Irony Analysis

Amelia Maloney

Irony Analysis

Poetry of Song G

            Through multiple contradicting situations in “Funny the Way It Is,” Dave Matthews uses detailed irony, contradicting imagery, and helpful point of view in order to show how life is “funny the way it is.”

            Dave Matthews uses the device of irony in almost all of the lines of the song, which helps convey the message of how life is funny sometimes.  All of the irony examples, such as “Somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out,” provide irony, but it also highlights a serious problem of hunger in the world.  Matthews uses other lines of irony to show serious problems that show how life is negative in different ways, like “One kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out.”  This shows the listener the problem with kids in school and how some people are not taking it seriously.  The singer uses lines such as “Somebody’s broken heart becomes your favorite song” in order to show the irony of someone’s break up story becoming a popular song for an unharmed listener.  All of these examples of irony help make the song more understandable and helps convey the message that in different ways, life can be disappointing for some people, while it is perfectly fine for everyone else.

            Another helpful device that the singer uses is imagery, which almost all of it is contradicting.  The setting in the first verse of the song is peaceful, but with the line “Someone’s house is burning down on a day like this,” helps show the contradiction between a peaceful day and something tragic happening.  Some of the lyrics also highlight innocence in situations that are ironic as well, such as “You hear the laughter while the children play war.”  There is a lot of contradiction in the song, which helps make the whole message of irony more clear.  This contradicting imagery is helpful because the listener can picture what is happening during the different lyrics. 

            Point of view is a frequent device that Matthews uses in this song.  A line such as “Funny the way it is, if you think about it,” makes the listener think about how life actually is funny in its own way.  Third person point of view is used as well, “He’ll never catch her, but he can’t stop trying,” helps point out how even though someone knows they can’t have someone, they just can’t give up on reaching their goal.  Point of view in the lyric “And that war song is playing, “why can’t we be friends?” is useful because it’s asking a question, and there is also contradiction within the lyric.  People don’t associate war with friendship and that is why that lyric is helpful with both point of view and irony.  Point of view is not as important as the other two devices, but without it, the song would be confusing to listen to.

            The devices point of view, imagery and irony all contribute to the universal idea of this song.  Point of view is the least important of the three because it does not really help highlight irony or paint a picture for the listener.  Irony is the most important device because almost all of the lines are examples of irony.  This song was interesting with the help of all three devices and without them, the song would have been boring to anyone who listened to it.