[David] Hello, grammarians.발음듣기
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Today I wanna talk about the concept of irony which is a very difficult concept to nail down because it means so many things.발음듣기
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But let's begin with the best definition I can muster which is that irony is the difference between expectation and result.발음듣기
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Now, this contains a lot within it.발음듣기
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So, that means that irony is not only the engine of surprise, but also jokes.발음듣기
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All jokes in English function on this engine of the difference between expectation and result.발음듣기
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You expect to hear one thing and then a joke plays with your expectations.발음듣기
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There's nothing less funny than explaining why things are funny.발음듣기
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But this is why things are funny.발음듣기
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So, today we're gonna talk about three different kinds of irony.발음듣기
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And I'm going to give you an example of each.발음듣기
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Now, the first kind is called situational irony.발음듣기
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In situational irony, everyone is aware of the discrepancy of the difference between expectation and result.발음듣기
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And a really classic example of this is the O. Henry short story The Gift of the Magi.발음듣기
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And it's about a couple who are very poor but who love each other very much.발음듣기
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And each one wants to get the other a really nice Christmas present.발음듣기
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The man has a very lovely watch and the woman has really lovely long hair.발음듣기
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And, unbeknownst to the other the woman buys her husband a watch chain and the man buys his wife a comb.발음듣기
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But, in order to do that he sells his watch to buy her the comb and, in order to buy him the watch chain the woman sells her hair.발음듣기
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And so, they give each other gifts that are now useless.발음듣기
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This watch chain and this comb.발음듣기
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For the hair that isn't there and the watch that isn't there.발음듣기
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And the irony is that they are now aware that the lengths that they went to for the other kind of ruined each other's gifts.발음듣기
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That's situational irony.발음듣기
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It's kind of a happy ending, cause it proves stuff is just stuff and they love each other very much.발음듣기
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That's situational irony.발음듣기
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Everyone is aware of the discrepancy.발음듣기
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Irony variant number two is called dramatic irony.발음듣기
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This means that there's an unevenly distributed awareness of the difference.발음듣기
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Specifically, that there's an audience.발음듣기
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So, this is the sort of thing that really only comes into play in fiction or in dramatic work.발음듣기
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So, we're talking about a play or a movie or whatever.발음듣기
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So, let's say we've got a play.발음듣기
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Here's our stage.발음듣기
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Here's our audience down here.발음듣기
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We have one character here, character A who really doesn't like bears and is talking about if he ever meets a bear he's probably gonna punch that bear right in the face.발음듣기
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And here is character B, who is a bear but is a bear in disguise wearing a hat and a tie.발음듣기
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Now, character B knows that character B is a bear.발음듣기
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The audience knows that character B is a bear.발음듣기
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Character A is unaware.발음듣기
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So, we have this unevenly distributed awareness of the difference between expectation and result.발음듣기
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Character A expects that character B is not a bear.발음듣기
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But character B and the audience knows that the opposite is true.발음듣기
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That's dramatic irony.발음듣기
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Now, the third kind of irony we're going to talk about today is called verbal irony.발음듣기
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So, the irony of words.발음듣기
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And this one's a little different because verbal irony is the difference between a stated meaning and an actual meaning.발음듣기
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And this means that it can come in a couple of flavors.발음듣기
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The most notable, and perhaps the most confusing is called sarcasm.발음듣기
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And sarcasm is when you say a thing but it actually ends up meaning something quite different usually the opposite.발음듣기
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So, let's say an anvil, very heavy metal object falls on my foot, breaks my foot.발음듣기
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I am in extraordinary pain.발음듣기
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If you asked me how I was doing and I wanted to use sarcasm I would say something like, "Oh, I'm just great."발음듣기
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And I'm signaling, with my tone and also context to indicate that the opposite is true.발음듣기
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To say, "I'm actually terrible.발음듣기
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My foot is broken."발음듣기
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Now, related to sarcasm is the pun which is usually a joke that plays on multiple meanings.발음듣기
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So, again, let's take this case.발음듣기
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Let's say my foot was crushed by an anvil You ask me how I'm doing.발음듣기
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I would say, "I'm feeling a little flat today."발음듣기
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No, not a great joke, sure.발음듣기
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But what I'm trying to express is that I am both playing on the notion that I don't feel well I feel a little flat and that my foot has been squished by a heavy object literally rendering it flat.발음듣기
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That's what a pun is.발음듣기
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And, again, I recognize that, by explaining the joke I have made the joke unfunny.발음듣기
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So, to review, let's put all of these together into one giant ironic situation.발음듣기
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So, let's say you're watching a sitcom on television.발음듣기
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And this sitcom takes place in someone's apartment and that apartment has a thing called a Murphy bed.발음듣기
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Now, what a Murphy bed is a bed that folds up into the wall to save space in a small apartment.발음듣기
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It's got this little handle up here.발음듣기
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You grab it, you pull it down it becomes just a regular bed.발음듣기
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Otherwise, it's kept folded up into the wall.발음듣기
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So, let's say we're watching a sitcom that takes place in a small apartment that has a Murphy bed.발음듣기
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Let's say that our main character has just come home from the airport with her visiting cousin.발음듣기
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So, again, this is a sitcom.발음듣기
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This is all happening on your television.발음듣기
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So, this is all inside the frame.발음듣기
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Now, unbeknownst to our protagonist, let's call her Anna and her cousin, let's call her Bella a lion has crawled into the Murphy bed while the two of them were out.발음듣기
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I promise this has a point.발음듣기
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So, hidden behind this wall is a lion on top of this bed.발음듣기
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Now, ignorant of all of this Bella asks her cousin "Is the Murphy bed comfortable~?"발음듣기
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To which Anna replies "Yeah. It's perfect for lying' on."발음듣기
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I think you see where I'm going here.발음듣기
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So, dramatic irony.발음듣기
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We, the audience on the other side of the screen are aware that this entire that this entire time there's a lion hiding in the Murphy bed.발음듣기
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Anna and Bella do not.발음듣기
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Bella asks if the bed is comfortable.발음듣기
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Anna assures her that it is.발음듣기
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We know, as the audience, it is not.발음듣기
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There is a dangerous savanna predator in the bed.발음듣기
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That's dramatic irony.발음듣기
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Situational irony, when they pull that Murphy bed down and expose the lion they will see the difference between these expectations and this result.발음듣기
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And that is situational irony.발음듣기
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You thought one thing was true and now something very different has happened.발음듣기
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That's the difference between expectation and result.발음듣기
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Beds don't usually have lions in them.발음듣기
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You expect them not to have lions in them.발음듣기
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You pull down the bed.발음듣기
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Boom, there's a lion in it.발음듣기
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Situational irony.발음듣기
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Finally, it's perfect for lying' on.발음듣기
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Now, Anna does not realize this but she is unwittingly punning on the fact that there is a lion on the Murphy bed.발음듣기
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So, this is verbal irony.발음듣기
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Because, in fact, there is a lion lying' on the bed.발음듣기
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So, there you have it.발음듣기
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Encapsulated in one ridiculous case here are all three basic examples of irony.발음듣기
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So, situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony.발음듣기
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You can learn anything, David out.발음듣기
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