12.17.08

Code read (past tense)

Posted in language change, language misuse, write tight at 7:48 am by Bill Brohaugh

I knew Rachel Maddow reminded me of someone. It finally clicked last night while watching. She’s my 8th-grade English teacher. Her lesson:

Just because I said it’s ironic does not mean that it’s funny. But it is irony.

This was her conclusion of the unfortunate tale of American kidnapping consultant Felix Batista himself being kidnapped (and, of course, we wish him a happy fate). Maddow’s introduction:

Irony alert. Code red. Threat of disturbing irony imminent in an unfunny story.

The story is indeed ironic in the Greek tragedy sense: character action in contrast to audience knowledge of the true situation. And Maddow is right. “Ironic does not mean that it’s funny.” Irony can, I grant you, produce a certain level of amusement, in an “I have mocked thee” or a “You got your comeuppance, buddy” sort of way. Yet, irony in its most powerful sense is rather somber.

As Maddow and her writers acknowledge by way of disclaimer, irony has also come to imply ha-ha-titter-titter kinds of jokes. Pratfalls instead of tragedy, spit-in-the-wind yuk-em-ups instead of pointed sarcasm.

And the write tight guy in me wonders if she could have saved a lot of words just by introducing the story as a possibly redundant but definitely clear “tragic irony.”

It’s sad for the world that she has this story to report in the first place. And in my little part of the world, it’s also sad for the word lovers that she is forced to go to such extents to steer her audience from a softened meaning of a powerful word.

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