Question

Which of the following is not an example of irony?

After a game-winning goal in overtime, the fans remained seated and quiet.

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

A student is suspended for skipping school.

Someone scratches your car’s new paint job.

Answer 1

the first one

Answer 2

no... third

Answer 3

what makes it the third one ?

Answer 4

There are three types of irony used in writing:

Verbal irony: the device by which we say one thing and mean another.
Dramatic irony: the mainly theatrical device by which the audience has crucial information that the characters do not.
Cosmic irony: our perception of the human condition, in which our efforts are thwarted, often by our best intentions (Burroway, 2011, p. 53).

I will add a fourth type:

Situational irony: creating situations where the expectations aroused by the situation are reversed.

Answer 3 is in fact ironic in that the student is getting punished with the exact thing that he is getting punished for. This is a form of situational irony except instead of expectations being reversed (after all, suspension is the punishment we would expect) the consequences of the actions are the same as the actions that brought the consequences. It has been said that after a man becomes married, other women find him more attraqctive and desirable. This is a similar example of this type of situational irony. Therefore, number 3 is NOT the answer.

In addition, the other answerer is wrong as well. Number 1 is not the answer because the crowd remaining silent after a game-winning goal is the exact opposite of what we would expect (see the definition of situational irony). Since this is an example of irony number 1 is NOT the answer.

That leaves only two answers that can be right and i think with these definitions you can figure it out on your own and if not you have a 50% chance of getting it right.

Answer 5

Sorry, I cited Janet Burroway, but didn't list the book. That quote is from Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft.