Fall Forward Speech Analysis

The commencement addresses to Penn State's class of 2011 by Denzel Washington and Tulane University's class of 2015 by Maya Rudolph are parallel and distinctive speeches in their own style. Washington's and Rudolph's speeches use humor to make them relatable to their group of graduates. While also telling stories that are also humorous give their messages integrity and hooks the audience. Their techniques and underlying message, taking risks for a greater reward, are the same. However, they differ in the methods, by either falling forward or saying yes, to taking chances.

Washington centers his speech around The statement "Fall Forward". Fall forward goes against the phrase fall back and intended at taking risks that create innovative and

educational experiences. The statement is his focal point since he knows that his audience will fail inevitably. Through their failures, they move closer to success and gain added experiences. Washington successful acting career involving numerous times where he has failed gives him a sense of trustworthiness. In order to solidify this, he includes a story about how he auditioned for a musical on Broadway early on in his career and did not receive the character. Rather than abandon the idea of being an actor and fall back on to a different career, he used his failures to prepare for the subsequent auditions. He eventually succeeds leading to his illustrious career and a chance on Broadway where he would a Tony Award for his part in Fences.
Rudolph's foremost idea in her speech is the statement, "yes and create your own destiny".

This among other thoughts is the advice she wishes she could offer herself when she was 21. In her story concerning her time in college, the way she speaks of herself creates a picture of a lost individual with no utter directions realistically and figuratively. Her choice to be a comic came from her saying yes to her dream and conscious hope to be on Saturday Night Live. This and a little guidance from her father lead her to graduate school where she learned the general phrase "yes and" as the first rule of her improvisation class. Saying "yes" opens up the opportunity, while "and" adds information that acts not to contradict however builds on all prior assertions. She then gives an example:

If she was in a scene with President Fitts and he says, "hey, you're Oprah Winfrey." And Rudolph says, "No I'm not." The scene would be over. However, if she says, "Yes I am…and today Class of 2015??? Look Under Your Seats! Because you are all leaving here today with a COLLEGE DIPLOMA!!! YOU GET A COLLEGE DIPLOMA! YOU GET A COLLEGE DIPLOMA!" (Rudolph,

Maya)
The speeches have similarities in their messages, stories, and ethos and pathos techniques. The authors message to the audience to take risks in order to assume greater rewards or success demands them to look for fresh, stimulating and enlightening opportunities. Both speeches include a time when the author was in college and had difficulties with what was to come in the future, that made them lost with no direction or clue what they aspired to do later on in life. These stories also lead the author to find themselves and what they want and the message they gave their audience. They both have the same ethos technique of familial connections that make them relatable to the school and relating to the students' sense of feeling lost. Both authors appeal to pathos utilizing humor through jokes and stories, relating disappointments to strength, and their diction.
These speeches additionally have differences in their messages, stories, and formats of prose. Their message differs in the methods of taking risks, Rudolph's message "say yes and create your own destiny" has nothing to do with failures; only opportunities. While Washington's message embraces failure and the humiliations involved with it as an apparatus of learning. They exceedingly differ in the amount, type, and the relation of humor usage in their speeches. Rudolph entire speech has nothing but humor to highlight the message, the jokes are modern and amusing viral topics and makes it relatable to all 2015 graduates. While Washington speech has a solid paragraph of only Penn State jokes and a few anecdotes following any serious topic to create a comedic relief. Rudolph has only one story about college in which she ended it just as lost as when she graduated high school, while Washington has two different stories, the one above and the other where he is suspended from college, that show his failures. All of these differences generate the distinction between Rudolph's light and flippant speech and Washington's serious and witty speech.
Once reading and analyzing each text I determined that I enjoyed Maya Rudolph's speech above Denzel Washington's speech.

In my opinion, her jokes were just more relatable to my generation's idea of comedy. Her joke about Birkenstocks being something she used to wear and Urban Outfitters selling these shoes makes it prevalent and sneers at hipsters and hippies. Then at the end she sings the National Anthem in a vivacious and incoherent manner that ridicules Beyoncé lip-syncing the National Anthem at the 2013 inauguration. Just knowing the little ideas behind her humor allows me to relate to her jokes and makes it more

amusing.