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How Does Dave Barry Use Situational Irony In The Friendly Letter

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How interesting is it to hear different people's stories of life? Dave Barry is known best for his humorous texts, like this one. He shares his experiences with his infant grandson in a way that makes many people laugh and smile. Everyone has a different view on life, this one is just being a bit more witty than the others. In the friendly letter Dave Barry teaches his grandson life lessons - beginning with the ketchup, Dave Barry uses high comedy in the form of sarcasm or verbal irony and situational irony to prove that people’s experiences can teach you a lot about life. To bring to light, verbal irony and sarcasm are seen numerous times throughout the letter. Each time, the audience should respond positively, with a smirk or chuckle or …show more content…

Barry remarks about an abundance of funny situations, some of which are very unexpected. As Barry is giving good, anti-violent advice he counters himself unexpectedly by saying, “Don’t bully, don’t hit people, unless they are bullying you, in which case go out and belt them” (Barry 1). Situational irony is seen by instead of Barry giving more peaceful advice like he was doing just before, he surprises the audience by talking about how it is okay, in this special circumstance, to hit people back, but only if other people make the first move. One might laugh or grin at this, but only for the unexpected twist after Barry was being so sincere with the advice to be civil towards other people. In addition, as Barry is giving out some random advice, he adds in, “VERY IMPORTANT: If you want to impress a woman, do not buy her a gift that has a plug” (Barry 2). It is unexpected that this would be the “very important” advice that Barry would want to add in, as valid as the point may be. Barry wanted to make sure that his grandson knew, without a doubt, that giving a girl a gift like that would not go over very well. The idea behind this line is expressed clearly, so it is easy for the readers to understand that if Barry is making sure there is a “very important”, uppercased, something must have happened, which adds to the overall comedic effect of the irony. To reiterate, the situational irony in this piece by

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