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Situational Irony In Surprise Endings

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Surprise endings have been shocking audiences for almost as long as humans have been writing. From childhood folk tales like those from the Brothers Grimm to classic cinema like Planet of the Apes, continuing on to modern cult classics like Oldboy or Fight Club, twist endings have become a part of our media culture. Twist endings are exciting, works that can utilize it properly generate buzz and leave their audiences talking about them and sharing them for years. Surprise endings are truly the best endings of stories. Situational irony itself is a great literary device that is almost required to drive a narrative forward, plot twists are needed to keep a story from stagnating or dragging on, they keep tales fresh and exciting, egging the audience …show more content…

Disney is the most well known of those who do this. Disney has been adapting fairy tales that often use situational irony or have twist endings since its inception. Their film catalog is filled with works adapted from the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Anderson. Disney films have provided for the last century, a softer way of telling the old, often gruesome fairy tales that teach children morals and life lessons. Although they often remove the twists once prevalent in old folk tales in favor or linear narrative, they are the result of the affect that surprise endings have had on our culture. However, surprisingly enough, the most recent example of Disney’s use of situational irony-based twist endings comes from the completely original feature film, Zootopia. Not to give away the plot since it is a recent film, but the ending is completely unexpected and it manages to end in a way that is positive, and still teaches strong morals. It is a wonderful example of how versatile twist endings can be, another similar example that’s not from Disney is in The Wizard of Oz wherein all of the main characters have achieved the results of their wishes unknowingly by the time they meet the wizard, and Dorothy learns that she could return home at any time. It is shocking, but at the same time heartwarming, and it utilizes situational irony …show more content…

People do not easily forget stories that can make them feel emotions as strongly as a well written twist can. Even when people forgot the less important contents of a film or novel, they will almost always remember the twist at the end. Films with twist endings tend to generate cult followings, films like A Clockwork Orange, and Fight Club have stayed relevant in pop culture since their releases and have had huge impacts on other writers since their theatrical releases, it is possible to find find papers, videos, and even entire standalone websites and forums dedicated to digesting the films scene by scene. Very few elements in storytelling drive people to consistently obsess over the tales the way that plot twists can. Fight Club is also an amazing example of the desire to share twist endings with others, it was a critically acclaimed movie that initially did poorly in the box office due to bad marketing, it was made popular almost solely through word of mouth, and reached cult status once it was released for home viewing (where it sold exceptionally well). Today in the west, most people know at least one quote from the film, regardless of whether they’ve seen it or not. That’s the type of cultural impact twist endings can

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