Episode · Stuff You Should Know · 2026-08-18
Books mentioned on Isn't It Ironic, Dontcha Think?
Irony is one of those things that you know when you see it, but it’s almost impossible to define. Well, that’s not quite right – there are a ton of definitions for irony but none of them quite capture it fully.
Josh Clark recommended The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, and discussed Oedipus Rex, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou, The adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, DON QUIXOTE by Miguel de Cervantes, The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Oedipus Rex
Discussed“And he he retroactively applied it to Oedipus Rex. Lots of irony there.”
Where to get it
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey's classic novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" portrays institutional life and psychiatric practices through the experiences of patients in a mental asylum.
Discussed“I think um Randle P. McMurphy, Jack Nicholson's character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, is considered uh philosophically ironic by being a sane person in a mental hospital”
Where to get it
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A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal is a satirical essay by Jonathan Swift that uses extreme hyperbole to criticize economic injustice and indifference toward the impoverished.
Discussed“He um came up with a modest proposal in 1729, and he'd written a bunch of essays about how the Irish were starving and how they needed help, and he just got crickets in return. And then he wrote a modest proposal, and in it he basically talks about how the Irish just need to eat their babies”
Where to get it
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Zhuangzi
Discussed“And I think we've talked about the Zhuangzi before. The Daoist text. And this was in like 4th century BCE.”
Where to get it
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The adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is a classic American novel featuring memorable episodes of boyhood mischief, including the iconic fence-painting trick that demonstrates reverse psychology and irony.
Discussed“Tom Sawyer using reverse psychology to trick his friends into taking over painting the fence for him because he talks about how much fun it is and he doesn't want to share.”
Where to get it
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DON QUIXOTE
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is widely celebrated as one of the earliest modern novels and a foundational masterpiece of Western literature.
Discussed“Don Quixote, you know, is of course is um maybe the first modern novel. There was There's a lot of irony in that.”
Where to get it
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The Gift of the Magi
The Gift of the Magi by O.
Recommended“my favorite ironist of all time is O. Henry. He was well known as the master of like the ironic twist, like the gift of the Magi. Doesn't get any better than that”
Where to get it
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The Monkey's Paw
Discussed“And then another one that always stands out to me is The Monkey's Paw... granted wishes but those wishes always came with an ironic consequence”
Where to get it
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Catch-22
Catch-22 is Joseph Heller's famous satirical novel about the absurd bureaucratic paradoxes and psychological toll of military life during World War II.
Discussed“we should probably definitely mention Catch-22 cuz we'll get emails if we don't because that's sort of well, it's a satire, of course. Uh so, you hate it. But, it's built on it's built on irony.”
Where to get it
