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Hey, I, I Yeah, ah, ah Yeah, I. An old man turned ninety-eight He won the lottery and died the next day It's a black fly in your Chardonnay It's a death row pardon two minutes too late And isn't it ironic, don't you think? It's like rain on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good advice that you just didn't take And who would've thought?
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It figures. Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye He waited his whole damn life to take that flight And as the plane crashed down, he thought Well, isn't this nice" And isn't it ironic, don't you think? It's like rain on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good advice that you just didn't take And who would've thought? It figures. Well, life has a funny way Of sneaking up on you When you think everything's okay And everything's going right And life has a funny way Of helping you out When you think everything's gone wrong And everything blows up in your face. A traffic jam when you're already late A "no smoking" sign on your cigarette break It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife It's meeting the man of my dreams And then meeting his beautiful wife And isn't it ironic, don't you think? A little too ironic, and yeah I really do think. It's like rain on your wedding day It's a free ride when you've already paid It's the good advice that you just didn't take And who would've thought? It figures. And yeah, well, life has a funny way Of sneaking up on you And life has a funny, funny way Of helping you out Helping you out Writer/s: Alanis Nadine Morissette, Glen Ballard Publisher: CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, TuneCore Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind. More songs from Alanis Morissette More songs that won MTV Video Music Awards More songs produced by Glen Ballard More songs about bad luck More songs used in TV shows More songs used in movies More songs from 1995 Ironic Songfacts Alanis Morissette Artistfacts. Comments: 46. Anonymous It’s really about how Ironic things are in real life versus how they can be. Sean Wright from New Jersey I have never been satisfied with definitions of irony I have seen. My own definition is that irony is a subversive relationship between intention and outcome or meaning and expression. Eric Martin from Virginia, Usa A couple of other artists have taken shots at Morissette's apparent lack of grammar ability. In Weird Al's "Word Crimes" (a parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines"), Al pokes fun at Morissette with the line, "You better figure out the difference, irony is not coincidence." In the video version, irony is illustrated by showing a fire truck on fire, it is contrasted by an illustration of rain falling on a bride and groom, which is just coincidental weather ("It's like rain on your wedding day. ") When Lonely Island performed their comedic song "Semicolon" on Jimmy Kimmel's show, their fellow guest star Morissette pointed out that they had confused the meanings of semicolons and colons. Adam Sandberg of Lonely Island retorted, "So, you're correcting our grammar? Well, I gotta say, Alanis: Coming from you, that's. a little ironic!" Skolinkinlot from Usa This article is not correct. The universal definition of “irony” as a literary device defines it as an instance of the unexpected that plays on ignorance. Normally, a character in the story is ignorant of something the audience knows, but sometimes the audience doesn’t know something will happen and is surprised. Either way, someone expects or assumes one thing and something happens that violates the expectation. This has been the standard definition of the term in literary studies at least since the 1960s. So all the examples she gives in the song are in fact ironies because they play against what would be hoped for or expected. Piper from Portland Or the beanie cap worn in the video is so awesome, I got one from the store and wore it every day for years, made me feel the music, oh the irony of this song, when the man crashes after winning a lottery all I can think is I once won a 50$ scratch off ticket, her song could have been about me, imagine that if it was, George from Vancouver, Canada Yes, the dictionary NOW says those are definitions of ironic, likely due to people thinkig this song defined irony rightly, so popular use made the error legitimate.
Oh well, USA has never got the hang of the meaning of "irony" nor of "condescending" vs "patronizing" Tony from Canada The irony is that a song about irony contains no irony. Thats ironic. George from Vancouver, Canada The irony isn't present in each line, but in the overall song -- these bad things are shown as necessary to haer a good life -- isn't THAT ironic, she's saying -- or we could credit that, except she's admitted she didn't really understand the concept when writing the song. Serendipity, I guess, gets the full credit for cleverness. . . Racefangurl from Ny State There's up to 3-4 ironies here. The sarcasm in the plane crash, the old lottery winner dying, the no smoking sign and perhaps bad stuff in life helping (situational irony with the last 2-3). Tim from Gastonia, Nc 98 year old man won the lottery and it was suppose to make his life better, but instead it killed him. The excitement of it all, heart attack. Perhaps the 98 year old man already had a wonderful life and didn't need the lottery but played any ways maybe checked his ticket with the great grand kids. And now he's dead. Pretty ironic, don't you think? Keonna from Puckett, Ms This song does actually contain irony. Frida from Lexington, Ky There are different forms of irony and the song IS ironic. It's called situational irony. Where the outcome of the situation is not what you would expect it to be. Not all ironic things have to be sarcasm. For example: "An old man turned 98, he won the lottery and died the next day." Most people would not expect a 98 year old man to win the lottery or die soon after. Karen from Manchester, Nh If I may nit-pick further. she never actually SAYS that these things are ironic. she ASKS, "Isn't it ironic?"! Not normally my style of music, but even I'm not immune to that wonderful belting of "rain"! Kirsty from Oxfordshire, United Kingdom The fact that none of the lyrics consist of irony in a song called ironic is ironic!! Therefore, Alanis didn't cock up at all!! Love her music and voice. very talented woman. Shilo from Noneofyourbuisness, Italy This song is funny, but true in every way. And her voice is so unique. Amazing. Matthew from Dumfries, United Kingdom Face it, she cocked it up. that is what happens when you try to be all clever and wordy with little or no natural aptitude. she got caught out here. Spencer from A Village, Nj None of this is Ironic, but its pretty funny. Jailene from K-town, Wa I just love this song. I don't really give a crap if it is actually ironic or not, the vocals are great and the lyrics are just funny, especially if you frolic through other people's pain. Madalyn from Greensburg, Pa I used a couple quotes from this song in a speech class I took once, and I got an A on that speech. Thanks. what a beautiful song. Don from B G, Ky Poster Jason said: "If yesterday you needed a spoon and there were 10,000 knives and today you needed a knife and there were 10,000 spoons". Jason how big is your utensil drawer? Remind me never to eat at your house. On topic, I prefer the def of IRONIC as being "it figures". Now go figure. Julian from Placentia, Ca She better make the rock and roll hall of fame! Michael from Melbourne, Australia Everyone should stop bagging Alanis. She is a fantastic artist, and this song absolutely rocks. I agree with Sarah from England. I love it when she belts out "Rain". Wikipedia: Situational Irony: Players and events coming together in improbable situations creating a tension between expected and real results. Irony of Fate:The expression "irony of fate" stems from the notion that the gods (or the Fates) are amusing themselves by toying with the minds of mortals, with deliberate ironic intent. Situations resembling poetic justice, but lacking the aspect of justice, may also be ascribed to the irony of fate. Though, yes, in general this song does not adhere to the etymological definition of "feigned ignorance", and the idea of a double audience and double meaning. Are there double meanings here? No. Are there incongruities? Yes. That would be why the populace is split on whether the song contains any irony other than the actual lack of irony. Examples of irony: 1) free ride when you've already paid 2) mr. meeting the man of your dreams
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