Problem using ironic humor

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Often, if I make what I would consider a ludicrously stupid or ill-informed statement as a part of trying to be humorous, because it seems funny to me to think that I would actually believe such a thing, instead the statement is understood (typically by my wife) as a reflection of what I truly think or believe. It is hard to discover that others might think me capable of having such a naïve view of the world. DAE ever have this problem?

Yes, not so often nowadays, and I wouldn't say it is/was a problem, but yes.
(I was going to ironcally answer no, but decided not to)

/Mats

I suppose ironic humour may have some rules about what context it might be expected in. I suspect that irony is a fairly normal way of commenting just after a disappointing fact has become apparent, though not if it's a really grievous event.

You would have to give us examples- of your use of irony that failed.

Could be your fault. Could be the fault of your audience.

I let my Mum do the ironing but I have done it now and then.

When the teacher asked me what my parents do for a living I told the class that "my parents are in the iron and steel business. My mother irons. My father steals."

My grandmother used to do that when she got Alzheimer's. Whenever people asked if she was all right she'd reply "no, I'm half left". Also whenever a death was discussed she'd say "people have got a habit of dying, haven't they?" - which normally may be insensitive but not from a person with Alzheimer's.

I let my bicycle get rusty to discourage thieves, and when people would remark on it, I'd claim that this was to make it lighter. Finally, after about 15 years someone came back with "Iron oxide is lighter than iron?" and I congratulated him on being the first to get the joke. Actually, rust flakes off, but I doubt that anyone was taking that into account.

Going back some 30 or so years ago people were doing all they could to improve performance and in extreme cases some would strip the paint from their steel racing bikes which saved a few grams in weight. I often wondered if the rust then added weight to the bikes?

Knowing my bikes, if I saw a bike that was uniformly rusty (As in someone had stripped the paint from it) I knew it was an expensive machine.

Sorry, getting OT here, but if you want a treat, search for images of "drillium." Bicycling mag once ran a cartoon of two guys with bikes passing another guy sitting on the curb. "Yeah, it's really tragic. He spent all winter lightening his bike, and the wind blew it away."

I sometimes saw weight saving to the extreme where the bicycle safety is compromised, and to be honest I have noticed this a fair bit these days with carbon fibre though even in the older days some took things too far. I remember Marin coming out with what they claimed to be "The worlds lightest mountain bikes in production" and every other one that was in their higher range we ended up having to totally rebuild both wheels as their wheels gave way due to them having aluminium spoke nipples which were just not up to the job... Just to save two or three grams in weight! (No one else dared to make nipples out of aluminium and there was a reason why!)
I often was asked to build wheels that I would not want to ride! I said to tell the customer that it was their responsibility if they wanted to riide the things. Had they asked me to build them a decent wheel I would. I don't see the point in risking ones life to gain a few nanoseconds over a 10 mile time trial. It is pointless!
The old ways to reduce bike weight which were cutting things fine involved cutting down seatposts and stems so the bare minimum was left in there (One needs a good two inches. Not down to an inch!), using the minimum amount of gears for the course (I did this. It was safe). Drilling out various components (Can be done if one has patience as long as the component keeps its strength and functions well), drilling frames in the days of steel (I never did this and I do not reccomend it as racing bikes already close to their minimum weight compared to strength)... All sorts of things though the easiest way is to carefully select components.
The issue one often found was suggestions for the rider to do more cycling to reduce their weight a bit was not always taken with the same enthusiasm!

But yes. A lightweight bike makes sense but safety has to come first so there are sensible limits to be found to make strong bikes which will live to race another day without carrying too much extra weight on them.
I have not been a fan of carbon fibre as to me mechanically speaking they are too muc of a compromise, but a decent aluminium or steel I love. What I would like to try is a nice wooden bicycle frame. Tried titanium. Feels like riding a top quality steel with loads of "Go" to them but they are a bit too fragile for my liking. Wood shows promise.
Years ago bamboo frames with aluminium joins were said to be the ultimate and I can see why! A man I knew restored a pair of bamboo rimmed wheels he used to race in the 1920's when he was young and wow, they were light and strong! He passed away about 30 years ago. Lovely wheels though!

I won't discuss materials, or I'd be here for days, and I've used them all, with engineering first. I recommend reading J.E. Gordon. One strong friend built a recumbent bike using a main tube about twice as heavy as usual. The reduced flex made it a champion at going uphill as well as down. Now, let's let the thread get back to the funny stuff about trying to be funny.

One of my fav moments on WP was when I used "ironic humor" successfully. But the moment was almost ruined by one person who didnt get it.

A certain high profile member who no longer shows was sounding off about France, and about how hard it is to start a business there because of all the government paperwork. I dont think he had ever been to France but he liked to axe grind against regulation and governments.

Anyway I responded by saying :

"Those Frenchies! I bet that they dont even have a word in their language for 'entrepreneur'!

==========

Apparently it got a big laugh. One person even said "that about says it all. Here we all are dissing a people because they supposedly lack a trait that we value, and our word for that trait is a word we borrowed from their language."

So in the long run I saw from posts like that that I had gotten the reaction I was going for.

BUT..

the first response I got was from someone who...felt it necessary to explain to me the origin of the word "entrepreneur" , and how it traced back to French.

Almost ruined the moment. Felt like typing "you stupid dumbcluck. Its obviously a French word. I was making a joke.".

But then I noticed someone else had dryly responded to that person's post by saying "some people are opaque to humor". So I calmed down and didnt post anything. And soon the folks who did get it made their responses.

Professional writers are resigned to someone always failing to "get it." However, sometimes the responses are unintended humour as compensation.
The problem is not just over double meanings hitting single-track thinking. Even the most intelligent people seem to have at least one really stupid idea.

Can relate to having to at least having one brilliantly Stupid idea ……