Irony is the humor of the era.  At its worst, irony is a cheap, easy way to get a chuckle and avoid making a commitment.  At its best, irony is a memorable way for the alienated to comment on the ‘in crowd’, the powerless to bring down the powerful, and the hip to skewer the not-so-hip.  John Hodgman provides a brilliant example of wonderful irony on TED.com:  http://tinyurl.com/6abzzm.  Check it out for how to do irony well.   There are 3 rules for making irony memorable rather than cheap. 

Hodgman begins by talking about Enrico Fermi, the brilliant Italian physicist, and aliens.  The kind that come in space ships and land in the Nevada desert, that is.  Hodgman says, “Isn’t it strange that he only asked for one thing?  A gift of two healthy sperm whales?  That’s not true, but it is strange.”

Rule Number One.  There’s considerable wit in what Hodgman does, but the predominant mode is ironical.  “The aliens might be very far away,” he says, in explaining why we haven’t seen them yet, “Even on other planets.”  He brilliantly illustrates the first rule of great irony by providing an overall narrative that is different from what he is apparently talking about.  Hodgman’s apparent narrative is all about his (non) encounters with aliens, but his real narrative is all about how he, a nerd, found love, got married, and remains in love today. 

It’s a very sweet story, told with delicacy and tact – and irony.  Most cheap irony lacks the meta-narrative that gives a good story its structure.  Cheap irony is usually just a pot shot at something the narrator doesn’t like but can’t do much about.  

Rule Number Two.  The second rule of great irony is that something important has to be at stake.  In Hodgman’s case, it’s love.  He is traveling in Portugal with the girl who becomes his wife, and she goes off on her own to check out a beach.  She’s a long time coming back to the hotel, and Hodgman realizes how alone he is in the universe.  As he says, “I could not call her on a cell phone because the aliens had not given us that technology yet.” 

But what’s at stake can be anything important that the speaker-narrator cares about.  Cheap irony has nothing behind it – no alternative that it is proposing.  Powerful irony points to a better way. 

Rule Number Three.   The third rule of irony is that its viewpoint has to run counter to the one held by those currently in power.  Again, in Hodgman’s case, the predominant viewpoint is that nerds can’t find love.  After all, it’s the Prom Kings and Queens that get love, right?  Hodgman quietly and ironically insists on the contrary, that nerds can find love, too.  “Even though we are married, I love her and wait for her still,” he says, perhaps the best last (ironical) line of a love story in recent years.