h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Law of Pedantic Reverberation http://www.h2g2.com/F23739?thread=22534

And posting 280 in the British English forum also mentions it. (Pedantic Reverberation)

Perhaps we could weve this thread into the "British English" thread...but only after my "garfish" question is satisfactorily resolved

Sarcasm is a specialised form of irony, since it refers only to intentional, verbal usage. So a sarcastic remark is ironic, but irony isn't necessarily sarcasm. You can find yourself in an ironic situation, for example, without sarcasm of any kind.

Satire is an advanced form of sarcasm, or, to cite the dictionary, "trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly." It's usually more subtle than sarcasm, but it can also still be malicious.

How ironic is it that the country who all but created satire and the ironic situation known as the Catch-22 (based on the book by the same name) is often maligned for being oblivious to irony? And don't blame us for Alanis... she's a product of the Canadian educational system.

Greatest example of irony: Pro-life activists in the US who kill abortion doctors.

Or those "Animal Lovers" who release minks to fend for themselves in unaccustomed surroundings, thus upsetting the ecology in the neighbourhood as well.