Irony Worksheet 2

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Identifying Irony 4

Directions: Read the following examples of irony. Determine which of the three types of irony
are being used and then explain your answer.

Dramatic irony – This occurs when the reader or audience understands more about the events of
a story than a character.
Situational irony – This occurs when what actually happens is the opposite of what is expected
or appropriate.
Verbal irony – A character says one thing but really means the opposite.

1. "Whenever someone's in trouble, Captain Adventure comes on the double!" Shouted Captain
Adventure from the rooftop, right before he dropped onto the purse-snatcher. As the old woman
recovered her purse, she said appreciatively, "Thank you, Captain Adventure! You saved the
day." Captain Adventure posed bravely with his hand on his hips and offered to carry the
woman's groceries upstairs. When she politely accepted, Captain Adventure handcuffed the
purse-snatcher to a lamppost and followed the old woman upstairs. As he put the grocery bags
onto her counter, Captain Adventure saw something that made him jump onto the kitchen table.
He started squealing in a high-pitched voice, "EWWWWW! Icky! Icky! A big bug." As he did
this, he was pointing at an average sized ladybug that was on the floor about ten or fifteen feet
away from him. Seeing his terrified reaction to this small bug, the old lady scooped the insect
onto her finger and guided it out of the window. Captain Adventure was immediately relieved
and said with genuine appreciation, "Thank you. I guess we're even now."

Which type of irony is used?

Explain your answer:

2. “OK, well, if you think that the house won’t stay on the market, I guess we can close the deal
tomorrow,” Mr. Jones said over the phone to his real estate broker, Pat Meier. “Yeah, Jones,
they’ve got other offers on the table, bigger offers. We’ve got to move on this thing now while
we’ve got our foot in the door.” Pat Meier was working him over. Mr. Jones wasn’t sure about
buying the house, but he trusted Pat and he wanted to do right by him, so he agreed. Later that
night, as he talked it over with his wife, Mr. Jones grew less and less certain. Then the phone
rang. Mr. Jones politely answered it, “Hello. Jones’ residence and with whom am I speaking?”
At first there was no reply, and then he heard someone laughing at a distance, “Ha-ha... The
place has got mold in the attic and the basement!” Mr. Jones recognized the voice as belonging
to Pat Meier. He continued listening, “The walls are an inch thin. Trains pass by every fifteen
minutes and shake the pictures off the walls! You wouldn’t believe this garbage dump, Bernie.”
Mr. Jones figured that Pat must have called him from his pocket on accident. Just as he was
about to hang up the phone, Mr. Jones recalled that the place Pat was trying to get him to buy
was right next to a train station. “I only let him look at the place for ten minutes at a time. I’m
telling you, Bernie, this Jones idiot is going to pay twice what that dump is worth.” Mr. Jones
had heard enough. He ended the call. The next day Pat waited a long time for Mr. Jones to show
up to the closing. Mr. Jones never arrived. Pat called Mr. Jones many times as he nervously
waited, but Mr. Jones didn’t even take the call. He figured that he didn’t even owe a man like
Pat Meier an explanation.

Which type of irony is used?

Explain your answer:

3. Bram hated his roommate Keith’s dog. Keith didn’t even ask Bram before he got the dog.
Bram just came home one night with a dog. Now Bram had to share his living space with a
furry, poorly trained pest. The dog was not potty trained. It barked hours on end for seemingly
no reason. It jumped all over Bram’s guests and bothered them. Bram tolerated all of this
because he was a good roommate and Keith was his friend. Then Bram came home from work
one day and found that Keith’s dogs had chewed up Bram’s limited edition shoes. Bram
snapped. “Keith, do you want to know what, you’re really awesome dog did? He tore up my
favorite shoes. Thank you so much. I didn’t want those anyway.” Keith came out of his room
looking confused and upset. Bram continued, “Oh, I never said ‘thank you,’ by the way, for
surprising me with this really well-behaved dog. I am so pleased to share my home with him!”
Bram was shouting now. Keith grabbed his dog by the color and slowly backed him into his
bedroom.

Which type of irony is used?

Explain your answer:

4. Moving to a new school had been tough for Janie, but things were finally turning around. She
was making friends and even received an invitation to Angie’s pool party. Angie was the coolest
girl in school and it was an honor just to be invited, but there was one problem: Janie didn’t
know how to swim. She didn’t want to risk her new friendships by either not attending or
admitting that she couldn’t swim, so she decided to go to the party and pretend like she knew
how to swim. The first hour or two of the party went by swimmingly. Janie floated on a large
raft and gossiped with the other girls. It was pretty relaxing. Then Bridget started rough housing.
She splashed everybody on the deck and dunked a nice girl named Katie. Then she started
swimming toward Janie. “I’m coming to flip you, Brainy Janie. Get ready,” Bridget taunted.
Janie started panicking and pleading, “No, Bridget, I don’t want to play,” Janie pleaded, but
Bridget kept swimming toward her. “I’m wearing hair extensions. You’ll ruin them if they get
wet,” Janie reasoned with her, but Bridget kept coming toward her with her hands up like claws.
Then Janie said, “I have a horrible skin disease and if I go in the water you’ll be diseased too.”
That did the trick. Bridget stopped in her tracks a few inches away from the raft. Of course, now
everyone thought that she had a contagious disease, but she would work that out when she was
out of the pool.

Which type of irony is used?

Explain your answer:

5. Brandon was an adult when he found out that he had been adopted. It came as quite a shock.
He spent his whole life thinking that the world was one way when in fact it there was another
layer to it. As much as he loved and cherished his adoptive parents, he became obsessed with
locating and meeting his biological mother. He contacted the adoption agency but her
information wasn’t listed. He followed up the few clues that he had and they led to dead-ends.
He employed a world-class detective to help him locate his birth mother, but he came up empty
handed. Brandon spent years and piles of money scouring the world for clues to her identity until
he at last found her living right down the street from his house.

Which type of irony is used?

Explain your answer: