Alanis Morissette's “Ironic”: Putting an end to the debate over whether it is or isn’t

xcerpted from Chapter 10: “Yeah, I Really Do Think” of Why Alanis Morissette Matters by Megan Volpert. Alanis has admitted that the lyrics to “Ironic” prove she didn’t properly grasp the meaning of the word. Rachel Syme’s foreword to the musical book says that this version of “Ironic” turns it into “an inside joke about poetic license and grammatical errors.” The song and the scene are given to Frankie, described in the musical book as an “aspiring poet, president and founder of SMAAC, proud Black woman, bisexual feminist, perennial troublemaker, revolutionary in the making.” She’s also adopted. In this version of “Ironic,” Frankie sings, “It’s like meeting the boy of my dreams and then meeting his...” Phoenix finishes the line with “... I’m not seeing anyone.” The album finishes it with “... beautiful wife.” The last time I saw Alanis live, she finished it with “... beautiful husband,” making it explicitly queer and generating extra cheers from the crowd. We’ve covered why the broader French mode of irony that makes space for “Ironic” is superior to the Greek mode that excludes it, but we have not yet tied the irony issue to a larger conversation about sexism in the dismissal of Alanis’ work.