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,” ...

Have you ever found yourself about to say, "that's ironic," only to stop yourself – unsure whether you were using the word correctly? If you're like most people, you probably know irony when you see ...

Well, isn’t this ironic? Just when we need an ironic sensibility to remain cleareyed in dangerous times, we’re told irony is obsolete. And this from some people who’ve made it their business to peddle ...

Since I started contributing to Psychology Today three years ago, I’ve been periodically exploring how laughter and humor are related to other terms often associated with them. They include concepts ...

There is something special about the way irony tickles our brains. After all, we tend to enjoy a good surprise, or at least something that subverts our expectations. Fortunately, helpful people from ...

Two-hundred-something years ago, after the earnestly murderous trials of the French Revolution, irony appeared on the cobblestoned streets of Paris. Young aristocratic men called Incroyables took to ...

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, ...