Irony: what does it do for us? Why should we like it?
We try to do something, and our efforts produce the opposite result.
We think we understand something, but we are grossly mistaken.
'Delicious irony' is a phrase that one sometimes hears. I suppose the irony is delicious when someone else is the victim of it, especially someone that we do not care for.
It seems that enjoyment of irony is part of a world-view that says that everything good is alloyed with bad, that there is nothing in life that is purely good or bad.
But this world-view does not necessarily explain the pleasure that people get from irony. Maybe that pleasure comes from the feeling of superiority we get as observers. Those who do not participate in the action get a compensatory ego-boost. Bully for them.
This might explain the popularity of irony in a world which more and more makes us spectators.
