Pinkie Pie here! Now, I know you know me as the certified party planner of Ponyville, and not the certified joke master of Joketopia, but I feel like I've told so many jokes, and I have this book-princess-friend, so I figured I'd write a book anyway.
So for today's funny-lesson, we have irony.
There are three types of irony: verbal irony, which is saying one thing but meaning another; dramatic irony, which is where actors in a play don't know what's going on but the audience does; and situational irony, which is where the reversal to an expected outcome occurs for some set of events. As you can probably tell, that last sentence was from Twilight.
I get that that was too quick, so I'll try to go into a little more detail about each one:
1. Verbal Irony
Okay, so this one may or may not be sarcasm, depending on who you ask. I think sarcasm is verbal irony, though verbal irony may not always be sarcasm.
A lot of dictionaries, like Twilight, seem to think of sarcasm as verbal irony with mocking added in, but a lot of normal ponies, like Pinkie Pie, know sarcasm as the word for when ponies intentionally say something that's nearly the exact opposite of what they mean. I mean, if some usually sarcastic pony said, "Ha, you totally failed at that", in an attempt to show their amazement at their friend's accomplishment while also making fun of themselves a bit, then most ponies would still call that sarcasm, even though most Twilight's would call those ponies wrong.
But let's just keep on describing the distinctuations or whatevers between them without giving any decent examples, because this is definitely a thesaurus:
For instance, just the other day I was busy at town hall, planning some events with Twilight and Mayor Mare so that Ponyville could be more fun. And then Twilight said, "I kind of like the town being quiet sometimes. You can have too many events, you know." Now that had to be sarcasm, because you can never have too many events. That'd be like saying you could have too many parties! What kind of crazy claim is that!? I could host a party every day for a week straight, and the only consequences would be having to clean up all the trash, no time to take care of foals, and... okay, maybe Twilight wasn't being completely sarcastic there...
Anyway, since she was still probably being sarcastic, I replied, "I know! I mean, two town events right next to eachother? You'd be celebrating the second one before you even finished the first one! What kind of pony could handle two whole days of celebration!?"
The blank stares and slightly agape muzzles they showed me weren't quite what I was expecting, but hey, nopony's perfect. Note to self: I gotta work on my delivery.
In the end, we decided to combine the two events into a single two day event, because that was definitely completely different than what we already had.
Now, all that was sarcastic verbal irony. There were also plenty of times I used non-sarcastic verbal irony:
I mean, this one time, I figured I'd hang out with Rainbow Dash again, so I popped up right next to her usual sleeping spot—a tree on Applejack's farm—and said, "Hey, you wanna go be a contributing member to society with me?", to which she replied while playing with her hair and giggling, "Why, of course Pinkie Pie! Whenever would I not?"
That was our code for doing pranks. Now, I know what you're thinking: it wasn't technically ironic if taken literally, because we were contributing pranks to the society of Ponyville. But when somepony says 'go be a contributing member to society', they usually mean to stop annoying them and water their lawn instead, or something like tha—
Ohhhh no. Oh my gosh no! Did I just explain a joke? Tell me I didn't! Please, for the love of Celestia, tell me that I, Jokie Pie, Joke Master of Joketopia, which is in the middle of Jokequestria, a country situated on a planet in the center of the funny bone of the third arm of the Jokeromada galexy, which is right smack-dab in the center of the Jokeiverse, did not explain a joke. Please, have mercy.
Because y'see, if out of some tiny shred common decency hidden deep within the folds of your heart, you held this book close and whispered, "It's okay Jokie Pie, you didn't explain anything. You only talked about your awesome code-words that you shared with Blue Fast," while gingerly stroking the spine of this book, then you did a verbal irony, but not a sarcasm. In fact, you did it twice! Can you spot them both? Y'know what? I'll give you until the next paragraph to spot them.
Okay, the first one was calling me 'Jokie Pie', even though my name is actually Pinkie pie, and pink is pretty much the exact opposite of a joke. Why it's the most cheerful, wonderful color there is, and if somepony were to call it a joke, why I would just...
Well, let's move on to the next one, where you said I didn't explain anything. Even if you didn't think I explained the joke—which would mean you were wrong—then I still explained my code-words with Rainbow Dash, which you even said in the second sentence. You really just took a common phrase, 'you didn't do anything', and morphed it until it was completely wrong. But don't worry, I got the message: this Pinkie Pie's confidence has now been 100% rebuilt with your creepy book stroking.
That was sarcasm, by the way. Please stop stroking this book. It's creepy.
2. Dramatic irony
Okay, so, dramatic irony is when the audience know's something that the pony who's living or acting through something doesn't know. Though, when I say audience, that usually implies a play, but dramatic irony can happen in real life too. Anyway, it's the kind of thing where you want the hero of the story to look out for the bad guy, but they've never even heard of the bad guy, even though they're right next to them, so the hero doesn't even know what to look out for.
This might be a long example, but it'll be a good one:
When Twilight came in a few seconds ago and saw me write that last sentence—I mean, that sentence that was just two sentences ago, she gasped with one of her 'Oh no the world's ending!' gasps. And then she said, "Pinkie, you can't end a sentence with a preposition!"*
So I pulled my muzzle away from the desk and the book I was writing, and I turned to her. "Well why th—"I spat out my quill"—not? What are you talking about?" I couldn't help it; I just had to end with another preposition.
Man, Twilight's eye twitched. She still carried on as if nothing happened though. "Because," she said, "it's just wrong!" Then she levitated some book out of the boring section of her library. "It says right here in the book of grammar rules!" Of course, she had to pound her hoof against the cover, as if that made it more important.
At that, I raised a brow to her. "You only have one book on all of grammar?" Twilight's antics always bewildered me, so I guess it was par for the course, really.
Twilight blinked. "Well, no," she admitted. "But this is the most up to date book written by the most prestigious grammarian in Canterlot: Write Right!"
And wouldn't you know it, just when we were both starting to get absorbed in our budding debate, Mr. Rite Rite--I mean, 'Write Right'--himself came strutting in through Twilight's front door. Of course, instead of announcing himself, like any normal pony would do, he just stood there, silently listening in on our conversation like he learned his manners from Discord or something.
Anyway, back to our conversation.
"Prestigious!?" I gasped back. "That's like, the snobby version of renowned!"
"Snobby!?" Twilight gasped in turn. "Where'd that come from? You never even met the guy!"
"Ha!" I pointed my hoof at Twilight. "You said it! You ended a sentence with a preposition!"
Twilight tilted her head. "When did I—" It quickly dawned on her, and she threw both hooves over her muzzle"—'where'd that come from'," she repeated.
Then, after some cold sweat drenched Twilight's coat, she let her hooves back down and glared at me once more. "Okay, maybe I made a mistake, but if I wanted to be properly grammatically correct, I shouldn't have ended that question with a preposition."
"Really?" Now I tilted my head. "What would you have said, then?"
"I could've—"She looked off to the left. Maybe she thought the bookshelf had answers."I could've said—"She stared at me again.
"From where did that come," Rite Rite stated, completely deadpan in his delivery.
"From where did that come!" Twilight yelled back at me.
"Who says that!?" I exclaimed. I mean, really, nopony talks like that.
"Proper grammarians." Twilight smiled smugly, as if she had won every competition of the wits she ever had with me right then and there.
Rite Rite nodded.
"Really?" I asked, amused at the implications. Oh ho ho... those implications.
I readied the most snobby voice I could muster. "So, if I do believe I am understanding you correctly, then to be among the most proper of grammarians, the every day questions of the commoners should have phrasing much more akin to, 'About what was that?', 'Who's next... ...on the list?' and, 'For whom should I vote?'." Wow, I sounded a lot like Rarity.
Twilight blinked, then glared, then looked down. There were loads of expressions fighting to mold her face as they desired.
"...Okay," she admitted, resignation finally having won out, "so maybe it's not for everyday use... But it's still good to have proper grammar when writing."
I squinted back at Twilight. "Maaaybe if I was writing something for academia, or for some noble ponies, or something, then I would use"—I air quoted the next few words—" 'proper grammar', but I'm not really writing this book for those ponies. This book is for normal ponies that just want to make a good joke."
Twilight stared back at me. I think it was at that moment, that she realized I had a point. "Fine," she grumbled, "you win."
Without skipping a beat, she kindly turned to the polite customer that had been patiently waiting through our conversation.
"What do you want?" She barked.
I think she might have actually been trying to be impolite. I need to remember to teach her how to handle customers some time.
"Well," the black and beige pony began, not turned off in the slightest by Twilight's barking, "I was visiting Ponyville on business when I heard about the latest production from Sherclop Pones. I figured I would stop by here and grab a copy, but now—"He glared at the princess"—I think I can wait until I'm back in Canterlot." Rite Rite turned around.
"What?" Twilight asked. "Why?" Ouch, you could practically hear the pain in her voice. What kind of pony just goes into a book castle and doesn't buy any books?
Rite Rite swiveled his head back and glared at Twilight with strong, war hardened eyes, gazing deep into her soul. "If you can't even defend the 'prestigious' author of your favorite book on grammar when he's standing right in front of you, then I don't think I want to associate with you."
I could see that Twilight was desperately hoping this was all a joke. Maybe once she levitated that grammar book back in front of her face and looked at the author's bibliography, she would find that this foal was just a poser. But despite all her prayers, right inside the back cover was a picture of the black and beige pony we were just talking to, with the words 'Write Right' right beneath it.
I swear I could spot little tears forming in Twilight's eyes. Geez, this was really getting to her.
"Wait," she ran after Rite Rite, who didn't even turn around. "I— I couldn't have forced Pinkie to write formally in her book. Even if she did, she'd lose her audience."
Finally, Rite Rite stopped and turned around. "I— Wha—" he stammered. "You think I'm mad because not everpony accepts my grammar rules!?" Then he grit his teeth and stomped on the ground. "Ugh, that happens all the time! I could hardly care less now! Grr..." And then he just sat there and growled for a few seconds. I totally thought he was gonna foam at the— "You!" He pointed at me. "Pink pony! I am not snobby!"
Then he turned and slammed the door. What a snob.
And then there was another thumping sound. Apparently, right after Rite Rite left, Twilight collapsed on the ground. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Don't worry Twilight," I said as I patted her on the back, "even if you did give him a book, he wouldn't have been able to read it."
So yeah, that happened.
In other news, I got a new editor! He'll be editing at least until Twilight recovers from her sickness and stops being so angry at me. I wish she could edit longer, but I wouldn't want the angry sickness to come back. I wouldn't wish that grumpiness on anyone...
Say hi to the readers Doctor Hooves!
"Hello!"
Oh, gotta stay on subject!
So, I think that's enough dramatic irony for today. There's probably a little more I could go into about dramatic irony, but I'm not Rarity: I don't really like drama.
...5 days later...
Lemme reiterate that, I really don't like drama, especially when it's between me and a friend, and Twilight kind of... well, she kinda blamed me for that Rite Rite guy leaving her library. That cut me real deep. In fact, even though I got Doctor Hooves to edit for me, I just couldn't write a single sentence.
But after two or three days of saying I was sorry, baking cakes and other tasty treats for her, and trying not to complain about her being a meanie pants, even though I failed completely at that, she eventually forgave forgave me. So: yaaay, bestest friends again!
And with that, my muse is back!
And I now have two editors!