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[Jeff LeRose <lerose AT rtci.com>]

Irony in the US is limited to small areas of the country in order to
confuse and befuddle visitors and people from the South.
Except for a small area around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue it is almost
never practiced south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Other Ironic areas of the country that I'm familiar with, can be found
in NYC and northern NJ.
It is probably due to the fact that people in the South actually listen
when you say something and take your comments literally (they understand
the English language).
Either that or they are too polite to tell someone that saying the
opposite of what is true really doesn't make much sense, unless you are
caught in some sort of time warp where it is considered culturally
savvy.
Talking about politics and the Media with cynicism, has a limited effect
since just stating the facts often will be confused with Irony.
Irony also works best when both participants have had multiple
cocktails, another limiting factor in the South where Beer and Wine are
the mainstays. 

Jeff


Calvin Powers wrote:
> 
> Whatever. Perhaps we Americans don't have the sense of irony that the Euros
> do; but we make up with our  keen sensitivity to stereotyping.
> 
> --cp
> 
> At 08:24 PM 8/4/2001 -0400, you wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >I've been in the US now for a year. And I'm puzzled. After getting blank
> >looks from pretty much everybody and their mothers, I guess that irony is 
> >an
> >alien concept in the US.
> >
> >Then, I saw this post on Slashdot:
> >-------------------
> >SAN FRANCISCO MAN BECOMES FIRST AMERICAN TO GRASP SIGNIFICANCE OF IRONY
> >
> >  SAN FRANCISCO - We spoke to Jay Fullmer, 38, who became the first 
> > American
> >to get to grips with the concept of irony yesterday.
> >
> >  "It was weird," Fullmer said, "I was in London and, like, talking to this
> >guy and it was raining and shit and he said, like, great weather, ors
> >omething like that."
> >
> >  Said Fullmer: "And I thought - wait a minute, it's like, no way is it 
> > great
> >weather."
> >
> >  Fullmer soon realised that the other man's 'mistake' was deliberate.
> >
> >  "This guy was pretty cool about it," Fullmer said.
> >
> >  Fullmer, who is 39 next month and married with two children, aged 8 and 
> > 3,
> >planned to use irony himself in future.
> >
> >  "I'm like saying it all the time." he said. "Weekend last I was like
> >grilling steaks and I like burned them to shit and I said 'great weather'."
> >-------------------
> >
> >Is it that bad in the US? I mean, nobody gets irony here? Or is it me, not
> >getting the True American Reaction to Irony (TM)?
> >
> >
> >Of course, then you think about Clinton, Condit, the 89 Congressmen having
> >affairs with interns, George W. President of the US of A, Al Gore nearly
> >making it to the presidency, ... and everything makes sense: it's the same 
> >as
> >everywhere else (you just won't believe how similar is at European
> >parliaments).
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Salut,
> >Josep
> >--
> >Josep L. Guallar-Esteve
> >mailto:jlguallar AT maduixa.net
> >
> >---
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> Calvin Powers                                             current events
> mailto:calvin AT cspowers.com                            cultural phenomena
> http://www.cspowers.com/                                    true stories
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