Last week, my supervisor, my supervisor's supervisor, and I were going over some spreadsheets when it became apparent that we needed to double-check some data via the internet. Since we were at my computer, I opened a huge PDF file that had hundreds of pages of data on it. Since the search function wasn't picking up the text on the PDF I had to manually scroll through the file in order to find the data we were looking for.
While I was doing this, my supervisor said that this process is like something out of the television show "The Office." My supervisor's supervisor, referencing a recent episode of the show, then said, "At least the PDF file doesn't have an obscene watermark on it." His delivery was awful.
They both laughed. I stayed silent. It turns out that my supervisor and my supervisor's supervisor had misunderstood the task given to them, and that we had no need to find this data in the first place.
Why do I tell this story? Because it is an example of Hyper-irony or hyperirony (High-per-reh-knee). Hyperspace is defined in mathematics as space containing more than 3 dimensions. Hyperirony is irony that contains more than three levels.
How is this an example of hyperirony?
First, I have always said that if you put a camera in my office you could get a show like "The Office," only it much sadder in its tone but just as funny. (For more on my office, please see my blog) The fact that my supervisor and my supervisor's supervisor brought up that this one moment could be in The Office, when really their whole day could be in The Office is ironic.
Second, a scene where a person is making a reference to The Office in a very unfunny way is ironic because the show is hilarious and making an unfunny reference is extremely difficult.
Third, the fact that we didn't need to be doing this unfortunate task in the first place is ironic in the Alanis Morrisette sense of the word.
Fourth, right after they left my desk, I sighed in frustration and waved my arms around a bit, knocking my Dwight Schrute bobblehead doll off my desk and decapitating him. A very bitter irony indeed.
So four levels, at least, of irony classifies this event as hyperironic. I hope that you *gentle* readers out there begin to incorporate this term into your lexicon.
4 comments:
In my career as a person, I've encountered instances of Hyperirony only sparingly. This is unfortunate because irony is one of the great pleasures of the thinking-person's life, along with pizza and the transcendence of orgasm.
Thank you for this term. I haven't used it before, but from hence I shan't be without it!
Whilst travelling recently, I was thinking about how government agencies harm us as they try to protect us; as with these brainless new toothpaste, cosmetic and liquid policies for air travel. It's doubtful that these policies will stop anyone from blowing up an aircraft, but certain that the policies will inconvenience the conventional, non-malicious traveller.
This is not necessarily Hyperirony (not sure how many levels on which the irony occurs), but it is an irony that applies so globally that it seems hyper. Maybe it could be called Giant Irony. Or Megairony.
I think the word you are looking for is "Panirony"
And this is a fascinating dissection of why we write shan't instead of sha'n't.
'Christ “has measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand" '
Unlikely...
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