Irony clause

added to notes on rhetoric:

Irony To give your comments a protective coat, it is always worthwhile intimating, hinting, allusively indicating that you are 'being ironic'. Retroactive irony can also be used - declare after receiving criticism that your opponent has perhaps 'missed some of the irony' of the post. No one will inquire too deeply into 'missed irony' for fear of redoubling their original oversight. Note, you do not have to actually be ironic, simply append 'guess the tone' or 'tongue firmly in cheek' and your opponent will be reluctant to entangle himself in the invisible gauze spun around your words. That your tongue, along with the rest of you, is de facto firmly between your 'cheeks' will pass without notice.

Notes on rhetoric is of course a light-hearted catalogue of some of the tired strategies, fatuous devices and inane clichés used in blogging (& elsewhere). It takes the form of mock ‘advice’ to fellow bloggers, written in a particular style. Very occasionally it gets mistaken - by the terminally earnest or inattentive - for a series of positive recommendations. How, erm, ironic.