Socratic Irony

"Socratic irony is the only involuntary and yet completely deliberate dissimulation. It is equally impossible to feign it or divulge it. To a person who hasn't got it, it will remain a riddle even after it is openly confessed." -- F. Schlegel

Annals of Pantagruelism

Perhaps the original Pantagruelist avant la lettre was none other than Socrates...