ABSTRACT One of the compelling events during the 2020 spring coronavirus pandemic is the extent to which people call-out “irony” in regard to the speech and actions of other individuals, as well as, in some cases, their own behaviors. These frequent call-outs are evidence of the cognitive realization of some discrepancy between prior expectations and unfolding reality, but also reveal people’s communicative efforts to persuade others to adopt a negative view of those individuals who are responsible for the irony. This article explores several examples of irony call-outs in the context of both verbal irony and situational irony in the midst of the pandemic. My analysis suggests that what is considered to be “irony” always depends on the level of analysis from which such judgments are made. Irony may be salient from a personal point of view but non-ironic from a social/cultural perspective, and vice-versa. Our sense that an event is ironic may also change over time. Some call-outs of irony even focus on future “ironic opportunities” that would address different economic, environmental, and social justice challenges. These observations suggest several implications for theory and research on irony.

中文翻译：

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“天啊，我的反讽探测器爆炸了！” 在冠状病毒大流行期间大声疾呼

摘要 在 2020 年春季冠状病毒大流行期间，令人信服的事件之一是人们对其他人的言论和行为以及在某些情况下对自己的行为大喊“讽刺”的程度。这些频繁的呼唤是对先前期望与正在展开的现实之间某些差异的认知实现的证据，但也揭示了人们为说服他人对那些对讽刺负责的人采取负面看法的沟通努力。本文探讨了在大流行期间的口头讽刺和情景讽刺的背景下的讽刺调出的几个例子。我的分析表明，什么被认为是“讽刺”总是取决于做出这种判断的分析水平。从个人的角度来看，讽刺可能是突出的，但从社会/文化的角度来看则不具有讽刺意味，反之亦然。我们对事件具有讽刺意味的感觉也可能会随着时间而改变。一些具有讽刺意味的呼唤甚至关注未来将解决不同经济、环境和社会正义挑战的“具有讽刺意味的机会”。这些观察结果对反讽的理论和研究提出了一些启示。