Understatement and irony

Så fungerar det

We want to make a reader smile through what we leave unsaid. Understatement describes something serious as if it were minor: calling a hurricane a bit breezy. Irony says the opposite of what we mean: Lovely weather! in a storm.

Humour in writing depends on contrast and timing. Describe the situation clearly first, so the reader understands how bad it really was, and then add the understated or ironic comment, often in a short final sentence.

We had been walking in the rain for six hours, our tent had blown away and the map was in the river. It was not, perhaps, our finest holiday.

Not bad at all

Visitors to Britain are often confused by a conversation like this. A British friend comes back from a holiday during which the hotel flooded, the luggage was lost and it rained every day. Asked how it went, they reply: "It was a bit of a mixed week, to be honest." This habit of making things sound smaller than they are is called understatement, and it is often described as a typical feature of British humour. Commentators and comedians have long joked that a British person will call a disaster "a bit unfortunate" and a brilliant performance "not bad at all". Like all national stereotypes, this one is exaggerated, and many British people find it irritating. Still, there is some truth in it: understatement and irony are common in everyday British conversation, and both appear constantly in British comedy. Why might understatement be popular? One explanation is that it allows people to deal with difficult situations without making a fuss. Another is that it creates a kind of shared joke. When someone describes a storm as "a little breezy", both speaker and listener know the truth, and the gap between the words and reality is what makes it funny. Irony works in a similar way. Saying "Oh, great" when your train is cancelled does not mean you are pleased. Tone of voice usually makes this clear in speech, but in writing it can be much harder to spot. Emails and text messages are often misunderstood because the reader cannot hear the speaker's voice. For learners of English, this means paying attention not only to what people say, but to the situation in which they say it. If the words and the situation do not match, there is a good chance that someone is joking.

Källor

1. Kursplan i engelska, Lgr22, Skolverket