture.

I'm sure that I'm not completely innocent with my own use of irony. I enjoy many aspects of pop culture (I have a particular guilty penchant for reality dating shows), and there are certainly times when I am not proud of this fact. If I have hidden behind irony, I acknowledge that I took the easy way out. What I and everyone else should do is profess our enjoyment of whatever aspect of pop culture we enjoy, and lose the pretension that we are above it. We might have other interests that are more noble than our interest in pop culture, and good for us if we do. But we shouldn’t confuse these interests with our more prosaic ones. If I come home from work and my mind is numb and Will and Grace reruns are playing on the WB, I know I’m not being intellectual, but I am being entertained, which is perfectly fine some of the time. I watch it because it’s kind of funny, and that’s it.

Irony is fine. In small doses it's even fine in reference to pop culture. But to hide behind it is to lose credibility as a creative and original thinker.

Okay, this is all the pop culture talk I can handle for the moment. And I mean it, completely without irony.

*Irony is more or less when something seems different from how it actually is.  And since people are making irony seem like something it isn't, the irony itself has become irony.  Malkovich Malkovich.

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Sarah Stodola is the Managing Editor of Me Three.  She can be contacted at [email protected].

© 2003 Me Three