True Irony is Tongue In Cheek

I do love this phrase.

According to Wikipedia writers, who – online at least – are my fact-finding heros, it began as a sign of contempt. To literally poke your tongue into your cheek was quite obviously an expression of disgust. (This does puzzle me a bit. Perhaps rather people stuck their tongues OUT and it was just referred to as in their cheeks? Meh.)

Over time, as language often does, it’s turned into a lovely witty phrase. Someone who is tongue in cheek, or has a tongue in cheek view of things is often quite funny, slightly cynical, and more often than not, a little bit wistful inside. And more often than not, quite intelligent too, and extraordinarily aware of themselves.

Case in point:

A group of about five people met to discuss simplicity and its meaning. They’ve all been asked to bring along something that symbolises simplicity, or could be used to illustrate simplicity. Now, in the context, everyone is well aware that the intention is to move towards the simple life. Lack of complication, et cetera.

Our heroine is equally aware of this, but being the kind of person she is, she brings along a few items:

A quote from Einstein:

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

A description of Captain Carrot from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld:

People think of Carrot as being simple, however their mistake is in confusing “simple” with “stupid”.

And a picture:

These things are rather across the board as far as similarity goes, and she recognised that, with the additional awareness that simplicity is both good and bad.

This display of thought was described to another as “tongue in cheek”.

But in case you haven’t noticed,

tongue in cheek

is pure

irony in motion.