Kugelmass is a comic protagonist because he is so essentially unappealing, yet he seeks romance with beautiful women. He says unkind things about his current wife such as "Who suspected she'd let herself go and swell up like a beach ball?" He is described as "bald and hairy as a bear" and he "whined to his analyst." Nothing about him suggests a romantic hero.
Allen uses verbal irony when Kugelmass says, despite two unhappy marriages and the financial strain of alimony and child support, ""I need to meet a new woman."
There is irony of situation when Kugelmass meets "The Great Persky," in a "broken-down apartment house in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn." Persky's superlative name is ironic given the rundown condition of the apartment and cabinet that transports Kugelmass, and the fact that he performs feats of magic for $20 a session. It is also ironic that a woman...
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as beautiful as the fictional Emma Bovary would find Kugelmass attractive and even compliment him on his leisure suit, an unfortunate fashion trend for men that is now regarded with amusement.
By definition, dramatic irony occurs when the audience is aware of something that the characters are not. Since that doesn't seem to apply to "The Kugelmass Episode," the forms of irony are primarily verbal and situational.
Verbal irony and dramatic irony are especially prevelant--his character is always saying things the reader doesn't expect to help promote his very Jewish persona. Perhaps the best example of dramatic irony is the point at which the machine explodes and traps Kugelmass in a Spanish textbook being chases around by the "hairy" verb "tener"= "to have". Just as K. is determined to have an affair with Madame Bovary, the verb is determined to have him.
Kugelmass couldn't be more Jewish. From the stereotypical physical description to the cultural references to food, sayings. It is funny because he also realizes the obvious stereotype which he represents and seems to be poking fun at himself. It's like going to the comedy show and having the overweight female making jokes in reference to obese people and female issues.
Particularly effective plot twists include the machine's malfunctions (the vehicle which provides him an 'out' actually traps him). Madame Bovary becomes trapped in Kugelmass' world and becomes quite the pain in the neck. This is also an example of irony as no one would expect the object of desire to cause as much pain and anxiety as the object(s) in his hum-drum life from which Kugelmass is running when he seeks the affair in the first place.
The ending is also particularly effective. It is laugh out loud funny to imagine him running for his life from the hairy verb "to have".