UNIVERSITY OF
The sentence "UNIVERSITY OF" could be considered as a humorous or ironic statement in various contexts, based on some crucial factors that are typically associated with the shared norms of humor and irony. Humor, generally involves surprise, misdirection, and elements of absurdity or incongruity, while irony often involves a gap or an incongruity between what's expected and what actually happens, or a reverse situation from the normative expectation.
In the first instance, the incomplete phrase "UNIVERSITY OF" with a sudden abrupt stop is indeed unusual or out-of-place and can spark laughter. As the sentence doesn't reveal the actual name of the university, it creates an unexpected surprise and that hits the funny bone of the reader. It's a case of language absurdity and this abruptness could come off as a comic surprise to the audience who are poised to read a complete sentence.
Humor often banks on incongruity and this sentence might also be considered funny by disrupting the conventional linguistic norms or patterns which people are used to. We usually expect a proper noun to follow “UNIVERSITY OF" but it doesn't come. This violation of norms creates a sense of comic incongruity.
Moreover, the sentence "UNIVERSITY OF" could also be interpreted ironically. If it's being used in a context where institutions of higher education and their reputations are being discussed, the dangling “UNIVERSITY OF” might ironically signify the lack of importance of the actual name of the university or signify that one can fill in the blank with the name of any university because they're all the same or have equivalent issues.
Also, if the statement is being used to signal the pretentiousness often associated with specific universities, it's an ironic commentary on the gravity that people often ascribe to a university name. The phrase exists as an unfinished claim to prestige, poking fun at the seriousness and weight these names often carry.
Finally, from another perspective, the incomplete sentence could be seen as a satirical commentary on the unreadiness, confusion, or incompetency attributed to many universities or the general education system as a whole. This makes it ironic as we naturally expect a university to be a place of acumen and thoroughness. In this light, the sentence "UNIVERSITY OF" symbolises anything but these qualities, and the irony tickles the funny bone of the reader. UNIVERSITY OF
