I'm working on a project that is going to examine the age of irony and how far you can take irony until it veers back into sincerity again, and at what point would a ironic philosophy/outlook veers from humor/self aware to immature cynicalness
I have a few books I'm going to use that somewhat touch on it, so for an example I have a book about the early career of David Letterman and it mentions a bit in his NBC show were there was a moment during which his girlfriend at the time (and head writer) and he said something about getting engaged (they weren't) and the audience unexpectedly "awww'd" and applauded
The bit itself was regular for the absurd and ironic skim of his show, but the moment came across unexpectedly sincere when it was meant to be part of the joke
It caught Dave and Merrill off guard too, especially because at that point in time they were having more relationship issues than usual, so they hadn't been anywhere close to marriage, but I read this and think there must have been something in either the delivery, the fact people knew they were in a relationship, or /something/ in that moment that mistranslated or veered over the line from irony to sincerity that I find fascinating
by Ill_Act7949