In the days right after September 11th, a lot of writers, me included, wrote articles trying to suss out the cultural impact of what had just happened. In Time magazine, an essayist declared that "One good thing could come from this horror -- the end of the age of irony." And then the editor of Vanity Fair said pretty much the same thing -- that the attacks had brought about "the end of the age of irony.''

What people meant, back in those nightmare days of September, was that for writers and artists and entertainers, a certain kind of modern smarty-pants impulse had been blunted, rendered impermissible. No more gimlet-eyed frivolity. No more devil-may-care joshing about serious subjects.

I doubted that then. And now, three months after September 11th, I think we can see that those predictions were premature. Because it turns out there is a half-life to trauma.

For those of us who did not lose loved ones in the attacks, the cultural half-life of September 11th seems to be about a month long. In other words, with each passing month we are half as freaked out as we were at a month earlier. And so now, three months after the fact, we're no longer walking on eggshells.

So does that mean the Age of Irony can resume right where it left off on September 10th? Is it OK again to smirk at everything all the time?

No. A certain kind of easy, preening, nihilistic posture now seems particularly out of touch and unfunny. Like, for instance, the late-night CBS talk show host Craig Kilbourne.

But that doesn't mean that the so-called Age of Irony has suddenly ended. It's evolving, as it has been for years, as the zeitgeist does continuously.

David Letterman, the modern pioneer of mass-market irony has never been more popular. His ratings are up almost 40 percent since September 11th.

The satirical newspaper and Web site The Onion is now more compelling than ever because it's dealing with high-stakes do-or-die realities. Like The Onion's recent mock news story about homeland security. It was headlined "'Expect Delays' Signs Placed Randomly Throughout Nation." And the smart hyper-ironic musical Urinetown is a new hit on Broadway.

One of the founding fathers of the age of irony is the writer John Barth, who has just published his first new novel in a decade called Coming Soon!!! Like his famous 1960's novels -- Sot-Weed Factor, Lost in the Funhouse - the new book makes fun of itself and of literature in general.

I asked Barth if he feels that September 11th was a show-stopping event for him creatively.

[John Barth:] "I think it's one that every sentient being, and that certainly includes artists and writers, has to come terms with. I don't believe for a moment, as some op-ed piece said, that in the wake of 9-11 irony is a kind of obscenity. That's like the old argument that we heard after the Second World War -- that after the Holocaust art is irrelevant. And we know where that sentiment is coming from; one honors the horror that produced that sentiment. But it ain't so.

"And, indeed, we think, since I'm an old musician, of the classic New Orleans funerals -- where the band played a nice blues on the way to the cemetery and then an up-tempo lively number on the way home. So that they honor the fact of death on the way out and they celebrate and affirm the fact of life. So I think it's probably not only permissible, I hope, to write comedy in wake of 9-11 - it's probably almost necessary."

I agree. Throughout the 20th century, outbreaks of irony were always a response to staggering historical changes and anxiety, to World Wars I and II, and the threat of World War III. At times like these, wisdom and well-crafted wisecracking can go hand-in-hand.

This is Kurt Andersen in Studio 360.