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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
Isn't it ironic, don't you think
[Chorus]
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
Who would've thought, it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
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,l don't you think
[Chorus]
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
[Chorus]
Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
And life has a funny way of helping you out
Helping you out.
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
Isn't it ironic, don't you think
[Chorus]
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
Who would've thought, it figures
Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids good-bye
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,l don't you think
[Chorus]
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
[Chorus]
Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
And life has a funny way of helping you out
Helping you out.
Lyrics submitted by jstalilwyrd
Track duration: 03:49
"Ironic" as written by Alanis Nadine Morissette, Glen Ballard
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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For a negative example, You want someone to be in financial ruins and you intentionally give advice and screw that person up and when you are in desperate need of financial help, you go seek advice and someone else played you and now you are in financial ruins. That's ironic.
For a positive example, You are on a trip, someone is stranded in the middle of nowhere because his car broke down, you gave him a lift without expecting you to be stranded or him to help you back because you took good care of your car (such as proper maintenance, extra spare tire, etc). On your way back from the trip, your car broke down, you need help, the same person (or someone else) gave you a lift. Now that's what I call ironic.
I hope anyone reading this can tell the difference between ironic, coincidence,
and unexpectedness. Anyway, I like how she sung "it's like rain." She has a sweet and pleasant voice. Very easy and alluring to the ears. I will listen to this song for times to come.
There are some irony in the lyrics and it will require looking at the lyric, put in some deep thought, and wonder why she sung those line to see the irony. As a song, singing to the audiences at fast speed, no one will see the irony because no one will have enough time to interpret the unspoken lines.
So this is a song called "Ironic" wherein none of the examples presented, which purport to be ironic, are in fact actually ironic... which is rather the point of the song. Yes, it's not ironic, which is in itself WHY it's ironic, and I have to figure that Alanis is intelligent enough for that to have been the intention.
On ironic thing happened after this song though. A US education authority criticised Ms Morisette for reinforcing the stereotype that Americans don't know what irony is... thereby reinforcing another stereotype about Americans.
taringa.net/posts/musica/5536938/…-(Alanis-Morissett.html
taringa.net/posts/musica/5536938/…-(Alanis-Morissett.html
Eventhough, I think the song is trying to explain this 'bad luck' as something curious or annoying, more than ironic ("Life has a funny way to help you out"). I mean, why does the plane of that men fell down, but other 50 planes that were flying that day with people who are not afraid and maybe usually flies didn't?
Sometimes you think that life is so unfair, because it helps people who have done horrible things all their life, and punish good persons who make worng thins one or twice...
Despite that potentially fatal shortcoming, it's a fun song to listen to, with lots of playful charm. It's basically Murphy's Law exposited through pop song. The woeful situations described are so absurd that I am not left feeling pessimistic or bitter, but amused and heartened. As in, life really sucks sometimes in random and unexpected ways that could be seen in another light as funny. Grin and bear it, and someday you may look back on this and laugh.
A good example of irony is getting stuck in a traffic jam on your way to a meeting to discuss the traffic problems in the city, not finding a black fly in your Chardonnay!
There's a popular saying here in the UK that 'Americans don't understand irony'. Judging by these lyrics, neither do Canadians.