Main Page	THE RIKONIAN RANT
	For Common Crap			October 01, 1999
				Current Column

Come listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed.
Just a poor law student, up with culture he was fed
And then one day he was carvin' a root
And he said "wow, our country's rude!"
Ironic, that is

In case you don't know (you probably dont'), Jedediah Purdy is a guy who wrote a book (For Common Things) about irony. Specifically, that irony is bad. Jed hates irony. And for some reason, critics are falling over themselves over this dreck. "Oooh! irony! evil evil irony! Run get soem garlic!"
Irony is a good thing, as long as it's not the Alanis Morissette type where your wedding is rained out, your plane crashes, you don't have silverware, and you have to listen to a shreiky Alanis Morissette song (where is the green slime when you need some!).
But I'm not here to rip on Alanis, as much fun as that is to do. No, I am here to rip on Jed Purdy. Actually, I was a bit reluctant to do this column. because I have been unable to find a copy of his book. Hey Jed, if you read this (yeah, right!), don't be too smug about Time giving your book that review. They also gave kudus to the book about the guy who stops time, strips women, and jerks off (No joke, this is apparently a real book, and Time gave it a good review!). And your book doesn't even have nudity or space-time distortions! actually I don't know this for sure, since I couldn't track down a copy.
According to the Time article, FCT points out some irony problems, like Seinfeld. Hey Purdy, if you keep up this campaign, maybe you can stop the show from being produced! Good for you! You've inspired me to start up a crusade to get them to stop shooting episodes of ALF! And I think I can do it!
Purdy really seems to be mad at Jerry "Irony Incarnate" Seinfeld. Like he's some kind of irony-antichrist. Hmm, Jerry Falwell says the antichrist will be Jewish. I hope for Jer's sake that these two don't compare notes (of course we know the antichrist is really Newman!).
Well, unless I can actually turn up a copy of this tome, in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "you ain't got no legs, Lt. Dan!" No wait, wrong immortal words. Um, oh yeah, "that's all I got to say about that." Yeah, that's it. But hey, one final irony. I bet more people read this column than read his book. Isn't that ironic, don't you think? Now if you'll excuse me, I have a wedding to go to and, hey, is that rain?