Irony is hard, but some people take to it naturally. To do irony well you have to be a naturally gifted actor. It’s not enough just to be able to write. Irony is performed, with a sincerity that cannot be doubted unless you realize what is going on. Some ironic performers are open about what they are doing. Stephen Colbert is the master of this form in our time. But the greatest living ironic actor is George Bush. Everything he says is a self-description. He accuses everyone of his own faults. And he acts as if he does not know he is doing it at all.
Rush Limbaugh, too, is an excellent ironic comedian. So convincing to the humor impaired that they think he is funny when he is being funny at them.
But it is not the kind of irony that I laugh at, it is the kind of irony for which I feel only sadness, because this is no joke. People are suffering, children are being killed. And there is a price that will be paid for all of this. End the war.
Hat-tip to NTodd for inspiring me to write this somehow.
