30 funny examples of irony in real life

In 2002, a tree was planted in a park in Los Angeles in memory of Beatles guitarist George Harrison. The tree later died after being infested by beetles.

Before he became a star, Pharrell Williams was fired from McDonald’s three different times. Years later, he would help write and produce the company’s iconic “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle.

Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com, encouraged everyone he knew to join it, including his girlfriend. She eventually left him for a man she met on Match.com.

When crossword puzzles debuted in the early 20th century, the New York Times was very critical of them, calling them “a primitive sort of mental exercise.” In 1942, the Times published its first crossword puzzle, and today, the New York Times crossword is the most famous one in America.

In 1985, a group of lifeguards in New Orleans gathered at the local pool to celebrate the fact that no one had drowned at the pool that past summer. After the party, they discovered the fully-clothed body of a man who had drowned in the pool.

In 2009, the Guinness Book of World records named Jonathan Lee Riches the record-holder for suing the largest number of people. Angrily declaring that the Guinness Book “has no right to publish my work, my legal masterpieces,” he sued them.

In the 1950s, 12-year-old David Ingham was kicked out of grammar school by the headmaster, who said that he’d “never amount to much.” Fifty-five years later, the same school commissioned Ingham, now an art teacher, to paint a portrait of that very headmaster.

In 1990, after 35 years working at Crayola, their retiring CEO, Emerson Moser, revealed that he was colourblind.

In 2014, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) posted an anti-piracy ad that read “Your pot of gold is right here.” But eagle-eyed users noticed that the image of a “pot of gold” they used was actually a photo of a baker’s Saint Patrick’s Day cake that the BSA had used without authorisation.

None of the song lyrics in Alanis Morissette’s song “Ironic” are examples of irony. As Morissette herself allegedly said, “the irony of ‘Ironic’ is that it’s not an ironic song at all.”

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Source: readersdigest.ca