Irony: An Obituary

April 1st, 2025. Irony has died.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is April 1st. Under ordinary circumstances, I’d be bringing you something from the lighter side of medical research: a study about binge-watching Netflix and sleep deprivation or how swearing increases pain tolerance.

But not today. That is because it is my grim duty to inform you that Irony has died. Please pardon my emotion as I attempt to make it through this obituary.

Irony was born in the 5th century BCE when Pythagoras was crushed by a falling triangle.

“The Birth of Irony” — Assist from OpenAI

It lived a long and productive life, gaining notoriety for developing the concept of Holy Wars and making millions manufacturing “USA” merchandise in China.

No stranger to social media, Irony developed both the #blessed and #NoFilter hashtags.

Irony suffered its first major health scare in 1972 when the Watergate break-in convinced many Americans that presidents committing crimes was no longer funny.

Fortunately, it pulled through, as reporters discovered that Vice President Spiro Agnew’s name was an anagram for “grow a penis” which was hilarious.

Irony continued strong into its later years, experiencing something of a resurgence as “great communicator” Ronald Reagan refused to use the word “AIDS”, and when the country turned to Bill Clinton to reset our moral compass.

Irony always loved the healthcare system in the United States, with its gleaming hospitals, billion dollar proton accelerators, and 10:1 nursing ratios. Many of you may not know this, but Irony was actually a consultant on a project to reduce physician burnout by mandating web-based anti-burnout training, conducted after hours. I can still see Irony’s smile at every politician who described the American Healthcare System as “the best in the world”.

But irony’s true passion was in the wellness space. From influencers peddling natural remedies to support botox injections to those espousing a raw-meat diet while secretly taking steroids, irony was there. Supporting them. Liking and subscribing.

To some extent, Irony was a victim of its own success. While it thrived in times and places where its off-kilter whimsy was rare and thus appreciated, it often spoke of the difficulty of integrating into life in 2025. I remember sitting down with Irony over a bowl of subtext last year when it told me “when everything is ironic, nothing is.” Powerful words.

Irony began to falter shortly after the 2024 election, the outcome of which was somehow much less funny than the last time Donald Trump won. While the image of a self-described populist backed by three of the richest people on the planet should have been objectively hilarious — it wasn’t. Irony was doing worse.

I had hoped that irony might pull through when a campaign that railed against unelected bureaucrats placed Elon Musk in charge of, well, everything, but by then irony was already in a rough patch. Placing prominent anti-vaxxer RFK Jr in charge of the organization that oversees all healthcare in the US perked irony up a bit, but the reports of children being admitted to hospitals with Vitamin A toxicity set irony back again.

Source: Texas PUblic Radio

Mass firings throughout the department of health and human services, and the termination of government grants that contained a mention of the word “hesitancy”, “diversity”, or “women” turned out not to be so funny. And irony lost further ground.

Irony became disoriented when the people developing advanced artificial intelligence started warning everyone about the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence, and when “free speech absolutists” started calling for the imprisonment of journalists. Those of us close to irony, feared the end was near.

Source: People.com

And although “rule of law” types breaking it is usually something irony would get right out of bed for, it found Trump’s rug pull of a meme coin, threatening judges that disagree with him, and deportation of green card holders without due process a little too on the nose. I think, in the end, it was just all too much.

It was a week or so ago that I last saw irony awake and alert. The Secretary of Defense writing about “100% operational security” on a signal chat that included a reporter from The Atlantic was irony’s last moment of real lucidity.

Source: New York Times

Irony died today, April 1st, 2025, after a protracted illness caused by exposure to reality. Its final words were “it’s just not funny anymore.”

In honor of its passing, the White House Correspondents Association has announced that for the first time, there will be no comedian at its annual dinner. Irony is dead. It is survived by cynicism, who always knew this would happen.

A version of this piece first appeared on Medscape.com.