Oh, the ironies! or conincidences? or disappointments?

So, as part of my spring cleaning, today I washed/scrubbed the windows.

Inside and outside.

And it's raining...

The worst part is, while scrubbing a particularly dirty spot on the laundry room window, I had this thought:

"Well at least I'm not washing the cars, because then it would rain."

Curse the monkeys! I jinxed myself.

What is it about ironies that makes them funny, but not?

According to Wikipedia,

Irony (from the Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία eirōneía, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to the character's knowledge and that of the audience.

"There is some argument about what qualifies as ironic, but all senses of irony revolve around the perceived notion of an incongruity between what is said and what is meant, or between an understanding or expectation of a reality and what actually happens, "when the literal truth is in direct discordance to the perceived truth.

"Henry Watson Fowler, in The King's English, says “any definition of irony - though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted - must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same.

"The word 'ironic' is sometimes used as a synonym for incongruous or coincidental in situations where there is no “double audience,” and no contradiction between the ostensible and true meaning of the words.

"The American Heritage Dictionary’s usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that “suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly.”

Maybe that's why ironies seem funny, because they aren't really ironic or at least we can't decide whether or not they should be ironic. So the irony of irony, as it is commonly used, is that ironic is not a accurate term--potentially. Situational ironies that have been deemed as ironic, (again according to Wikipedia) are not actually ironic. Rather, situational ironies could be more appropriately deemed incongruous or coincidental--"unfortunate coincidences" or "surprising disappointments."

Wikipedia discusses a wide range or different kinds of ironies but apparently my understand of the word and its application to "unfortunate coincidences" is, in and of itself, an "unfortunate coincidence" and not suitable to be defined as ironic. Ironically, enough. ;)

So, rather than exclaiming, "How ironic?!" I shall exclaim, "What an unfortunate coincident!"

How surprisingly disappointing it is that I never correctly understood that proper usage of the term ironic.