Ever hear this one?

Well, it turns out that Alanis actually didn’t know what Irony was when she wrote the darn thing! Most of the situations in the song are just plain annoying – coincidence, at most – and not really ironic.

Some folks have tried to “fix” the song, like this:

There are actually a few kinds of irony.

Verbal Irony:

And, what poor Alanis probably had in mind, Situational Irony:

So in short, Irony can be seen as the OPPOSITE of EXPECTATION.

Examples:
A tall (or really big) person named Tiny!
A fire station burning down
A teacher who needs a student to explain Irony

and the list goes on!