Irony can be a tricky thing. The technical definition of irony isn't exactly the same as it is commonly accepted in today's culture. What's odd is that, written out, its definition seems rather straight-forward: "Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs." (from the American Heritage Dictionary).

As you may have heard, the "ironies" in Alanis Morissette's song aren't ironies. A fly in your drink isn't irony, it's just an inconvenience. Dying after you win the lottery isn't irony, it's just sad. So on and so on. The problem I have is that I can imagine ways in which some of those instances could be irony. For example, wouldn't you expect your wedding day not to be raining? But then I suppose you'd have to go into more detail on what is meant by expected, versus imagined or believed or something similar.

One thing is pretty clear about that song though. If, indeed, there are no true ironies in the song, that would be irony, since you would expect a song called "Ironic" to have ironies in it.

So, in today's comic, I believe it would be ironic for the double-crosser to get double-crossed, since you would expect him to be the one doing the double-crossing. And I think, though I'm not sure on this one, that Dr. Wily claiming it's not ironic when it is may be ironic itself, hence today's title. But don't take my word for it.

David Anez