TP: "Heath Ledger died yesterday. The 28-year-old actor, who gained wide critical acclaim for his Oscar-nominated performance in Brokeback Mountain, was found naked and face-down on the bedroom floor..." Oh, cruel, cruel irony!

.

Humor looses much flavor when an explanation is needed, but since you have asked, I cannot in good conscience deny you a straight answer.

Mr. Ledger starred in a movie, Brokeback Mountain, that was essentially a homoerotic romance. The same man, this time the actor, vice the homosexual character, Ennis Del Mar, was found dead, naked and face down. This position, while not exclusive to homosexual intercourse, or homosexuals, themselves, frequently comes to mind when homosexuals are mentioned. Since Mr. Ledger was not a homosexual, that he should die in a manner similar to a position that Ennis might have taken is unexpected. The unexpected is the very essence of irony, both verbal and cosmic.

Actually, I understood the connection you were trying to make from the start and it is a poor and not particularly ironic one. Any young actor found naked and dead is unexpected but that is barely the essence of irony. Irony would be if a gay bashing politician was found dead form gay related activities, which as you note we don't know to be the case here. If you found it profound to note that this particular actor once sympathetically played the part of a homosexual, a more honest expression of gay bashing might have been to call it poetic justice . But if you think it is humorous then claiming your observation as ironic is definitely the way to go.

It is just that your definition sucks.