That's Not What Irony Means, Alanis

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• 00:02

  From Booksmart Studios, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

• 00:06

  I'm John McWhorter, and you know, not long ago,

• 00:10

  my sweetie and I saw the Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill,

• 00:15

  and as many of you might know, that is a jukebox musical based on the songs of Alanis Morissette.

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  One of the songs that, of course, they include, because how could they not, is the ironic song.

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  Remember that one from the 90s?

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  Of course, of course you do.

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  It's about these things that are supposedly ironic.

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  And so what?

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  What was it like?

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  Somebody is very, very old and they win the lottery and they die.

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  And isn't that ironic?

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  And then there's something about, well, there's a fly in your wine.

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  And isn't that ironic?

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  And of course, no, it isn't.

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  That's not what ironic is.

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  And remember all those conversations among young people back in the 90s where people would talk about the song and analyze why the things in the lyric are not ironic.

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  Well, it's cute that in the show,

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  when they do this song, they actually salute those late 90s conversations that.

• 01:04

  people would have.

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