The essentializing and exclusive nature of collective identities defined by cultural heritage often fuels conflicts between nations and other social groups. In this article I ask what kind of heritage might be able to unite rather than divide civil society. I suggest that heritage can only contribute to social cohesion when it is perceived as distant from everyone in present society. Such distance is achieved not only through freely invented, inauthentic heritage, but also through ironicized heritage, using humour to undermine conventional understandings of the subject. I present several specific examples of such ironic heritage, which have sought to provoke laughter and, thus, create implicit social bonds across national, political and social divisions.