40 Irony Examples And Meaning From Movies Literature Life

Ready to travel back in time to middle school English to re-learn the rather tricky ins and outs of irony? Let’s do it—keep reading for the definition of irony, types of irony, and 40 useful and funny examples of irony. 

What is irony?

Irony is a type of figurative language; it’s “the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.” Alternatively, irony is also defined as “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.” In writing, irony is also a literary device—popularized and most notably demonstrated by William Shakespeare in his tragedies—in which “the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.” If even these definitions feel a little too daunting (and we don’t blame you), the easiest way to explain irony in layman’s terms is that it really is the opposite of what you expect to happen—expectations versus reality. Of course, you never expect it to rain on your wedding day and it would totally be weird if you were specifically looking for a knife and could only find spoons, but Alanis Morisette’s iconic ode to the literary technique does get flack for missing the mark a bit.

Types of irony

There are three main types of irony. These include:

Situational ironyVerbal ironyDramatic irony

So, what are the main differences between the three? As mentioned above, situational irony refers to a situation in which the outcome is quite different than is expected. One result is expected, but the complete inverse result is what happens. Verbal irony refers to when someone says something but really means the exact opposite. Not to be confused with sarcasm, this just means the intention behind the words is inherently funny because it’s, well, wrong. Then, there’s dramatic irony. Most often used in literature, TV, or film, this is the kind of irony in which an audience is privy to information that one of the characters isn’t.

40 Irony Examples

Irony Examples in Movies

1. In Mulan, the audience knows that Mulan is, in fact, a woman posing as a man but the rest of the Chinese Army does not know this. 2. In Legally Blonde, Elle Woods believes that her longtime boyfriend, Warren, is going to propose that night at a very romantic dinner; instead, he breaks up with her.
2. In Beauty and the Beast, the audience knows that Beast is really a prince; but Belle does not.
3. In Hunters, Al Pacino’s character gathers a handful of Jewish people to start a Nazi-hunting “club” of sorts, but in the end, confesses that he is in fact an ex-Nazi posing as a Jewish man.
4. In The Fault in Our Stars (both the movie and the book), Augustus Waters is a cancer survivor who puts a cigarette in his mouth but never lights it. Author John Green wrote, “You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.”
5. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the audience knows that the evil stepmother is disguising herself as the old hag in order to present Snow White with an apple; Snow White does not know.
6. In Forrest Gump, the protagonist of the same name is seen by most others as the simplest man in the room; however, he ends up being the most successful in all different kinds of ways.
7. In the Harry Potterseries, Harry is expected to kill his longtime nemesis, Voldemort—only to find out that in the end, Harry must actually let Voldemort kill him voluntarily. 9. In Cinderella, the audience knows that the gorgeous woman who woos Prince Charming on the dance floor is, in fact, Cinderella (not a princess at all) while her stepmother and step-sisters do not realize. 10. In The Departed, the audience knows that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is in fact the mole in the mob while none of the mob members suspect him. For an added layer of irony, the audience also is privy to the fact that Matt Damon is a crooked cop working with the mob.

Irony Examples in Literature

11. In Macbeth, King Duncan says he trusts Macbeth when the audience well knows that Macbeth has a secret plan to murder King Duncan.
12. In Othello, Othello trusts Iago to be a good guy who’s on his side; however, the audience knows Iago is plotting against Othello.
13. In Roald Dahl’s short story “A Lamb to the Slaughter,” a woman kills her husband by hitting him over the head with a frozen lamb. She then cooks the lamb and feeds it to the officers who come to investigate his disappearance. Ultimately, the police are the ones who “destroy” the murder weapon. 14. In My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, one daughter is dying of cancer while the other was literally conceived in order to save the first daughter’s life. In the end, it’s the healthy daughter who dies of a freak accident despite the fact that their parents so desperately fought to keep the daughter with cancer alive. 15. In “The Gift of the Magi,” a short story by O. Henry, both parties barter their most prized possession in order to buy the other an accessory for their most prized possession. In the end, neither party can use the gift because they gave up the possession it was meant to go with. 16. In the Harry Potter series (both the books and the movies), Harry has strong negative feelings about Professor Snape from his first day at Hogwarts. However, both the audience and Harry don’t find out until the final installment that Snape was campaigning on Harry’s behalf all along. 17. In The Wizard of Oz (both the original book and movie), Dorothy travels a long way to visit the great and powerful Oz, only to a) find it’s simply a man behind a curtain fooling everyone and b) she had the power to return home all along. 18. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we—the audience—know that Juliet is not in fact dead at the end, only drugged to appear in a deep, death-like sleep. But Romeo doesn’t know that, so he kills himself. His suicide is terribly ironic because Juliet is, in fact, alive and he killed himself for nothing. 19. In the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles, Oedipus was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother. Not knowing he was adopted, he fled from his parents to save them from this fate but in the end, ends up killing his true biological father and marrying his biological mother. The irony of this is that despite his mountainous efforts to disprove the prophecy, he ends up proving it exactly right. 20. There’s even more irony in Oedipus Rex; the doomed Oedipus also takes on the task of solving a crime: Who killed King Laius? The audience knows that Oedipus himself is, in fact, King Laius’ killer though Oedipus is unaware that the man he slayed was the king.

Irony Examples in History

21. The American Tobacco Campus—a historic tobacco factory located in Durham, North Carolina—is a smoke-free campus. 22. Nellie Connally—the First Lady of Texas from 1963 to 1969—was riding in the same car as President John F. Kennedy during the Texas motorcade. According to Connally, seconds before JFK was assassinated, she told him, “Mr. President, you can’t say that Dallas doesn’t love you” to which he replied, “No, you certainly can’t.” Soon after, he was shot. 23. The fact that the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous—Bill Wilson—requested three shots of whiskey as he was dying. 24. The Bible is the most shoplifted book of all time in the U.S. 25. The first person to ever survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel actually met a strange, cruel end later on. Fifteen years later, Bobby Leach slipped on a fruit peel, his leg became infected from the injury, was amputated, and he eventually died from the complications. 26. The fact that the inventor of the stop sign (and the crosswalk and traffic circle, the one-way street, and the taxi stand) never learned how to drive. Yep, William Eno is known as the Father of Traffic Safety but never got behind the wheel. 27. A man named Bill Hillman wrote a book called How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona. Despite his book being all about how to not be killed by bulls, he died three weeks after the book was released when he was killed by a bull. 28. Bette Nesmith Graham, the woman who invented white-out, was fired from her job as a secretary simply because she did not white-out a mistake. SOURCE? 29. After Beatles guitarist George Harrison died, a tree was planted in a Californian park in his honor. The tree later died due to a literal beetle infestation. 30. The New Cult Awareness Network (NCAN) ran an anti-cult hotline and publicly took a stance against the Church of Scientology (which many argue is cult-like). But NCAN went bankrupt in 1996 and was purchased in bankruptcy courtby the Church of Scientology. 31. Pizza Hut was once the largest purchaser of the now-infamous superfood kale prior to 2012. 32. Al Capone—the notorious American gangster—had a brother who was a federal Prohibition officer.

Funny or Random Irony Examples

33. A cop gets arrested.
34. A police station gets robbed.
35. A fire station burns down.
36. An oncologist is diagnosed with cancer.
37. A duck that can’t swim.
38. A pilot who is terrified of heights.
39. Someone who’s allergic to their favorite food.
40. A librarian who cannot read.
41. Trusting someone who is actually stabbing you in the back.
42. Thinking no one cared enough to remember your birthday only to find out your friends and family planned a surprise party. 43. Saying, “Well, at least the weather’s nice” when it is, in fact, raining, snowing, or hailing.
43. A person just waking up, saying, “I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight” or “I’m tired.”
44. A couples’ therapist files for divorce.
45. An accountant who isn’t good at math.
46. An English teacher who spells something incorrectly.
47. Someone in need of medical help is run over by the ambulance sent to help.
48. Someone with a lisp whose name begins with an “S” so that they cannot pronounce their own name. 50. A psychotherapist who is in therapy themselves. Next up, 30 Mandela effect examples.