Why Being Ironic? - An Outsider’s View on Danish Irony, its Functions and Effects

If one nation’s humor is characterized by irony, and most citizens of this nation agree so, then that would be a very interesting feature for an outsider to notice. When talking about Danish humor, all the Danes I have met told me that “when we speak, we use a lot of irony, which can be quite confusing if people are not used to it”.

Here leads to a very important question: why being ironic, if it makes the point even more difficult to understand? Why not just say things in a plain and then avoid possible confusions? After all, being straightforward and to the point is the quickest way to make things clear in terms of communication efficiency.

One of my Danish friends once explained to me that “I think it is deeply founded in Danish mentality to use irony”. Mentality is a very abstract concept for me, yet I believe it is correct in some sense. There must be reasons why the Danes love irony, in other words, irony must have some special functions to benefit communication.

The first function of irony, as everyone can think of, is creating a sense of humor. Irony can be interpreted as a new different way to speak about the same old thing, which is bound to create an unexpected effect if it is good irony.

Example 1.
A: “I was totally drunk last night.”
B: “What did you drink?”
A: “Just…A lot.”
B: “Like two apple ciders?”
A: “Ha-ha, no, just a glass of water.”
B: “I see. And plenty of soda and juice?”
A: “Yeah, also coffee, milk, tea and so on.”

The irony begins when B starts joking about if A has only drunk two apple ciders and got drunk. Instead of answering in a plain way, such as “no, I drank fifteen beers and a lot of vodka”, A chooses to continue the ironic conversation by saying “no, just a glass of water”, which is opposite to the truth. Then A and B both reach a tacit understanding that they will continue joking with each other by ironically listing the beverages that are non-alcoholic and cannot make people drunk at all.

This conversation demonstrates how irony can be humorous. If A and B stick to the facts, then this conversation is merely a dull exchange of truthful information; yet when they both try to be ironic, it creates a very humorous effect. Being ironic allows intellectual and emotional interaction between the two people, which can be regarded as a higher level of communication.

The second function of using irony in daily conversation is to underline one’s points. People sometimes feel that stating an opinion in a plain way does not demonstrate their attitude strongly enough.

Example 2: “The proposed budget cutbacks in the field of medical care - best idea ever.” The speaker of this statement is one of my Danish friends. He says he uses a lot of irony of this type when discussing about the economic policies of the Danish government with his friends, in order to underline how much he disagrees with those policies.

If dissent is expressed as the way it is, such as “I think it is a bad idea” or “it is the worst idea ever”, then it seems to lack certain strength that makes one’s dissent distinctive or special. The use of irony helps to draw attention to the point that one wants to emphasize by demonstrating a sharp contrast exactly between what one says and what one actually means.

However, there are also drawbacks of using irony. One disadvantage of using irony is that it is easy to cause misunderstandings. When irony is understood properly, it can create a humorous effect or an emphasizing effect; when irony is misinterpreted, it creates a confusing effect.

One day, I met a Danish friend of mine on metro on my way to university. He pointed to his head and said, “Do you like my new helmet?” I was totally confused and got no clue about what he was talking about. Then I thought it might be a kind of game of pretending some non-existent thing to be existent, like what kids like to play: holding a non-existent sword, riding a non-existent horse and pretending to be a knight of the Middle Ages. Under this hypothesis, I answered, “Yes, very much”. Later I found out I actually gave the right answer through a wrong path. What my friend meant by his “new helmet” was actually his new haircut: extremely short hair that looks like a helmet over his head. It was just lucky that I was able to keep the conversation going. Otherwise I might just stand there like a speechless stone statue.

My friends also remind me that they are very cautious about using irony to strangers: irony is between friends and people you know quite well; usually people will not start speaking ironically with someone that they have just met for the first time, because besides causing misunderstandings, irony sometimes leads to unintentional offense.

It is understandable why some people get offended by irony: it feels tough to not understand what the other person is talking about. Also some people simply do not like jokes or humor. If A just wants a plain answer and nothing like a fancy humorous joke, but B insists on speaking ironically all the time, it can be quite frustrating.

Irony is a higher level of communication both intellectually and emotionally. Firstly it requires intelligence both to create and to understand irony. One will not expect a five-year-old kid to speak ironically unless the child is exceptionally smart. Secondly irony is a kind of emotional interaction. Being able to understand each other’s irony shows that you have more in common with each other than those who become stone statues in face of irony. Interaction goes better between you and your emotional attachment toward one another grows stronger. Therefore a successful ironic conversation requires both sides to meet these two requirements of intelligence and emotional need.

Sometimes irony becomes offense because the other side is not accustomed to grasp the intelligence out of irony – it is not that he does not want to understand, but simply he is unable to; other times offense emerges due to the fact that the other side does not want emotional interaction at the moment, but simply a plain answer and some truthful information. Take the relationship between two colleagues at an office for instance, colleague A wants to befriend colleague B and that is why he uses a lot of irony to show his closeness to B (or simply A is so accustomed to using irony that he is unable to stop it). However, B takes their relationship only as that between co-workers, so when B asks a question, he expects a truthful answer not some ironic humor that makes him confused about the facts. In this situation, B will eventually feel offended by A’s supposedly harmless and well-intentioned irony. Therefore pleasant irony actually requires a suitable situation and willing participants. In the case of a formal meeting or a serious seminar, irony is more likely to lead to an unpleasant effect than a pleasant one.

To conclude, Danes have sound reasons to love irony: it has the function of creating a humorous effect (as unexpected answers can be surprisingly funny), as well as highlighting one’s point of view (by the sharp contrast between what one says and one actually means), if used properly. However, irony requires both participants of conversation to have the intelligence to create and understand irony, and also the willingness to use irony as a tool of enhancing emotional interaction and diminishing plain information exchange. That is to say, irony creates a pleasant effect on the basis of a suitable situation and willing participants; otherwise its effect may be either confusing or offensive, both of which are not so pleasant and had better be avoided.