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50 Of The Most Ironic Images That Show The Universe Has A Great Sense Of Humor (New Pics)
Some days, you can’t help but feel that the universe not only works in mysterious ways but also has a great sense of humor. Believing that people will act a certain way or signs will commit to what they are saying, you often don’t expect they’ll do the exact opposite. And that’s what makes it so ludicrous.
The world is full of unpredicted things, you just have to keep your eyes open. From manually cleaning an iRobot store to humorous health inspection awards, people who stumbled upon something so accidentally ironic just had to take a picture and share it with the whole web.
Bored Panda has scoured the internet and compiled a list of some of the finest ironic moments for you to enjoy. So get ready to have a good laugh and upvote your favorite ones! And if you’re hungry for some more hilarious situations, be sure to check out our previous posts right here and here.
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Shell And Cif, The Destroyers Of Planets, Eliminators Of Lifeforms
Oh The Irony
This Year Thousands Of Men Will Die From Stubbornness
Everyone loves a delicious bit of irony from time to time. When we stumble upon these unexpected moments, they get easily stuck in our heads—after all, we know irony when we see it. But when it comes to defining the term and expressing it with words, many people have difficulties.
The most basic definition of this term is a conflict between what’s expected and what occurs. To learn more about irony and its humorous nature, we reached out to Roger J. Kreuz, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and an associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Memphis.
In his recent book, Irony and Sarcasm, Kreuz goes into great detail in explaining how and why these words “are two of the most misused, misapplied, and misunderstood words in our conversational lexicon.”
I'm No Rocket Surgeon But
This Is How We Roll In My Town
At Least Irony Isn't Made In China
While many of us instinctively understand when a situation is ironic, it can be hard to articulate it. The professor said that the reason behind this is that “the perception of irony is triggered by violations of implicit assumptions that we have about the world and how it is supposed to work.”
“In most cases, we aren’t even aware of these assumptions until we encounter something incongruous or peculiar that contradicts our expectations,” he added. Kreuz provided a couple of examples:
- You encounter a sign with a misspelling in front of a store. Not a big deal – mistakes happen. Not irony.
- You see a sign in front of a school. Many schools have such signs, so nothing surprising about that. Not irony.
- You see a sign in front of a school that reads “We are committed to excellense.” Educators are supposed to know how to spell, so the juxtaposition of the message, the mistake, and its very public location triggers a sense of irony.
What If?
I’m sorry, but this is inconsiderate. Many people who state their religion as an excuse and do horrible things are indeed Christian, but it’s not a religion-based thing, every religion has those kinds of psychos. Christianity does not deserve to be put down like this and be called a lie; calling someone’s beliefs and integrity a lie is not the way to building equality between religions and cultures. Please, let’s try to accept other cultures instead of bashing down the ones of others.
Man Experiences Irony, 1966
Pharmacy Puts Their Back Pain Stuff On The Bottom Shelf
Handle Broke
“In a similar way, a destroyed book is not ironic, and a book about dog training isn’t either,” the professor continued. But if you juxtapose them and see Dog Training for Dummies being destroyed by your furry four-legged friend: “Voilà, irony!”
One thing that many people tend to mix up is verbal irony and sarcasm. These two words often are used interchangeably, yet they’re not the same. “Irony is often triggered by situations and involves incongruity, juxtaposition, and unexpectedness. Sarcasm, on the other hand, is typically verbal,” Kreuz told Bored Panda.
“It often makes use of irony to criticize someone else, or to be humorous. But not all sarcasm involves irony, which is why people are often confused about these terms.”
Things Have Gone Wrong Somewhere
This might look funny but only 50 percent went wrong, if that. I will say that dogs should not be in strollers and shouldn't be bred to the point where they are not dogs anymore. But kids on a leash - that is a good thing! It makes the outings much safer. Such small kids, even if very well behaved and disciplined don't yet have a brain yet that can compute consequences. The world is fast and dangerous. The leash can make sure they never disappear on you when for 2 seconds you're looking at what the other one is doing, and can't run ahead enough to be hit by a car. I used to be a nanny and I refused to take the 3 year old out until I was given one of these. I was still holding her hand and she was a very good little lady, but it made me feel safer to know that she can't just dart out on a whim as we're crossing a million roads to school.
Anti-Chew Spray
Found This Old Apple Slogan. Times Sure Have Changed
And talking about why many of us find it comical when we come across an ironic sign, poster, or image, Kreuz mentioned that we think it’s amusing because it’s almost like solving a puzzle. “When we spot the incongruity, we can be amused, and then perhaps consider ourselves to be a little superior compared to those who don’t ’get the joke.’”
Looking through this list, you can’t help but feel reminded to expect the unexpected and chuckle at the ups and downs of life. After all, ironic billboards, posters, and situations are lurking all around us, just waiting to be captured and shared with people in great need of a laugh or two.
Dog Came To The Vet Today For Swallowing A Monopoly Piece
This Subway Is Telling People To Eat Next Door
The Irony
We B Smokin’
Noticed Our Stroller Felt A Little Weird, Found Out There’s A Pin Stuck In The Tire. The Pin Is Very Ironic
Finding A Way
Thank You For Driving Carefully
Now What?
There Was An Attempt To Stop The Seagulls
Nestled Away In A Small Local Newspaper Is The Greatest And Most Ironic Ad Ever
Took This After Lunch At The Restaurant. At Least The Irony Is Delicious
Well
A Machine Came Thru My Local John Deere For Repairs From The Tornado In Kentucky
Spotted In A Walmart Parking Lot Today
We Always Get Each Other Ironic Gifts, My Little Sister Killed It This Year: Batteries Not Included
I Mean
For Christmas 2019, My Boss Gifted Us With 1 Work From Home Day In 2020
Earth Day Run Irony
Hey!!! This is George R. Brown convention center in downtown Houston. People hand out cups of water to runners. The runners typically toss them all in the same spot for easy clean up! This is taken out of context. What do you want the runners to do?
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I'm sure the organisers did a sweep and recycle after the event. It's just convenient for the nature of the run, and then they make things right. Not exactly a difficult concept to comprehend.
Lol exactly, this is a good example of ignorance, not irony
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Collected and recycled later? Probably. But recycling is the LAST in the chain after reduce and reuse. You should recycle things you cannot usefully avoid owning and which can't be used again. If you can just not do this at all then that's way higher up the chain of good practice than doing it anyway then crowing about recycling. Also, wind exists. Many cups will blow into private residences and waterways too.
Should they carry their cups on the whole 26 mile run?
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you should see the aftermath of a environmentalist rally like after the Dakota Pipeline Protests, the cleanup was massive from the protesters ( DAPL-Garbage.jpg 
NoDAPLcamp.jpg 
) and you should see after Earth Day rallies NYC or DC how bad it is.
This really isn’t ironic. This is planned for and happens at all races and it will be cleaned up
The hell they running for? What's the logic? Do a clean up of some dirty area or something
These marathons are for raising funds to pay for trash bags, gloves, & disposal fees for the groups who do go out & do clean ups.
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This doesn't belong here. Don't you know all the trash is collected and recycled when the run is finished? Why would you think they'll just leave it there?
Why can't they drop the trash into a basket as they walk/run by? Is that so difficult? Seems easier than running.
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In a marathon that's how it's done. You can't run 26 miles holding onto 15 cups. The organizers collect all of the cups after the event.
The earth day marathon and basically any public outdoor event in my town uses biodegradable cups with seeds embedded in the cup walls, and they take special care to make sure they don't introduce any invasive plant species, the bees really love all the wild flowers.
Hey!!! This is George R. Brown convention center in downtown Houston. People hand out cups of water to runners. The runners typically toss them all in the same spot for easy clean up! This is taken out of context. What do you want the runners to do?
They have huge teams to clean them up. Don't think people know about marathons
No problem, all those paper cups in a line mean that they'll be easy to collect after the race. Because they're identical, they'll be simple to recycle.
I get the point that it's Earth Day, but I'm sure there is a truck coming behind the runners to pick those up. Did you expect them to stop running to find somewhere to put the cups?
Aren't they allowed to wear colors in this country? Look at all the black pants and shorts.
They're kids. What do they know? Only what they learned from their parents.
Ok, so they are running for the Earth and at the same time destroying it.....humans!
look at it this way - 10 out of work people might have been employed to pick up after them? so all good.
The lady in the yellow shirt in the process of tossing her cup into the gutter is hilarious to me
The lady in yellow can run a marathon but can’t hold onto her cup another hundred feet?
But at least they can say they ran in the race, so you know that they really care.
A woman was in the middle of throwing her cup onto the ground 😐 shameless
i blame the organizers. who gave out cups to runners without setting up trash cans?
The last Earth Day concert I remember in my area was held in a pasture where I often walk. The entire pasture was ankle deep in single use plastics, and I picked trash out of the woods for months afterwards.
People cleaned up after the event. Where were the runners supposed to trash them? They're in the middle of the race. "Oh yes good day I have come a three extra blocks to throw away my cup now I shall walk the three blocks back and oh well where did everybody go"
why people even bother trying to protest if nothing will change because look at this s**t they are doing an earth day but going to leave trash everywhere this is indeed ironic
Step 1: attend the event to signal your virtue on instagram. Step 2 : stop giving a s**t.
so many people out there are selfish dipshits that don’t care about this. humanity f*****g sucks
I’m guessing if this is an Earth Day run that the cup thing was intentional to make a point? Surely no run has that many cups left behind.
They are given drinks along the side as they run. The trash is picked up later.
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Well Isn’t That Ironic
*puts these in my printer, runs out of magenta immediately, buys new of these, print heads are misaligned, i waste all the cyan doing the test thing, i buy more of these, they're incompatible because they have drm somehow, i give up and throw my printer into an active volcano*
Made In China
“This Is Not Style. This Is Stupidity”
That's Some Fine Irony
He Knew It Would Come To This One Day
This A Little Infuriating Exchange On A Dating App
Oh The Irony
Picking Up Plastic On The Beach Today... The Irony
Cut to shot of a single tear trickling down David Attenborough's cheek
Our Youngest Son Has A Taste For Irony
Breakable
Goddammit
Put some water in, bring to a boil. The sticker will slide right off.
You Can't Do It
Irony
There Was Flooding Where I Live Recently. Ironic
The Irony Here Is Amazing. Never Tell Me The Odds
The Left Door Perfectly Describes The Right Door's Condition
Note: this post originally had 120 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
It’s all the same content over and over now. I am taking this site off my favorites now
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Many years ago I was part of a group hired for a project and management was pleased enough with our performance to buy a "quality" award for everyone. It consisted of a clear lucite pyramid with a little clock in it and the word "Quality" stamped on it. I took mine out of the box, set it on my desk, and watched as the little clock fell out of it, face down on the desk top.
Math isn't my strong suit, but why does a post titled "120 images..." only contain 50 images?
they shorten it ( for some reason unbeknownst to man ) and add a hyperlink at the end to take you to the og url
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When my 1st child was born the pediatrician 's name was Dr. NEWBORN
Most of these aren't ironic in any sense of the word. They're just coincidental.
Is the irony that most of these photos aren't ironic, like the Alanis Morissette song? Is the irony that the article BP inserts between photos that no one reads, explaining the very definition of irony and that people find it very hard to identify, and then the photos proved that?
We have a pear tree, and occasionally make cider. On a fruit pressing day, we have a few friends over to help, we generally pick up Chinese food to make things easier. This showed up on such a day. Couldn't get over it... 11934531_1...b72f23.jpg 
Fun to read! Now that I have had my morning chuckles, I can face the day! Thank you!
So many of those were not actually irony! Irony means being the opposite.
it's a glitch, if you click on the comments for each you'll see that the same people said the same things. try refreshing your browser
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What are you talking about? George Bernard Shaw was not a woman. Pygmalion was based off the Greek myth of a sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture of a woman, his own "ideal woman" that he created himself. Either you're completely daft or you're a total troll. But either way you're dumb.
Load More Replies... It’s all the same content over and over now. I am taking this site off my favorites now
Load More Replies... Many years ago I was part of a group hired for a project and management was pleased enough with our performance to buy a "quality" award for everyone. It consisted of a clear lucite pyramid with a little clock in it and the word "Quality" stamped on it. I took mine out of the box, set it on my desk, and watched as the little clock fell out of it, face down on the desk top.
Math isn't my strong suit, but why does a post titled "120 images..." only contain 50 images?
they shorten it ( for some reason unbeknownst to man ) and add a hyperlink at the end to take you to the og url
Load More Replies... When my 1st child was born the pediatrician 's name was Dr. NEWBORN
Most of these aren't ironic in any sense of the word. They're just coincidental.
Is the irony that most of these photos aren't ironic, like the Alanis Morissette song? Is the irony that the article BP inserts between photos that no one reads, explaining the very definition of irony and that people find it very hard to identify, and then the photos proved that?
We have a pear tree, and occasionally make cider. On a fruit pressing day, we have a few friends over to help, we generally pick up Chinese food to make things easier. This showed up on such a day. Couldn't get over it... 11934531_1...b72f23.jpg
Fun to read! Now that I have had my morning chuckles, I can face the day! Thank you!
So many of those were not actually irony! Irony means being the opposite.
it's a glitch, if you click on the comments for each you'll see that the same people said the same things. try refreshing your browser
Load More Replies... What are you talking about? George Bernard Shaw was not a woman. Pygmalion was based off the Greek myth of a sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture of a woman, his own "ideal woman" that he created himself. Either you're completely daft or you're a total troll. But either way you're dumb.
Load More Replies...