Poor Image: Death By Irony

It's like rayyyeeeiaaannn… Yeah, I don't get it either. It's not really ironic, except for being Hoist by His Own Petard.

Because beavers are often touted as nature's expert master lumberjacks and for one to get killed by a tree it just cut down is kind of... well...

Well, how about getting run over by an ambulance?◊

Or this panel◊ from Watchmen. It'd need a caption explaining he's locked into an atomic testing room though, or maybe adding the before◊ and after panels◊.

edited 23rd Apr '14 6:01:27 PM by Earnest

14.1 and 28.2 are not irony exactly, just bad luck doing something that is kind of specialized. 28.1 maybe; but it's ironic if the ambulance caused the damage, and merely bad luck if the driver just didn't notice her as he drove past. I think it would need a caption to clarify that it's not the second case.

Although people usually mean "verbal" when they say it, there are several kinds of irony:

Verbal irony is the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning (similar to sarcasm, but not bitter; sarcasm is a type of verbal irony). Ex: “as pleasant and relaxed as a coiled rattlesnake” (Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions). This is similar to the definition given to Winona Ryder's character in Reality Bites.

Dramatic irony is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of, thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters. Ex: In the play "Othello", the audience knows that Desdemona has been faithful to Othello, but Othello doesn’t. The audience also knows that Iago is pulling the strings, a fact hidden from Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Roderigo.

Tragic irony is when the words and actions of the characters misrepresent the real situation, which the spectators fully realize. Ex: In the play "Romeo And Juliet", when Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged death-like sleep, he assumes that she is dead, and kills himself.

Situational irony is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results when enlivened by "perverse appropriateness". Ex: When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire was partially responsible for his being shot. The beaver and Dr. Osterman are close to this, but are pretty light on the perversity.

Irony of fate or cosmic irony stems from the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusing themselves by toying with the minds of mortals with deliberate ironic intent. Ex: In O. Henry's story "The Gift of the Magi", a young couple are too poor to buy each other Christmas gifts. The wife cuts off her treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch. She’s shocked when she learns he had pawned his watch to buy her a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair.

edited 23rd Apr '14 7:53:32 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Yeah. A beaver getting killed by a tree it fell is just a coincidence.lol

A person run over by an ambulance is ironic, since an ambulance is supposed to save lives.

I agree.

edited 23rd Apr '14 7:47:26 PM by rodneyAnonymous

The beaver does seem to fit the trope description, though. On the other hand, looking at the descriptions, I'm not sure I see the difference between Hoist by His Own Petard and Death by Irony. Not that the latter is particularly stellar.

Is this the job for the Trope Repair Shop?

as always, it would seem so, however depending the particular definition and form of irony (the ones Rodney gave), the picture will have to suffice.

To the ambulance idea.

I also agree with 33, 31 and 30.

edited 24th Apr '14 11:30:39 AM by Paktra

Hoist by His Own Petard is about X planning to kill Y with something, but that something ends up killing X instead. The beaver death is not an example of that, since he wasn't planning to kill anyone with the tree trunk. On the other hand, because of that it isn't a clear example of irony either: it's more of a stupid accident than an "allegorical death", The ambulance one is not much better either, because it's also a random accident. I think the character should have done something that justifies or at least tempts his death in order for it to count as Death by Irony.

edited 25th Apr '14 4:48:23 AM by Tuomas

Luckily we have a caption we can use. What would you write to make that clear?

Something like "She sprained her ankle running from the killer, then jumped in front of an ambulance for help. The ambulance's brakes were also sprained."?

edited 25th Apr '14 10:54:37 AM by Earnest

I'm inclined to argue that the beaver does fall into "situational irony": it's a creature that has been killed by something that's the source of its livelihood. There's also the element that the tree—which should have been defenceless—ended up killing it as a result of it killing the tree, which (to my mind, at least) adds that sense of "perverse appropriateness".

However, I'll admit that it does seem to be a weak example, and an arguable one given the disagreement that's been voiced.

I prefer the beaver to the ambulance. .

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. Ok, that's a sentence I never expected to ever write.

edited 28th Apr '14 4:05:46 PM by Madrugada

Just wait. You'll end up using it more than once this year.

Probably...

Y'know... considering your signature, I highly doubt that!

Well we have to good contenders, so here's a crowner with the ambulance and the beaver.

Crowner's hooked

Bump for votes; the ambulance pic is the only one in the green right now.

If I may give my two cents on the issue: the beaver image, as already indicated, isn't actually ironic. It's more like "death by coincidence", "Comedic Sociopathy" or even just straight up "Born Unlucky". He wasn't trying to kill anyone with the tree, so I'm not sure how it's necessarily "ironic" he's dead.

That said, while the ambulance image is ironic, I wouldn't pick it either. For one thing, we already have an imageless trope HERE where something like it would be much more useful. Also, as great as the image looks in full screen, scaling-wise is pretty terrible. The "ambulance" text doesn't even look visible and the red color, as opposed to the more iconic white, makes it look like some kind of fire truck.

edited 10th May '14 11:19:05 AM by Mattonymy

Could you try cropping out the leftmost third that's just road please? I'd do it myself if at home, but my phone is unable to. Scaling after that will hopefully be crisper.

Why do people assume changing composition will not matter?

Realized that's a "could you try?", sorry.

edited 10th May '14 1:13:40 PM by rodneyAnonymous

Well now that you bring up a specific sub-trope... it should definitely go there, if not something similar.

It's fine, I get what you're saying. Sometimes you do need the whole thing to get the point across, which is why I was only suggesting it for the sake of comparison.

Yeah, that subtrope is news to me. If the ambulance doesn't fit here or doesn't get voted it probably should go there.

Now that I'm actually at my desktop I can try cropping and resizing. Does this look better to y'all? Worse? Lateral?