This paper sets out to demonstrate that the theory of speech acts is able to account for the category of verbal irony. It is argued that speakers use irony to produce certain perlocutionary effects on their hearers, especially breaking their patterns of expectation, and involving them in a kind of verbal interaction characterized by interpersonal distance. A critical evaluation of traditional definitions of irony leads to the conclusion that their two main criteria -saying the opposite of what you mean, and saying something different from what you mean-, can be integrated into a homogeneous pragmalinguistic frame of reference.