Perhaps my favorite form of wordplay is clever verbal irony. That is, simple phrases that are internally contradictory in delightfully evocative ways.
Douglas Adams introduced me to the joy of this in the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Regarding Alcohol:
“the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, the effect of which is like having your brains smashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.”
Regarding Hyperspace:
FORD PREFECT:
You better be prepared for the jump into hyperspace; it’s unpleasantly like being drunk.ARTHUR DENT:
Well, what’s so unpleasant about being drunk?FORD PREFECT:
You ask a glass of water!
This is a pattern continued in his fabulous tour of the natural world Last Chance to See:
Sadly, however, it seems that not only has the kakapo forgotten how to fly, but it has forgotten that it has forgotten how to fly. Apparently a seriously worried kakapo will sometimes run up a tree and jump out of it, whereupon it flies like a brick and lands in a graceless heap on the ground.
Does anyone else have any favorite ironic turns of phrase? I predict a comment section full of Wilde.
It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life. – Terry Pratchett
Biers was where the undead drank. And when Igor the barman was asked for a Bloody Mary, he didn’t mix a metaphor. — Terry Pratchett
“Verbing weirds language.” -Calvin and Hobbes
“I’ve got a mind like a steel sieve.”
And of course there’s the ever-popular “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”.
The entirety of the novel Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.