Do you find it ironic when actors and politicians pretend to understand energy?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqAtW.xFqb1rZJMLIi34nA0jzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20091024090509AAGfg7K

Do you find it ironic when actors and politicians pretend to understand energy?

It is not my intent to insult anyone. But I actually do think that it is rocket science. Anyone who stands out in a lovely green field with a windmill in the background and talks about solving the world energy shortage while saving the environment is either being disingenuous or he doesn't fully understand the problem.

I thiunk this is a great place to stop and take stock. What this blog attempts to do is, through Yahoo! Answers, show just how oddly and erratically the word 'ironic' is used, using examples from Yahoo! Answers. A good many Yahoo! Answers users, especially in certain sections, use it not as a way of asking questions but as a way of sharing their opinions with strangers: a kind of soapbox, if you will. This person clearly has some interest in energy (which he appears to believe is rocket science: well, rockets do need fuel). He has perhaps recently seen some TV commercials or TV programmes featuring actors talking about energy. He is bothered, and perhaps annoyed, by the simplicity of their arguments. They seem, to him, to simplify a complex matter, and this angers him.

Now, of all the words in the great English language to describe this, he chooses the word 'ironic'. Is this, in even the smallest way, an appropriate use of the word 'ironic'? Is there even a twinge of irony here (except that the TV channel NBC is owned by GE...)? No. And yet... and yet... It appears that 'ironic' is becoming a catch-all word to describe any situation that bothers certain people.

Isn't that ironic? Oh, wait. No, it isn't. Not in the slightest.

Is it kind of ironic that im fat and a animal actavist?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnZn.nW9fkgfzU4QS8lKUeMjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080320193112AA6qlTJ

Is it kind of ironic that im fat and a animal actavist?

I am 100% against mars candy and kfc foods

I hate when people are cruel to animals but i'm fat is it hypocritical? is it ironic? i mean i wasnt always so into it but i always cared for them

like im becoming a vegeterian and everything. like full blown activist

and im scared of mice and birds but i want to protect them

like idk is it ironic?

I can't claim to have the first clue what this person is saying - I almost wonder if it's a joke. Forget the fact that she means 'hypocritical' when she says 'ironic' - you've still got a very confused person who draws a relationship between body size and activism.

This is one of the amazing aspects of Yahoo! Answers: people who are not only confused but are so very confused that you wouldn't know where to start in answering them...

Is it ironic, tragic, or funny that the Gobi Desert is the shadow of Himalayan mountains?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Atd8niF7boVxhJ7ApB8QKDUjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090629055724AAUwLoD

Is it ironic, tragic, or funny that the Gobi Desert is the shadow of Himalayan mountains?

Over 1000 x 800 Miles of pathetic desert, and that because of somone else who is too strong and virile... What does it mean for you personally?

Here is a person trying way too hard to shoehorn a meaning here that ought not exist... seeing mountains and deserts as opposites in terms of, ahem, 'virility', he then shoots three adjectives as the fact that in the world there is a mountain range (vaguely) near a desert. It's certainly not funny, it's certainly not tragic, and I can assure you it isn't 'ironic' in the least.

Ironically, wouldn't a person with histrionic personality disorder be just right for television?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkQFMOsr9GS0R.8wHhw5XQIjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20071029211418AAvvz7N

Ironically, wouldn't a person with histrionic personality disorder
be just right for television?

So I had to Google 'histrionic personality disorder' to see if it happened to mean, for example, a compulsive hatred of broadcast media. Nope, it's about attention-seeking. And since TV is filled with attention-seekers, I am mystified at what in the world is ironic about that...

I've been thinking about doing some defacing to a sex offender's home who ironically lives across from an

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Avy9_Xu0z3K9g17bBarzAXwjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080615122610AATuVul

I've been thinking about doing some defacing to a sex offender's
home who ironically lives across from an

elementary school in town here. Funny how those things happen. Can someone give me some options for retribution in a subtle, non-violent manner?

It is ironic that a sex offender lives near an elementary school? No. Sad, yes. Shocking, disturbing... sure. It can be any of those things. But it doesn't even approach ironic, unless perhaps the school trains police detectives charged with administering Megan's Law. Of course, being an elementary school, perhaps not.

Ironically, the jews included 8 things in their protocols to conquer the world?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlBMkopdWDrczDIrY9CpnAUjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090211211350AAP6ZD9

Ironically, the jews included 8 things in their protocols to conquer the world?

They sets things to become the richest in multinational companies industries such as musics (songs), sex, smoke (cigarettes), sports, fun, females, fashions as well as food. What say you?

I love this one. Pointless anti-Semitism based on the fraud called "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" it certainly is, but even notwithstanding that, there is not even coincidence here, let alone irony. I search and in vain can find nothing: is there something quasi-ironic about Jewish people and the number eight? Or about Judaism and the specific industries listed below? I try to find a word to substitute the 'ironically' in the question, and can come up with nothing better than 'interestingly'.

And it's not even very interesting.

Why does is ironic thing always happen to us?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApPILshDURsaKU9W4eT7kPgjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090401123248AAZ71df

Why does is ironic thing always happen to us?

Has this ironic thing ever happened to you? When you think about someone that you haven't seen a while. Then you encounter them sometime that day or the next. I find it very ironic

This masterpiece of eloquence uses the most popular misconception of irony: as a synonym for 'coincidence'. This person is, with intriguing sentence structure, talking about the coincidence of seeing a person soon after thinking about them for the first time in a while. It's amazing how remote that is from genuine irony.

Is it ironic that the Democrat primaries are less democratic than the Republican primaries?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ai.MeamUksv7Nzogm1NR78YjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080208142225AASLCvE

Is it ironic that the Democrat primaries are less democratic than the Republican primaries?

Is it ironic that the Democrat primaries, with the use of superdelegates, are less democratic than the Republican primaries?

This questioner bases the entire irony around, I believe, the fact that one major American party's name is the same word as a system of electing people. The fact that obviously both American parties are devoted to both democracy and republicanism in principle means that any discussion about their policies implied by their name is really little more than wordplay. In a country where a so-called Democratic Party actually offered democracy in its platform as an alternative to other parties, well then there might be some irony. But not here.

Is it true that all garden gnomes are ironic gnomes, or does it depend on class?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AlkhZnI_P1MhEEppM2pM3RYjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090415231619AApXUBf

Is it true that all garden gnomes are ironic gnomes, or does it depend on class?

Is it true that anytime a Brit puts a garden gnome in his well cared-for garden, he is making an ironic statement? What about the more ommon folk? Could it be that they really think that these gnomes are in good taste? For that matter, what of the upper-uppers? If the Duke of Devonshire puts up a garden gnome, can one presume that he has no care in the world as to whether it's in fashion, or would he only put it up to be ironic?

I'm really including this because 'ironic gnomes' is my new favourite phrase. In fact, I'm thinking of starting a musical group just so that I can call it 'The Ironic Gnomes.'

I get what this person is getting at, but I think perhaps the word they are looking for is 'kitsch' - appropriating tackiness as a clever kind of post-modern statement on taste... I suppose. Or perhaps garden gnomes are ironic because in the land of gnomes, they put ceramic humans?

Does anyone else find this ironic about the lakers and the celtics in the finals?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiFLivPlDkrzPnrHZvrcVuEjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080608221133AAdkKeH

Does anyone else find this ironic about the lakers and the celtics
in the finals?

so the lakers and the celtics are in the finals...how ironic is it that the national geographic channel is showing documentaries on LA's crips and bloods and boston's irish mob?? is this merely a coincidence?

More sports... this question revolves around the fact that a TV channel is showing documentaries about crime in the two cities whose basketball teams are competing in the finals. To find that irony, I am, among other things, looking for how basketball relates to crime. I suppose this might be, if anything, cynical of National Geographic. But ironic it is most certainly not.

What are some ironic things we are doing to harm the planet?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgQFGeCyHoD9i7hQMFyIiL0jzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20090912102718AA93nDs

What are some ironic things we are doing to harm the planet?

Example: we watch a nature channel on tv when we could just walk
outside.(it doesn't necessarily have to be "harmful", but it has to be
ironic.)

I'm not exactly how the person who wrote this question defines 'irony' - the specific example seems to imply that walking outside is a substitute for watching documentaries about the African savannah, etc. That in itself is interesting. Even still, it doesn't approach 'irony' as I understand it.

How ironic would it be if the Pats go undefeated the year the Dolphins go winless??

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiorK.cu3WrFmvBKgOs0EfIjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20071112095321AATulTW

How ironic would it be if the Pats go undefeated the year the Dolphins go winless??

So I know this isn't likely, but im sure we have all heard of the undefeated '72 Dolphins. What I want to know is how ironic do you think it would be if the Pats go undefeated, the year the Dolphins go winless?

I don't even know who the Pats are, except that they must be some American football team. This would not be ironic even if in 1972 the Pats went winless, but at least it would be interesting.

Ironically, Yahoo! Answers

I love Yahoo! Answers. It's the very soul of the internet. Okay, maybe it's not. But it is a source for all things ridiculous. The sole purpose of this blog is to call attention to the Yahoo! Answers understanding of the word "ironic", a word that at the best of times is frequently misunderstood.

Pointless? You betcha.