Examples of art that exists primarily on the Ironic Level: On TV, many sitcoms, nearly all episodes of Love Boat.  In films: anything totally slapstick--films by The Three Stooges, for example.  In novels: find one where at every point the protagonist messes up.  I can think of lots of kids' novels that do this, can you?  Comic strips do this all the time.  Ever see  the Peanuts strip that often runs in some variant at the beginning of football season?  Charlie Brown carries his football, dreaming of being a football hero no doubt, and meets Lucy who says something like, "Hi, Charlie Brown.  You've got your football.  Here, I'll hold it and you can kick it and kickoff the fall football season!" "Oh, no," says Charlie Brown, "every year you say that and then you hold the football, and I run, and just  before I kick it you pull it away and I fall down and break my back.  I'm not falling for your pitiful offer this year, Lucy." And Lucy says, "You're right, Charlie Brown.  I've been bad.  I know, because I've been  to EST, I've repented, I've been reborn, and I am now telling you that I will hold the football for you, and I won't pull it away, and you can kickoff the football season, right now! "Really?" says Charlie Brown. "Yes." says Lucy. So Charlie Brown backs up.  And Lucy holds the football with her finger, ready for him to kick it.  And he runs.  And he kicks.  And Lucy pulls the football away.  And Charlie Brown  falls splat! right on his back. "Never trust a woman, Charlie Brown," says Lucy, as she walks away, tossing the football.... That's life on the ironic level. Think about novels, films or TV shows where the protagonists are typically less capable than people normally are.  Do episodes of  The Simpsons qualify?  How about your favorite situation comedy shows?  The ironic level is not always slapstick and not always funny.  It's a level of human psychology.  At the root of it are the experiences a human being has when he can't achieve what is normally expectable.  Novels are full of such psychological stories.  Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim is about one such ironic figure. So is Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener." The ironic level is a complex, deep, multitiered universe, but if you recognize it, by name of function, you'll at least know where you are.