Guillermo Aragon
English Composition
Paul French
February 13, 2015
Rhetorical Analysis
South Park is an animated TV series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, which first aired on Comedy Central in 1997. The show features four boys Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick. South Park has been seen as one of the most controversial shows due to its raunchy humor and obscene depiction of characters in the show. South Park deals with many current issues in the news surrounding anything from in politics to religion. In dealing with these issues South Park involves adult comedy that parodies current issues going on in the United States and around the world. South Park also uses many other rhetorical deceives, such as
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logos, pathos, and ethos, to humorously touch upon issues that many shows would not attempt to do in today’s society. The use of different rhetorical devices is what allows South Park to effectively portray these issues in way that many people from all walks of life can easily understand and relate to the topic without taking offense. In this essay I will be discussing one of my favorite South Park episodes, “Margaritaville” which is episode three of season thirteen, and the different types of rhetoric it uses and the way they are applied throughout the entire episode.
“Margaritaville” is a satirical portrayal of the 2008 recession, characterizing the economical status and how it affected people and United States the government itself. The episode satirizes the response and actions the government took in attempt to try and resolve the economical crisis. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker apply many visual and audio components throughout the episode to humorously and affectively appeal to and persuade viewers that the actions taken by government in order to try and solve the financial crisis were …show more content…
illogical. Pathos The use of pathos in South Park’s “Margaritaville” can be easily seen throughout the entire episode, it is more used then logos and ethos. In the opening scene of Stan Marsh and Randy Marsh, standing in line at a bank trying to open up an account for Stan, in order to help him understand the importance of savings. This scene portrays the use of the pathos giving familiarity to the viewer by bridging the link between father and son and the feeling of opening your first bank account. As the episode progresses the use of pathos is more seen. In the scene where Stan finally reaches United States Treasury, pathos is used to help the audience relate to Stan and his frustration in trying to return the Margaritaville machine, showing him as angered and irritated with the system. The emotions Stan shows in this scene are representative to the emotions that many people may have felt in regards to the actions the government took in order to try and resolve the financial crisis. As the scene continues Stan is seen explaining to U.S. Treasury officials, how and why he ended up at the U.S. Treasury. The writers apply pathos to the official’s response to Stan’s explanation “Yeah that makes sense,” to show the government’s familiarity to such complex processes and how people in a way were clueless as to what was going on. Next the writes use pathos to humorously depict how the government system comes to deal with financial issues is shown as a large colorful game area, where a beheaded chicken runs around until it drops determining the of course of action the government should take. In depicting the government system this way it also creates a since of carefreeness of the actions that were taken by the government. Logos/Ethos In this episode of South Park writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone also logically aim to reinforce their argument regarding the economic crisis.
The issue discussed in the episode is the cause of the recession and also the collapse of the housing market came to be. In the episode a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville machine represents the housing market, which Randy had purchased through a payment plan. One of the story lines of the episode is of Stan trying to return the Margaritaville machine his dad had purchased. Stan first attempts to return the machine to the store it was originally purchased at, next to the company who helped finance the machine, then leading him to meet with Wall Street officials that invested into the big finance companies, to ultimately end up at the U.S Treasury Department who helped bail out the Wall Street investors. Stan’s long journey is very detailed in a way that logically helps make sense of what ultimately ended up happening to the economy and homeowners around the United States during the 2008 recession. In expressing the process of how the economy became to fail in an understandable way, helps give creditably to Stone and Parker’s understanding of how the economy works. Also in detailing Stan’s journey in such a way, Stone and Parker understanding of the audience, which ranges from about sixteen to thirty, are people who are still old enough to understand the issues that are were going on but are still young enough to still want to be
entertained and not bored with facts. In writing to a large demographic of people, South Park aims to humorously attack the government and its creditably in making the decisions that also lead to the economic downfall. Metaphors Writes Trey Parker and Matt Stone also use metaphors throughout the episode help to explain a very difficult and complex. They use Stan’s journey of returning the Margaritaville machine to explain how the housing market crashed and how it lead to the government bailing out the finance companies. In the episode the margaritaville machine represents the homes of the market that were purchased through lines of credit. Like the banks that approved the line of credit to help Randy purchase the margarita machine, people were being approved for homes that they could not afford to pay and later began to default of their payments. The Margaritaville machine is also representative of luxury goods and how Americans want what they cannot have or cannot afford to have, leading them to try and finance the good. Conclusion The uses of different rhetorical devices in this episode of South Park are what help make sense of what was going on during the 2008 recession. South Park’s heavy use of satire on the issue of the recession, are what help them in expressing their arguments logically to a wide variety of viewers while still appealing to the younger audience. Also through the use of different rhetorical devices, South Park and its creators are able to humorously inform and take on issues that are relevant to todays time.
“The Onion’s” mock press release on the MagnaSoles satirical article effectively attacks the rhetorical devices, ethos and logos, used by companies to demonstrate how far advertisers will go to convince people to buy their products. It does this by using manipulative, “scientific-sounding" terminology, comparisons, fabrication, and hyperboles.
Soon after launch on January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and shattered the nation. The tragedy was on the hearts and minds of the nation and President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan addressed the county, commemorating the men and woman whose lives were lost and offering hope to Americans and future exploration. Reagan begins his speech by getting on the same level as the audience by showing empathy and attempting to remind us that this was the job of the crew. He proceeds with using his credibility to promise future space travel. Ultimately, his attempt to appeal to the audience’s emotions made his argument much stronger. Reagan effectively addresses the public about the tragedy while comforting, acknowledging, honoring and motivating his audience all in an effort to move the mood from grief to hope for future exploration.
In recent years, it is not even necessary to turn on the news to hear about the bad reputation farming has been getting in recent years. What with the media focusing on things like drugs in animals and Pink Slime, or Lean Finely Textured Beef, it is a wonder that people are eating “non-organic” foods. However, many pro-farming organizations having been trying to fight back against these slanders. Still, the battle is not without heavy competition, and a good portion of it comes from Chipotle, a fast food Mexican restaurant that claims to only use completely organic ingredients in their food. Chipotle is constantly introducing advertisements claiming to have the natural ingredients while slandering the name of farmers everywhere. Perhaps the most well-known is “The Scarecrow,” a three minute ad that features some of the most haunting images Chipotle has ever featured. While “The Scarecrow” uses tear-inducing images and the almost eerie music to entice the audience to the company’s “free-range farming” ideals, it lacks substantial logos yet, it still
A town, a team, a dream. Friday Night lights document the 1988 football season of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. Bissinger explores the various themes of the novel and uses conceit to colorfully describe the contrasting attitudes towards sports and academics. In the small town of Odessa bases Fridays nights in the fall are dedicated to Permian football. As a result of the obsessive attitude towards football a ridiculous amount of pressure is thrusted upon the coaches and players. Bissinger tackled the many problems in the town such as extreme pressure to perform, racism, and the relationship between parent and child. While Bissinger had several preconceived notions, he was ultimately proven wrong and through analysis of themes and incorporation of comparisons in the form of conceits he was able to develop his understanding of the town and accurately depict the events that transpired.
during 1929 the stock market was the best way to make money, most of american population invested in the stock market, and back then the government assured people it was the best time to buy houses since the stock market was booming. Many people bought houses, but then stock market crashed in 1929, and it happened overnight, and it didn't end there either. After it crashed it continued to decrease due to investors still attempting to trade, causing the stock market to go further into a depression. After the crash, wall street went into a panic and continued to trade more, wiping out 13 million clients (A&E networks). Some people were able to withdraw their money from the stock market before things got too bad, but the majority of american population lost their money and went bankrupt. Many people blamed president hoover for the depression because he refused to help and believed the government should not be responsible for the stock market crash. Since the majority of the population went bankrupt, they were evicted of their homes due to no money able to pay bills. People came home from work to find their houses locked and their belongings outside, they were forced to live on the streets and live in tent camps. Because of president hoover's wide unpopularity, people began calling homeless tent camps “Hoovervilles” and an...
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, and Kenny McCormick, who attend South Park Elementary School in South Park, Colorado. While much of the humor in South Park is scatological in nature, the show is well known for its political satire. That is, “no matter how nasty and scatological [South Park] gets, it’s never just dumb and dumber. Besides all the bathroom humor, the show is built on clever, equal-opportunity satire” (Johnson-Woods 25).
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
Jack Shakley’s “Indian Mascots- You’re Out” published on the op-ed page of the LA times, he impacted readers about the argument over professional and college sport teams whose mascots are using Native American names. Shakley is the former chair of the Los Angeles city/county Native American Commission. The author describes the history of using Indian mascots and how it hurt a group of people. He wants readers to know that it is necessary to remove Native American names and mascots from college and professional teams. Jack Shakley uses three strategies to present his argument to show his attitude to remove Indian mascots in teams.
...ression just because it is not politically correct. Critics of South Park are in denial of what the world is because the world itself is not politically correct. People want to make the world seem like it is not as bad as it is. In the real world, profanity is spoken, violence happens, and racism is committed. South Park shows us what the real world is and how we should deal with it.
On April 3, 1964, Malcom X published his famous speech named “The Ballot or the Bullet” and on 1963, the author Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter from jail to respond to eight white clergymen, who criticism him for unwise, untimely and extreme. The purposes of both writers are fight for civil rights and black liberation. They both use ethos, pathos and logos in their writings, which extremely useful in getting to their point to persuade the audiences to fight for their belief. Despite there are different between how they use these strategies but both use it very effective and produce very persuasive writings.
South Park, the brainchild of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, is the leading animated sitcom on Comedy Central Network. It follows the story of four children, Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny, and their adventure throughout their town. South Park has been widely criticized for its dark, somewhat satanically, humor. South Park has had a huge impact on television and uses satire and comedy heavily influence young-adult culture and politics.
] This catastrophic event is caused by the accumulation of a large scale of speculation by not only investors but also banks and institutions in the stock market. Though the unemployment rate was climbing during the 1920s and economy was not looking good, people on Wall Street were not affected by the depressing news. The optimism spread from Wall Street to small investors and they were investing with the money they don’t have, which is investing on margin as high as 90%. When the speculative bubble burst, people lost everything including houses and pensions. The main reason ...
The show South Park was first aired in August of 1997, and was similar to shows like Family Guy or The Simpsons in terms of pushing the limits of acceptable television to gain their audience. Since its creation the show is still infamous for its crude humor, vulgar language, and suggestive dialogue. Episode 2 of season 19 is the perfect example of the creators mixing satire and irony to give the audience a clear yet humorous view on immigration in America today.
Numerous television shows satirize controversial topics in today’s society. Some of the topics include religion, celebrities, and current events. These topics can be found in the popular show South Park. South Park is a show that follows the life of four young boys: Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick. Kyle and Stan are good friends and are level headed characters that represent the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Eric is an obese, self-centered bigot. He often rivals with Kyle and devises plans to acquire money. Kenny comes from a poor family, which is often joked about in the show. He wears an orange hoodie that covers most of his face and muffles his voice. Kenny also used to be killed off quite often by