History Main / DeathByIrony

* AttilaTheHun, the infamous barbarian king that slaughtered thousands of civilians, drowned in his own blood from an unknown illness.
* JuliusCaesar helped make Rome one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world by conquering most of the known lands at the time. However, he ends up getting assassinated by members of the Roman Senate whom feared he was reaching for too much power - including Marcus Brutus whom was rumored to be Caesar's bastard son.

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* Actor Antony Wheeler accidentally hanged himself while performing Judas' climactic suicide scene in Jesus Christ Superstar.
* Actor JamesDean, who had a famous scene where he's speed chasing towards a cliff in the film RebelWithoutACause and who once made a commercial to warn the youth about safe driving, died while speeding too fast in his car on the road, causing an accident that killed him.

* ''Film/FullMetalJacket'': Gunny Hartman. More emphasis on this in the book than in the movie. In the book, when he gets shot, before he dies, he says "Private Pyle]], I'm so proud." He's glad that was finally able to make him a killer which he had been struggling to do all through boot camp.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beavercrush1.jpg]]

* 1980s Miami drug Queenpin Griselda Blanco used motorcycle drive-by shooting as a favorite method of killing her enemies. In 2012, she was killed by a motorcycle drive-by shooting after she left a butcher shop in Columbia.

* It's rumored that the executioner whom carried out Ted Bundy's death sentence, was a woman with her hair parted in the middle. Women with their hair parted in the middle, were the women serial killer Ted Bundy mostly targeted.

DeadlineNews, DeathByLookingUp, HoistByHisOwnPetard, KarmicDeath, and the more lethal variations of TurnedAgainstTheirMasters are all {{SubTrope}}s. When this trope is frequently [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by one person, it falls under PoeticSerialKiller. Compare RussianReversal for a humorous play on this.

** To clarify (as much as one can, given the various interpretations of Greek myths), the centaur attempted to kidnap Deianira, and Hercules came to the resuce and slew the centaur with an arrow coated in hydra-blood poison. As he lay dying, Nessus told Deianira to take some of his [the centaur's] blood, and if she ever feared that she was losing Hercules to another woman, use the blood as a love potion to keep Hercules faithful forever. Eventually, Dieanira became concerned that Hercules was straying in his devotion (whether or not he was depends on which writer you choose to believe) and spread the blood on his famous lion-skin cloak. Although Hercules was to strong for the potion/poison to kill outright, the pain did drive him to suicide (effectively), so this story actually contains heavy irony on multiple levels.

* Phalaris, the tyrant of Akragas, Sicily, contracted the "Brazen Bull" in which a victim was put into a bronze replica of a bull and the bull was slowly heated. When Tellemachus overthrew Phalaris, Pharalaris himself became a victim of the "Bull".

DeadlineNews, DeathByLookingUp, HoistByHisOwnPetard, KarmicDeath, and the more lethal variations of TurnedAgainstTheirMasters are all {{SubTrope}}s. When this trope is frequently [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by one person, it falls under PoeticSerialKiller. Compare InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou for a humorous play on this.

** This can happen to Kai Leng in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', depending on your choices in the series. During the attempted Cerberus coup on the Citadel, Kai Leng kills Thane[[note]]provided he didn't die during the suicide mission in the previous game[[/note]] by stabbing him in the chest with his sword. Then, at the end of the assault on the Cerberus base, Shepard kills Kai Leng by stabbing him in the chest with his/her omniblade.

* Marie Curie, famous for discovering radium, died from overexposure to radioactivity.

* Count Literature/{{Dracula}} is always known for biting his victims' necks and then either kill them or turn them in to vampires. Guess how he finally dies in ''[[Film/Dracula2000 Dracula III: Legacy]]''.

* In ''[[TheLegendOfSpyro The Legend Of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon]]'', Ignitus, [[PlayingWithFire the Guardian of Fire]], dies in the wall of fire left in the wake of the Destroyer, [[HeroicSacrifice whilst escorting Spyro and Cynder through it]].

* Bender ''almost'' died ironically moments after his introduction in WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}. Driven to suicide by the [[GoMadFromTheRevelation revelation]] that he had been unwittingly helping construct suicide booths, he tried to do himself in by using one of the booths. At least the company wouldn't have made a profit, as he used a coin on a string.

* Music/JohnLennon: As a FunnyAneurysmMoment, the Beatle who once sang "shoot me" in the chorus of "Come Together" was eventually shot dead. Not to mention the Beatle song "Happiness Is A Warm Gun".

* In GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex, a group of socialist assassinates millionaires with a custom shrapnel gun loaded with rolls of coins.
* VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi's ''Eye Opening Arc'' ends with local Yandere Shion Sonozaki falling from her apartment building to her death. The irony? She had spent the majority of the arc masquerading as her twin sister [[TheWoobie Mion]] so she could frame her for her infamous [[KillEmAll murder rampage]], and she had just finished her grand plan by sneaking out and stabbing Keiichi. While she scales her apartment building to sneak back in, the fall is caused by the holster she is wearing (which is part of her disguise) snagging on the wall. Note this does not happen in ''Cotton Drifting'', or in the original Visual Novel or Manga adaptation of ''Eye Opening''.

* A StarWarsTales comic is told entirely from the perspective of a career storm trooper who's about to board the ''[[ANewHope Tantive IV]]''. As he thinks back on his life in the military and the things he's done, his ruminations are interspersed with the present as the Star Destroyer pulls the ship into its docking bay and they prepare to board. The man dreads being chosen to be sent in first, because the guy sent in first ''always'' dies--he's seen it dozens of times. [[TemptingFate Naturally, the sergeant chooses him.]] They set the charge on the door, and the storm trooper dryly remarks on its functionality, designed to blow the door inward and hopefully make the enemy flinch. And for once...it works. The rebels flinch, buying the man time to get into the hallway and start shooting. And right behind him, the sergeant that ordered him in first is shot in the face.
* In DCComics, this is the fate of Darkseid's mother, Queen Heggra. She didn't appreciate how her son was falling in love with a beautiful and understanding scientist, Suli, so she had the court poisoner, Desaad, poison her potential daughter-in-law. Darkseid returned the sentiment by having Desaad poison her, too. This parley would eventually come back to bite Desaad in the ass, too. When Darkseid accidentally freed his [[AlwaysABiggerFish father, Yuga Khan]] from the Source Wall, Desaad grovelled before him, telling him how his service to Darkseid "was a lie." Yuga Khan then reminded Desaad how he murdered his beloved wife, then [[CriticalExistenceFailure promptly disintegrated]] the sniveling toad. He came back with help from Darkseid after Yuga Khan, ironically, got himself re-stuck in the Source Wall.

* Raven in FanFic/TheTaintedGrimoire killed Sir Loin by burning him. Raven's own death came about by burning '''him'''.
* [[BigBad Ludlow]] in FanFic/RiseOfTheGaleforces. In Chapter 25 he reveals himself to be an OmnicidalManiac who intends to destroy all non-human life. 10 chapters later, [[ExitPursuedByABear he is himself destroyed by non-human life.]]

* Used to surprisingly good effect in TheAsylum's version of ''SherlockHolmes''. The factory owner who put bars on the inside of his windows to keep his illegal workers in? Can't get out when the monster comes to eat him.

* In ''{{Collateral}}'', Vincent will talk at length about the need to change, adapt, and roll with whatever life throws at you, yet he shoots entirely by rote. He always uses the Mozambique Drill: two shots to the chest and one to the head. In the climactic shootout at the end of the film, which takes place in a blackout and aboard a subway train, this ensures that not a single one of his shots hits Max, as they all plunk dead-center into a set of sliding metal doors. Max, meanwhile, fires randomly and kills Vincent with a lucky shot.

* KungFuPanda2 ends with Lord Shen crushed to death by his own cannon.

* Count Literature/{{Dracula}} is always known for biting his victims' necks and then either kill them or turn them in to vampires. Guess how he finally dies in ''DraculaIIILegacy''.
* In ''Eternity InDeath'', the killer, who thinks he's a vampire, attacks Dallas. In the struggle, he's stabbed by a wooden stake.

* In ''Literature/SuiteFrancaise'', Charlie Langelet, a collector of fine porcelain, while making his way along roads full of refugees fleeing the fear of German bombing, reaches safety in his automobile by stealing gas from a pair of young lovers. Safely returned to Paris, he orders his cleaning woman to clean his entire apartment. When she protests that she can't do it in a single day, he replies that she'll just have to work faster. Before leaving the apartment, he puts his very favorite porcelain, a figurine of Venus, on display. He has arranged to have dinner with the beautiful dancer Arlette Corail; she said she'd meet him in her car. How did she get the gas? Well, a woman has ways. Charlie hesitates before crossing the pitch-dark, blacked-out street, but thinks that there won't be any cars on the road anyhow. And then he's struck, his head smashed, by a car traveling too fast with blacked-out headlights: it's Arlette Corail. Back in his apartment, the cleaning woman has been working long into the night, getting more and more exasperated. Just as she finishes, she knocks over the figurine of Venus, smashing its head. Imagining trying to explain this to her employer, she exclaims, "I don't care what he says. He can drop dead!"

* In James Herbert's post-nuclear holocaust novel ''Literature/{{Domain}}'', a particularly obnoxious character chortles with glee at having had the foresight to build himself a nuclear bunker. He takes great delight in denying his neighbours entry and when he discovers a cat has accidentally joined him ends up killing it. However, when he gets sickened by the stench of dead cat and tries to leave he discovers that the exit hatch has been blocked shut by the remains of his house landing on it.

* TadWilliams' ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' applies a liberal dose of irony to the deaths of all of the members of the Grail Brotherhood conspiracy. Many die by committing suicide, believing that they are [[BrainUploading uploading]] themselves into virtual bodies, not knowing that the procedure has been sabotaged by [[TheStarscream Dread]]. (For further irony, the process ''does'' work, and the Other ends up using it on two of the heroes.) Shortly afterward, Daniel Yacoubian, a powerful general, is killed by getting stabbed in the chest by a teenage boy. After Dread's apocalypse, the remaining members die in similarly ironic ways: Jiun Biao, the powerful financier, is killed by a giant bug in Kunohara's simulation. David Wells, software mogul, is killed by Dread in a YouHaveFailedMe. And Jongleur himself dies at the [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters hands of his own creation]].

* Similar to the beaver in the picture, an ''Iguanodon'' dies in the 1912 novel ''TheLostWorld'' when it brings the tree where it was trying to feed on over itself.

* ''{{Smallville}}''
** In ''Supergirl'', an anti-vigilante crown almost got crushed by the anti-vigilante billboard. For added irony, they were saved by the titular character.

* In the ''AlfredHitchcockPresents'' episode "Your Witness," an AmoralAttorney gets a hit-and-run driver acquitted by introducing misleading medical reports indicating that the sole eyewitness is legally blind and therefore incompetent as a witness. When the attorney is later run down in the courthouse parking lot by his long-suffering wife, the only witness is the same man he had earlier discredited, who gleefully tells the cops, "It's a ''legal fact'' that I am incompetent as a witness!"

** Half the Title Sequence Victims of the Week on Supernatural get killed in some ghoulishly ironic way, the camera inevitably lingering for a few gruesome seconds on the instrument of their demise before showing the title card.

** To clarify (as much as one can, given the various interpretations of greek myths), the centaur attempted to kidnap Deianira, and Hercules came to the resuce and slew the centaur with an arrow coated in hydra-blood poison. As he lay dying, Nessus told Deianira to take some of his [the centuar's] blood, and if she ever feared that she was losing Hercules to another woman, use the blood as a love potion to keep Hercules faithful forever. Eventually, Dieanira became concerned that Hercules was straying in his devotion (whether or not he was depends on which writer you choose to believe) and spread the blood on his famous lion-skin cloak. Although Hercules was to strong for the potion/poison to kill outright, the pain did drive him to suicide (effectively), so this story actually contains heavy irony on multiple levels.

* In the ''Fate'' route of ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' Shirou kills Kotomine Kirei with the same Azoth Dagger that the latter gave to Rin 10 years ago. Even more ironic that it also was the same dagger he killed Tokiomi Tohsaka (Rin's father and the one who gave it to ''him'' as a gift in the first place) with in ''VisualNovel/FateZero''.

* At the end of ''RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'', villain Dr. Nefarious ends up stranded on an asteroid drifting through space. When he captures the heroes in the later game ''RatchetAndClankACrackInTime'', he has them tied to an asteroid and shot into space. (They do not die, however.)

* In ''[[TheLegendOfSpyro The Legend Of Spyro: Dawn Of The Dragon]]'', Ignitus, [[PlayingWithFire the Guardian of Fire]], dies in the wall of fire left in the wake of the Destroyer, [[HeroicSacrifice whilst escorting Spyro and Cynder through it]].

* Taken to extremes in Webcomic/{{Sire}}. The Binding being a force of the universe as strong as fate will use dramatic irony as a weapon to punish anyone who does not live up to their story. They call it a [[http://sire.smackjeeves.com/comics/1439466/chapter-4-page-21/ tragic ending]].

* This is the most common way of choosing an execution method in ''WebOriginal/ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum''.

* General W of the SCPFoundation locked two small children in a room with [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-682 SCP-682]] an immortal, extremely malevolent EldritchAbomination claiming it was an attempt to kill the ''creature''. They both got brutally murdered. Later, someone else locked ''him'' in a room with 682, claiming ''it'' was an attempt to kill the creature. He got brutally murdered.

* WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague gives us a great example of literal irony when Felix Faust summons Hades to bargain for ultimate knowledge, and is killed by the god instead, who claims that "ultimately, death is all a mortal can know." Going by the definition of "ultimate," Hades is quite correct: at the end of any life is the experience of death.
* Syndrome’s Omnidroid in ''TheIncredibles'' originally rips out its own innards while attempting to kill Mr. Incredible, who has sneaked inside the droid, having realized that “the only thing strong enough to penetrate it is itself.”

** Even worse, his greatest friend and most trusted adviser told him that he shouldn't be taking the potion and that the apothecaries were killing him with it. A special in TheHistoryChannel showed him dying from the potion right after his adviser told him to stop. Though this may not be ironic and be more TooDumbToLive.

* Stunt man Bobby Leach, who had crossed great heights during his career, died in 1911 when he slipped over a banana peel and broke his leg. The injury became gangrenous.
* 19th century lawyer Clement Laird Vallandigham died during a court case. He tried to defend someone who was accused of murder by showing that the victim might have accidentally shot himself. Vallangdigham showed this by using a real gun and [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot himself dead with it]]! To add more irony to this tale: his client was acquitted because the jury was convinced by Vallandigham's defense.
* Comedian TommyCooper died on stage during a live TV broadcast. While he suffered a heart attack, the audience thought it was all part of the act and laughed as he drew his final breath.
* On 17 February 1673, French playwright and actor Molière collapsed on stage playing the title role, the hypochondriac Argan, in his play ''Le malade imaginaire'' (The Imaginary Invalid). He incorporated his agony into his performance and died a few hours after the play ended.
* Playwright J.I. Rodale died while he was a guest on the DickCavett show. During the recordings Rodale ironically claimed he felt great and said: ''"I'm in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way", "I’ve decided to live to be a hundred"'', and ''"I never felt better in my life!"'' He had also previously bragged, ''"I'm going to live to be 100, unless I'm run down by some sugar-crazed taxi driver."'' A few minutes later, he suffered a heart attack and passed away. The show was never broadcast.
* Singer Felix Powell, best known for the song ''"Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag (And Smile, Smile, Smile)"'', later committed suicide.

** A subversion of this trope: it is often believed that Joseph Ignace Guillotin, inventor of the guillotine, died on the very execution device that he invented himself. This is an urban legend because he simply died of old age.
* JohnLennon: As a FunnyAneurysmMoment, the Beatle who once sang "shoot me" in the chorus of "Come Together" was eventually shot dead. Not to mention the Beatle song "Happiness Is A Warm Gun".

* Fighting the Romans with the phalanx (an infantry formation designed to trample the enemy under weight of men in thigh formation) or war elephants tended to end in this trope: the phalanx would end broken up by flanking attacks or [[RainOfArrows loads and loads of javelins]] and then trampled upon by Roman infantry in thigh formation, and the Romans were masters in scaring the elephants into turning around and charge at their own army.

* [[spoiler:[[BigBad Ludlow]]]] in FanFic/RiseOfTheGaleforces. [[spoiler: In Chapter 25 he reveals himself to be an OmnicidalManiac who intends to destroy all non-human life. 10 chapters later, [[ExitPursuedByABear he is himself destroyed by non-human life.]]]]

* ''Film/FullMetalJacket'': Gunny Hartman. More emphasis on this in the book than in the movie. In the book, when he gets shot, before he dies, he says "[[spoiler: Private Pyle]], I'm so proud." [[spoiler: He's glad that was finally able to make him a killer which he had been struggling to do all through boot camp]].

* In ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', there is one part of the FinalBattle where the heroine, [[spoiler: his daughter]], stabs the infamous killer in the gut with the clawed glove that is his iconic weapon. This is not what truly kills him ([[spoiler: she does ''that'' by stuffing a bomb down his throat)]], but it's still ironic.

* Invoked by one of the villains in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. In ''Literature/DeadBeat'', Harry kills [[spoiler:The Corpsetaker]] by shooting her in the back of the head. She returns as a ghost in ''Literature/GhostStory'', and gleefully points out the irony when she tries to kill Harry by shooting ''him'' in the back of the head. [[spoiler:Since Harry himself was a ghost at the time, it didn't actually kill him, but it did destroy his spirit's physical manifestation, and at that point he was too weak to materialize himself again.]]

** At the end of ''A Storm of Swords'', [[spoiler:Lady Lysa]]'s demise has all ''sorts'' of irony wound into it. In the first book, [[KangarooCourt she'd tried to throw Tyrion out the Moon Door for a whole slew of crimes he didn't commit]], including the murder of her first husband Jon. Later, she attempts to throw Sansa out the Door as well [[{{Yandere}} after catching her being kissed by Lysa's new husband Petyr]], at which point it's revealed that [[spoiler:Lysa]] was herself the one who killed Jon so she could be with her new man. [[DestinationDefenestration And then Petyr throws her out the Moon Door.]]

** In the GrandFinale, [[{{Superman}} Clark]] came very, very close to one. [[spoiler:[[BrickJoke Over three years ago]], Zor-El tricked him into wearing a blue kryptonite ring that removes his powers temporarily. Chloe stops him from trying to saw it off, and tell him to refrain from wearing any rings till his wedding day (which in itself is a reference to the times when he wore a red kryptonite ring, over three years ago). Oliver, possessed by {{Darkseid}}, presented him with a gold kryptonite ring at the altar which would ''permanently'' remove his powers. And it is Chloe, as bridesmaid, who spotted the switch and stopped it from being worn JustInTime.]]

* The {{vocaloid}} songs series The Seven Deadly Sins by {{mothy}} has plenty of this:
** In ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrwKCRJH-s Conchita]]'', the titular character [[spoiler: ''eats herself'']].
** In ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV99NZmurVA Venomania]]'', the duke is killed by [[spoiler: a man dressed like a woman]].
** In ''Judgement'', Marlon is [[spoiler: sent to Hell with the ''exact same words he gave criminals'']].
** In ''Princess Sleep-Bringer'', Margarita [[spoiler: commits suicide by drinking the poison she had given to everyone]].

* Another one of Theseus' villainous victims was an elderly bandit, Sciron, who lived on a cliff-side path. Sciron demanded, because of his apparent age, that everyone who passed by must give him his due respect by washing his feet. Of course, when the schmuck bent over to do so, Sciron pushed them off the cliff, where the corpse would be eaten by his partner in crime, a monstrous sea turtle. Guess what happened when he tried to pull this schtick with Theseus.

** What's even more ironic about his last words [[spoiler: is that Gabriel and Zobek ''do'' in fact go to hell, and Zobek was actually one of the bad guys who orchestrated the starting events of the game.]]

** The Brotherhood of Steel are a faction of heavily armed isolationists who openly think that anyone but them is inferior and stupid, and as a result constantly steal technology from the 'ignorant' wastelanders, including yourself. [[spoiler: One of the ways you can take them down is using a high ''Science'' skill to hack the terminal that controls their turrets, and watch them slaughter the entire facility.]]

* In the ''Fate'' route of ''FateStayNight'' [[spoiler: Shirou kills Kotomine Kirei with the same Azoth Dagger that the latter gave to Rin 10 years ago. Even more ironic that it also was the same dagger he killed Tokiomi Tohsaka (Rin's father and the one who gave it to ''him'' as a gift in the first place) with in ''FateZero''.]]
* Happens to ''both'' of the Combine Hunter-Choppers encountered in VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}. The first one stalks and hounds you through the Canals, tormenting you with a Heavy Pulse Gun mounted on it's underside. However, a group of Rebels have managed to scavenge the one of the very same Pulse Guns used by the Chopper, which is given to you to use against the Helicopter. The Pulse Gun tears the Helicopter apart, forcing it to retreat and leave you alone for a little while. Soon after you duel the Chopper 1 on 1, using the very same weapon it's been using against you the whole time. Then in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, another Hunter-Chopper again chases you to a Rebel Base, the chopper begins peppering the base with spherical mines, which are set to go off about 5 seconds after hitting the ground. You defeat the Helicopter by tossing these mines back at it until it's significantly damaged, loses control and spins out, then crashes into a hillside.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', if [[spoiler:[[OneHitKill Guardian Force Odin]] appears during the player's last fight with [[TheRival Seifer]], just as he rushes in to deliver his signature blow, when the screen flashes and shows Odin having passed him by, he reveals to have been OKDO'd himself by Seifer.]]

* In the GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', [[spoiler: the evil entity below Crystal Cove had spent centuries manipulating groups of mystery solvers together in an effort to free himself, corrupting them in the process. He tried to do this to the gang, but they managed to catch on, and in the end, they destroyed him, ERASING HIM FROM EXISTANCE!]]

This trope occurs when a character is killed in an [[{{Irony}} allegorical]] or lyrical manner; often this is due to their own actions. A favored fate of The Villain Of The Story. If they are killed by their own hubris then the hero doesn't have to get their hands dirty and instead has a chance to demonstrate their moral fiber by attempting to SaveTheVillain or say AlasPoorVillain. If the cause of death is too trite or unlikely it will challenge the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief so be careful.

* In ''Anime/DragonBall'', in the regular timeline, Krillin marries Android 18. In the alternate timeline where Goku dies of a heart virus, he is killed by Android 17, Android 18's brother, in assistance with Android 18.