This is most common in plays but can occur in novels: it happens when we, as audience, have knowledge which one (or more) of the characters does not possess and this gives some of their words a twist as we are aware they are in error in a significant way. Another character may also share this information.
Much of Shakespeare's, Othello, depends on tragic dramatic irony as we see that Iago is a villainous liar and that Desdemona is innocent of adultery. When Othello says: "I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips", he means that he was then ignorant of her infidelity but we and Iago know that she never kissed Cassio and that the traces of them were simply not there.
The mode can be used for comic purposes also in classic and popular works.
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