In my previous post, I said I disliked irony in the casual sense. I used the word sense instead of meaning as words and phrases have no meaning. They have senses – impressions and associations. Words do not denote, but connote. They do not have meaning, but imply meanings.

To borrow from Humpty-Dumpty: "When you use a word it means just what you choose it to mean--neither more nor less."

Meaning comes from the speaker and listener, or if you prefer, from the act of communication, but words themselves are only the medium meaning passes through.

Irony in the classical sense is ‘is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to the character's knowledge and that of the audience.’ (I copied and pasted this shit from Wikipedia, so it’s accuracy is assured.) Irony in the casual sense is ‘any comment produced by someone who wants to be witty and urbane without engaging in any intellectual heavy lifting.’