My English neighbor loves to condescend to Americans. I think it is part of his genetic makeup. Rather than fight him I provide much entertainment by taking on a painfully obtuse personality. Once in a while a scorching zinger escapes from my thick head and he makes a great show of applauding my wit. I am quite the idiot savant. The Englishman has recently become bemused at how we savants are multiplying. SB and another American woman have joined the act and we have become quite the stooge act. You can usually catch us on Friday nights at the local pub.
Last night our English better went for the well over used statement about how Americans don't understand irony. Where did this come from? It seems that every mediocre British comedian now uses this as the reason why nobody likes his show but Americans are doing just fine with the Office and John Cleese lives in the United States.
My neighbor then asked me to define to him what I thought irony was. "Getting caught in a trap of your own making," I chirped; he grudgingly had to admit that I wasn't too far off from the definition. Later I realized that I had missed a golden opportunity to utilize Socratic irony in our conversation when it became clear that he couldn't define irony any better than me.
He also couldn't resist bringing up Alanis Morisette's song. For the last time, she is Canadian. Isn't that ironic?
"Actually, I don't know anyone who understands irony better than an American," I told him, "we gave guns to the Afghans in the 80's."
