Adapted from "Irony and Sarcasm" by Roger Kreuz (MIT Press, 2020). Reprinted with permission from MIT Press. In February 1996, Alanis Morissette released the fourth single from “Jagged Little Pill,” ...

As the great British comic, Ricky Gervais once implied, England and America may not so much be divided by a common tongue, but by their distinctive use (and in the case of the Brits, their abuse) of ...

The Brits have long complained that many Americans don't get irony (for instance, we published a telling story from a British expat last week, and then there was the time the editor of Business ...

Like simile, metaphor, personification and hyperbole, irony is a very useful figure of speech. Writers and other creative workers regularly make use of it, including comedians. It can, however, also ...

It’s hard to make irony shine through in writing without the full range of eloquent pause, verbal inflection, arched eyebrow and wry lip that we can employ in person. People noticed this problem long ...