Ironic Lyrics

[Pre-Chorus]
And isn't it ironic?
Don't you think?


[Chorus]
It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
And who would've thought? It figures

[Bridge]
Well, life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out
When you think everything's gone wrong
And everything blows up in your face

[Verse 3]
A traffic jam when you're already late
A "No Smoking" sign on your cigarette break
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It's meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife

[Pre-Chorus]
And isn't it ironic?
Don't you think?
A little too ironic
And yeah, I really do think

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

Written by Alanis Morissette and Jagged Little Pill’s producer Glen Ballard, “Ironic” describes some peculiar and unfortunate situations and went on to be nominated for Record of the Year at the 39th Grammy Awards 1997. Its music video was also nominated in the very same 1997 Grammy Awards for Best Music Video, Short Form.

The song is well-known in popular culture because it sparked a long-running debate over its title and how it relates to the situations in the song; “Ironic” also triggered many literary discussions over its meaning (its deeper sense) and also over the very definition of the linguistic device that we call irony.
When asked about the song in a December 2014 interview with The Huffington Post, Alanis demonstrated her knowledge on figures of speech by replying:

There are a lot of people that have shame around being stupid, and I did too. It was embarrassing to have the planet basically say: “you’re a dumbass for your malapropism!”. And at the same time, it is ironic that a song called “Ironic” isn’t filled with ironies. […] Although there are times where I’m grammatically very intense and very perfectionistic, there are other times where clearly I don’t care and I make up words and I play with words linguistically like they’re paint.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Comments