This work is a brilliant and timely reflection on irony in contemporary American culture. The events of 9/11 had many pundits on the left and right scrambling to declare an end to the Age of Irony. But six years on, we're as ironic as ever. From ""The Simpsons"" and ""Borat to the Daily Show"" and ""Colbert Report"", the ironic worldview measures out a certain cosmopolitan distance, keeping hypocrisy and threats to personal integrity at bay. ""Chic Ironic Bitterness"" is a defense of this detachment, an attitude that helps us preserve values such as authenticity, sincerity, and seriousness that might otherwise be lost in a world filled with spin, marketing, and jargon. And it is an effective counterweight to the prevailing conservative view that irony is the first step towards cynicism and the breakdown of Western culture.