Current mood:	frustrated
Current music:	Kanye West - Love Lockdown | Powered by Last.fm

Irony, Satire, and Everything In Between
I've noticed, as have many others before me, that people just don't seem to understand what irony or satire mean. Irony is a contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually does happen. It can be humorous, but can also be sad, disheartening, annoying, etc. (source: my brain) Satire is a parody or conflation of human flaws intended to bring about change. (source: the bastion of knowledge, wikipedia) Thus, a list.

IRONIC: growing a mullet if you are an upper-middle class New Englander
NOT IRONIC: growing a mullet if you are a Southerner
IRONIC: naming your pet goldfish "Bait"
NOT IRONIC: naming your pet goldfish "Shakespeare"
IRONIC: Wearing a shirt that says, "I <3 Meat" if you're a vegetarian
NOT IRONIC: Wearing a shirt that says, "I <3 Meat" if you're an omnivore
IRONIC: wearing women's jeans if you're male and vice-versa
NOT IRONIC: wearing really, really tight men's jeans if you're male
IRONIC: calling a non-gay friend a "faggot" (I didn't say it had to be not reprehensible. Technically speaking, it's ironic.)
NOT IRONIC: using the terms "gay" and "faggot" as insults
IRONIC: being stranded at the altar
NOT IRONIC: rain on your wedding day
IRONIC: having to explain the concept of irony to people who I know took four years of high school English
NOT IRONIC: listening to Miley Cyrus

As for Satire...

EXAMPLES OF SATIRE:
Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"
Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"
Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World"
Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock"
"Saved!"
"Borat" (I'll give it this, but I don't really see any attempt to bring about change in it)
"Thank You For Smoking"
"Dogma"
"Jizz in my Pants" (to an extent)

NOT SATIRE:
ethnic jokes
"Twilight"
"27 Dresses" and any other chick flick
songs that dehumanize gays/women/any other group intentionally

Everyone understand? Okay, class over.