"Ironic" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, released in February 1996 by Maverick and Warner Bros. Records as the fourth single from her third studio album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). It was written by Morissette and Glen Ballard, and was produced by him. The lyrics present several unfortunate situations labelled as "ironic", prompting debate over whether they reflect the accepted meaning of irony.

For six weeks, the track topped the Canadian RPM 100 Hit Tracks chart, becoming the second-most-successful song of the year in the country. It also reached the top five in Australia, New Zealand, and Norway, and the top ten in seven additional countries. In the United States, the song reached number four, remaining Morissette's highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100. "Ironic" has received multiple certifications, including those in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the US.

French director Stéphane Sednaoui filmed the music video. In it, Morissette drives through a winter landscape while portraying multiple passengers. It received six nominations at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards, winning three of them, and was listed on VH1's "Greatest Music Videos" list. It also won the Juno Award for Single of the Year, and received two Grammy Award nominations in 1997, for Record of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video.

"Ironic" was included on the set list of Morissette's Jagged Little Pill Tour (1995), and on later releases, including MTV Unplugged (1999) and The Collection (2005). She also re-recorded an acoustic version of "Ironic" for the iTunes Originals series, with slight changes to the lyrics, which was subsequently added to her album Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (2005). Singers such as Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne have covered the song. The video has been parodied as well, including by "Weird Al" Yankovic and Rusty.

"Ironic" was written by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard, who also produced it, for her third studio album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). In a 2001 interview with Christopher Walsh of Billboard, Ballard explained how he and Morissette met and wrote the song in less than 15 minutes: "'Ironic' was the third song we wrote. Oh God, we were just having fun. I thought 'I don't know what this is—what genre it is—who knows? It's just good'". Morissette said "Ironic" was penned as a warm-up and not intended to be recorded for the album, but many people encouraged her to include it, because of its tune. She considers the lyrics to be non-autobiographical and more akin to storytelling, although she liked the music.

An alternative rock song, "Ironic" is set in common time, with a moderate tempo of 82 beats per minute, and played in the key of B major. During the track, Morissette's vocals range from the tone of E₅ to B♯₅, and the chord progression starts with the sequence of Emaj7–F♯₆–Emaj7–F♯₆, before changing to F♯–A♯–Badd2–F♯–A♯–G♯m₇ in the verse and refrain. "Ironic" was recorded at Westlake Recording Studios and Signet Sound Studios, both in Hollywood, California. Ballard plays the guitar along with Basil Fung, Lance Morrison plays the bass guitar, Rob Ladd plays the drums and percussion, and Michael Thompson plays the organ. Chris Fogel was responsible for the audio mixing.

Tom Breihan of Stereogum describes the lyrics as a series of "coincidences, dramatic turns of fate, funny little nothings" intended to sound ironic (for example, "It's like rain on your wedding day"), in which Morissette later reaffirms this by asking the audience whether they are ironic ("Isn't it ironic, don't you think?"). The song opens with an acoustic guitar, soon joined by Morissette's softly controlled vocals. Breihan mentions that she lingers the letter "c" in "ironic" and clings tightly to the word "rain", while the refrain's chords shift rapidly as a hip-hop drum machine enters. At the end of the refrain, Morissette sings "it figures", but pronounces it "figgers".

Breihan considers that a scene from the 1994 film Reality Bites served as an inspiration for the song. In it, Winona Ryder's character asks Ethan Hawke's character to define irony, and he replies, "It's when the actual meaning is the complete opposite of the literal meaning". Breihan also compares the lyrics of "Ironic" to those of "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by Crash Test Dummies, saying that both tell stories of misfortune, but the former has a refrain.