Alanis Morissette – Ironic

This song comes with a worksheet to use in the classroomDiscover “Murphy’s Law” with your ESL students with this song, Ironic, by Alanis Morissette. The lyrics of this song contain eleven different examples of situations which we could define as “Murphy’s Law”.

There is a suggestion on how to use this song in your ESL classes below, which includes practising the first conditional with your students, but for more ideas, click here.

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Lyrics

Hey, I, I
Yeah, ah, ah
Yeah, I

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day
It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay
It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late
And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
And who would’ve thought? It figures

Mr. Play-It-Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down, he thought
“Well, isn’t this nice”
And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
And who would’ve thought? It figures

Well, life has a funny way
Of sneaking up on you
When you think everything’s okay
And everything’s going right
And life has a funny way
Of helping you out
When you think everything’s gone wrong
And everything blows up in your face

A traffic jam when you’re already late
A “no smoking” sign on your cigarette break
It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife
And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
A little too ironic, and yeah I really do think

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
And who would’ve thought? It figures

And yeah, well, life has a funny way
Of sneaking up on you
And life has a funny, funny way
Of helping you out
Helping you out

Suggested activity: discuss the examples of Murphy’s Law

Download this exercise (PDF)

Are you familiar with Murphy’s Law?
What does this phrase mean? If something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

Have you ever been in a situation where the worst possible scenario has happened? For example; have you ever forgotten to take an umbrella, and then it started to rain?

Look at the 10 phrases below and match the first halves with the second halves:

If someone gives you good advice…
If you are relaxing with a glass of wine…
If you meet the man of your dreams…
If you need a knife…
If you take a long-distance flight…
If you want to have a cigarette…
If you win the lottery…
If you’re late…
If you’re getting married…
Immediately after you buy a bus ticket…
…he will be married
…it will rain
…someone will offer to take you there for free
…the plane will crash
…there will be a “no-smoking” sign
…there will be a big traffic jam
…there will be a fly in it
…you’ll die the next day
…you’ll ignore it
…you’ll only find spoons in the drawer

Now listen to the song and see if you got the phrases right, and put them in the order that you hear them in the song.
Have any of these things happened to you?

Think of a Murphy’s law outcome for each of these scenarios:

  • If you wash your car…
  • If you are in a slow queue at the supermarket, and you decide to change queues…
  • If you get tired of waiting for a bus, and you decide to walk to work…
  • The moment you get in the shower…
  • The moment you arrive home from doing the shopping…
  • If you are spreading butter on your toast, and you drop the toast…

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Alanis MorissetteCanadian-American musician (born 1974)

Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter, and musician. Morissette began her music career in Canada in the early 1990s, releasing two dance-pop albums. She achieved global success with her alternative rock album, Jagged Little Pill (1995), which sold over 33 million copies and won Morissette four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. It produced the singles “You Oughta Know”, “You Learn”, “Hand in My Pocket”, “Ironic”, and “Head over Feet”. Jagged Little Pill propelled her to become a cultural phenomenon and has been included on several all-time lists.