Ironic (song)
"Ironic" is a song by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette. It was released in February 1996 as the third single from her third studio album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). It was written by Morissette and Glen Ballard, and was produced by him. The lyrics present several situations that are described as "ironic"; this has led to debate as to whether any of these actually match the accepted meaning of irony.[2]
"Ironic"
- "You Oughta Know" (acoustic/live)
- "Forgiven" (live)
- "Not the Doctor" (live)
- "Wake Up" (live)
February 27, 1996
1994 – April 1995
3:48
- Alanis Morissette
- Glen Ballard
Glen Ballard
For six weeks, the track topped the Canadian RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart, eventually becoming the second-most-successful song of the year in the country. It also reached the top five in Australia, New Zealand, and Norway. In the United States, the song reached number four on April 13, 1996, and since then it has been her highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100. "Ironic" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song won the Juno Award for Single of the Year, and received two Grammy Award nominations in 1997, for Record of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video. French director Stéphane Sednaoui filmed the music video. In it, Morissette drives through a winter landscape, and she plays multiple roles as her passengers. MTV nominated the music video for six MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, winning three of them. The music video was listed on VH1's "Greatest Music Videos" list and was parodied by DBA Flip, Allison Rheaume, Rusty and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
"Ironic" was included on the set list of Morissette's Jagged Little Pill World Tour (1995), and her compilation albums MTV Unplugged (1999), The Collection (2005), among others. The song was covered by Mexican duet Jesse & Joy for their album Esta Es Mi Vida Sesiones (2007), and by American band Four Year Strong for their cover album Explains It All (2009).
Personnel are adapted from the "Ironic" CD single.[3]
Covers and use in media[edit]
In 2003, Ji-In Cho covered the song for the German version of the Fame Academy talent show, which became a success in the German charts.[148] "Ironic" was covered in 2007 by Mexican duet Jesse & Joy for their album Esta Es Mi Vida Sesiones,[149] and the pop punk band Four Year Strong for their 90s cover album Explains It All (2009).[150]
In the 1996 novel Naïve. Super by Norwegian author Erlend Loe, the protagonist watches the video for the song on television and dreams about "meeting an Alanis-girl and living in a house together with her".[151] In a season 4 episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman entitled "Bob and Carol and Lois and Clark" (1996) several characters make joking references to the song not really being about irony at all throughout the episode.[152] In the Jay and Silent Bob comic Chasing Dogma (1998), the character Tricia Jones is singing "Ironic" before Jay steps into the shower.[153] The music of the song was featured in the romantic comedy film I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007), where Saoirse Ronan, as Izzie Mensforth, sings an altered version of the lyrics in a talent show.[154] It also made a predominant appearance as the opener to 2013 comedy film The Internship, starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, as they sing along to it.[155]
In 2015, Morissette appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden and sang a version of the song with new lyrics "updated" for the technology era, and an homage to the linguistics of the original mentioned above.[156]