tsuwm: You mentioned Dennis Miller in another thread, so I just went to the site and read the bit on Gotham...

In order to scare off the monarch, the Wise Men of Gotham, as they came to be known, feigned madness, setting about such tasks as trying to drown eels and building a fence around their so-called "cuckoo bush" to trap the birds, which of course flew away. Faced with such complete zaniness, King John detoured around the eel-drowning town and Gotham was spared the expense of playing host to him.

These tales of the "foles of Gotham" spread and were eventually collected and published in the 16th century. In calling New York "Gotham," Irving was pointing out a similar "method to the madness" of the city's inhabitants, who acted foolishly so that outsiders would leave them alone.

There is irony in New York's being referred to as Gotham once you know the story of its historical archetype because, whatever kind of madness New Yorkers may feign, it's not working. Ironically, it is often the madness of New York that pulls 'em in. (I just got an image of that naked cowboy on the corner of Time Square, playing his guitar...) If word got around that there were New Yorkers building fences around bushes to keep the birds in, the thrill seekers would go there, too, to be amazed.

Wouldn't there be irony in calling a trailer, "Buckingham Palace"? And a dirty, drunk, swearing woman comes to the door of the trailer and someone continues the ironic tale by saying, "And this is the Queen." Even more ironic would be the queen referring to herself as such...and so on. Sometimes, not always, irony and exaggeration overlap.

Thanks for unknowingly providing an inspiration for an observation on the subject at hand.

WW