Citations:ironic

supporting a traditional definition of ironic

 * 2005, Maurice Charney, Comedy: a geographic and historical guide, volume 2, page 403:
 * In Horton Hatches the Egg (1940) it is ironic that when lazy Mayzie's baby is finally born, it looks as much like an elephant as a bird, and it is ironic that when Gertrude McFuzz (1958) finally manages to get more feathers than Lolla-Lee-Lou, she is too heavy to fly.


 * 2009, Ben Witherington, III, The indelible image: the theological and ethical thought world of the New Testament, volume 1, page 556:
 * It is ironic that creatures would reject their own creator, ironic that Jesus offers more but the audience looks for something less, ironic that the high priest says more than he knows when he argues, "It is necessary that one man die and the nation be spared." Sometimes this amounts to saying more than what appears to be said, and sometimes it involves saying other than what the words immediately appear to say. But undergirding it all is that the Word would be rejected by the keepers of the Word This sad irony is plain already in John 1:5b,


 * 2011, David S. Reynolds, Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination, page 124:
 * In The Quaker City it is ironic that Byrnewood Arlington taunts Gus Lorrimer into seducing a woman who turns out to be Byrnewood's sister; it is doubly ironic that, despite her reputed innocence, the sister actually invites the seduction; it is triply ironic that Byrnewood righteously pursues his sister's seducer even though he himself is a rake with a checkered past; and soon through the whole book. But Lippard seems to miss the final point: that is, the very process of writing in the dark-reform style is itself the greatest irony; the very endorsement of morality through an immoral mode is a rich topic for the American novelist.

probably supporting a nontraditional definition of ironic "perversely appropriate, coincidental"

 * 1995 February 5, "James Lin" (username), retry: Micron over EPS, in, Usenet:
 * I thought it ironic that I had been unable to receive any timely return calls when I was still a customer of EPS but was so promptly contacted when I cancelled my order.


 * 1997 June 16, "Murderous" (username), Pollock Joke., in, Usenet:
 * Isn't it ironic that the Americans think the Polish to be stupid when the very same Americans haven't yet noticed the link between guns and violent crime?
 * Or they have noticed but won't change the law because 200 years ago they needed the guns to kill everyone in sight (esp the locals). So they need them now.
 * Isn't it ironic that the Americans think the Polish to be stupid, but, during the depression when Prohibition came into effect, Al Capone was the most sucessful businessman of his group? AND he was funded by the self-same joke telling Americans.
 * Isn't it ironic that the Americans think the Polish to be stupid, and yet still haven't noticed the link between a decent, fully-funded education, and the end of poverty?
 * Isn't it ironic that the Americans think the Polish to be stuipid, but the Americans haven't yet worked out that medical care should be free for all?
 * Isn't it ironic that the Americans think the Polish to be stuipid, but make cannabis illegal? Of course, it isn't "stupid" to outlaw cannabis, providing you're willing to loose BILLIONS of dollars in tax revenue AND pay for the policing time.


 * 2004 May 15, Three Players, Three Decades, in Billboard (volume 116, number 20), page 38:
 * The lyrics to "The Spirit of Radio" decry the commercialization of the medium. Did you find it ironic that when it was released, it got the most mainstream airplay of any previous Rush song?
 * And yes, it was really ironic that such a song became popular on radio, though it was a kind of litmus test&mdash;some radio guys who "got it" could hear the song and think "That's the way it ought to be," while others&mdash;the shallow, swaggering salesmen-of-the-air&mdash;could be oblivious to the song's meaning and proudly applaud themselves, "That's about me!"
 * And yes, it was really ironic that such a song became popular on radio, though it was a kind of litmus test&mdash;some radio guys who "got it" could hear the song and think "That's the way it ought to be," while others&mdash;the shallow, swaggering salesmen-of-the-air&mdash;could be oblivious to the song's meaning and proudly applaud themselves, "That's about me!"


 * 2004 June 22, "nenslo" (username), Sweet and Savory Irony, in, Usenet:
 * I find it ironic that there's a drug to make it possible for guys to get boners, when we have never been any good at getting women, even our own wives, to want to have sex with us. I find it ironic that they show guys dancing around because they can get a stiffie when I would dance around if I learned I would never be bothered by the entire subject again.  I find it ironic that when they show a commercial with a guy who drives a race car that says viagra all over it, they say in little letters at the bottom of the screen that he doesn't use viagra. Hell, I find it ironic that the world's greatest bicyclist advertizes automobiles.  What DON'T I find ironic.


 * 2011 September 29, Ironic that the other chokers, the Braves, were originally from Boston., in, Usenet