The Fairy Godmother
“The Waitress” is a modern fairy tale that even includes a fairy godmother. In this case, the fairy godmother is disguised as a bag lady which is a term to describe what is usually a somewhat filthy, homeless woman living on the streets hoarding a collection of various flotsam and jetsam from urban existence. This is a very untraditional approach to descriptions of fairy godmothers from the past. That irony is underlined by the fact that if a fairy godmother is endowed with power, why would she choose to live under such conditions?
The Waitress
The choice of the waitress to be the recipient of three wishes is also ironic, but not in the expected way. By making the person who benefits from magic a slightly overweight female adult, the ironic barb is directed toward the source materials. The beautiful young girls who often benefit from magic in fairy tales may not necessarily be quite the most deserving members of the population when you start to really think about it.
The Naked Girl in the Window
There is a bit of cruel irony in the fact that the waitress enjoys the thrill of being able to walk down busy metropolitan streets buck naked because nobody can look at her. She stops this habit after catching her reflection a store window where the only other eye cast in her direction are the lifeless plastic ones of mannequin. And yet she stops the practice. We are used to the idea of dressing to hide physical flaws because of the threat of taunts from others, but there is no threat here. The cruel irony is that she has been so beaten down by societal expectations that she is taunting herself.
Wealth
Take a minute to think about wishing for a million dollars. Even magic must operate within the constraints of some real world rules. The waitress wishes for wealth and gets her wish, but it would be too much to expect that she just walks into her apartment and suddenly it is filled with a million dollar bills. The sublime irony underlying how she achieves this wealth is that she actually has to work for it; something that rarely happens in traditional fairy tales.
Happily Ever After
The three wishes all come true, but it would quite a stretch to suggest that the waitress has gone from a worry-filled life to a worry-free life. The ultimate ironic end is attained: fairy tales usually leave with the idea of living happily ever after despite the fact that few participants ever actually do wish for that. Which, when you think about it, is probably the best you can make.
