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,” ...

Are you or have you ever considered becoming a hipster? You better become acquainted with the already-outdated moniker’s attendant signifier first: Irony. You have to eat it. You have to breathe it.

Irony is one of those things you kind of know when you see or hear it on screen, but it's much harder to define and put into layman's terms. But don't worry, we have you covered there. Today, we're ...

Hypocrisy means contradicting ourselves, being inconsistent, and talking out of both sides of our mouths. But that’s also what irony means. What then distinguishes hypocrisy from irony? A hypocrite ...

Everyone knows that Americans don't understand irony. Soon after moving to England from the U.S., I discovered that my country was universally assumed to be an irony-free zone. I was at a dinner party ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Alanis Morissette performs at The Omni Coliseum in Atlanta Georgia, September 14, 1996 Rick Diamond/Getty Images The prevailing ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American I was scanning my Twitter feed recently, ...

In 1995, Alanis Morissette released her iconic single "Ironic," which went on to be one of her most popular songs and an anthem for the disaffected youth of America -- but does it still hold up in ...