With an English accent and a smize, John Oliver hosts the show “Last Week Tonight”, which features Oliver comedically attacking various people or organizations. With the use of rhetorical devices and satire, John Oliver comically conveys various ideas regarding politics, faulty companies, and beauty pageants. In explanation of his ideas, he frequently utilizes satirical techniques and rhetorical devices such as reductio ad absurdum, incongruity, caricature, invectiveness, false/weak analogies, and logos to explain his points.
As John Oliver airs his weekly program, “Last Week Tonight”, he educates viewers on relevant issues, and incorporates factual evidence along with his opinion. He uses both horatian and juvenalian satire in order to
…show more content…
In order to create a better understanding of the history of dialysis and healthcare, Oliver scholarly explains, “In 1972, something amazing happened. Richard Nixon...signed a bill into law which said the government would pay for dialysis for anyone that needed it...” In order to make his explanations credible, Oliver incorporates facts which increases his logos and ethos. To expand on the idea of the kidneys being the sole organ which obtains government funded healthcare, he declares with a picture of kidneys sitting in the snow of Canada, “Your kidneys, and only your kidneys are Canadian!” This statement is another example of incongruity; again, Oliver presents a statement which is contrasts greatly from the current situation of which he is in. While he is discussing the role government plays in dialysis, he delivers the idea of kidneys sitting in the snow of Canada, which assists him in his argument of the government only providing healthcare coverage of the kidneys. Just as the Times stated in their review of Oliver, “[He] is willing to voice genuine passion over his subjects”, he voices his passionate displeasure towards Trump in his “President-elect Trump” segment. Oliver targets Trump on a specific debate in which he was mistakenly unaware of the nuclear triad, and he critically reveals, “The components of the nuclear triad are important. It is unacceptable not to be able to name every single one of them. They are
This paper will discuss the Canadian healthcare system compared to the United States healthcare system. Although they’re close in proximity, these two nations have very different health care systems. Each healthcare system has its own difficulties, and is currently trying to find ways to improve. Canada currently uses the Universal Health Care system; which provides healthcare coverage to all Canadian citizens (Canadian Health Care, 2007). The services are executed on both a territorial and provincial basis, by staying within the guidelines that have been enforced by the federal government (Canadian Health Care, 2007).
Gail Collins, an American writer known for writing under the opinion pages for the The New York Times, has turned the recent presidential debate, into something comical. In Gail’s most recent articles, “How Could Anyone Vote for Trump”, “The Dark Days of Donald Trump”, “Don’t Take Donald Trump to Dinner”, and “The Debate in One Scary Answer”, her purpose is to show that Donald Trump is not qualified to become the next president of the United States. In these four articles, her audience is the general educated reader that will be voting in the 2016 presidential election. Gail Collins has a recurring pattern of using the rhetorical modes; illustration and description. In addition, she uses the rhetorical strategies; metaphor, dialogue, and contrast
Many may argue that Stephen Colbert uses Horatian satire in his comedy. Arguably, the type of satire which Stephen Colbert uses most often to attack groups of people is Juvenalian satire. Colbert can be viewed as a Horatian satirist to liberals who support his views in comedy. On the other hand, the group which Stephen Colbert
The Canadian health care system is funded majorly by the public, with very few private donations. Over the past few decades acts of large-scale philanthropy by wealthy private donors have started to increase, due to the investments in social programs and infrastructure from the government declining. Without the aid of private donors and large sources of income from outside of the public (government) the infrastructure of all hospitals, clinics, and the totality of western healthcare systems would collapse and ultimately fail as the system is set up presently. There is an opportunity of keeping a healthy and happy society sustained by public funds, as long as the government is able to step up and provide the healthcare system with enough funds, making the donations from philanthropists an excess instead of a necessity.
Modern society allows humorists to touch upon offensive topics without receiving much criticism. As Alain de Botton claimed in his 2004 book, Status Anxiety, humorists’ role is not merely to entertain but “to convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly.” De Botton’s argument proves legitimate. Many humorists, such as cartoonists and television hosts, decide to use their humor as a tool to prove an idea or express a belief that cannot be voiced candidly in public.
In Status Anxiety, author de Botton correctly claims that humorists are expected to not only entertain their audience, but to make statements about controversial events that may be too sensitive to say directly and causally present them in a way that is easy for the public to understand. This is demonstrated through various forms of media such as television shows and political cartoons.
The short story "Shame" by Dick Gregory, clearly shows that poverty brings many hardships as well as a great deal of shame. However, there are still ways to gain pride and happiness. This story shows that by emulating somebody you respect, even a very poor person can derive pride from small actions, which the average person sees as insignificant.
Tina Dupuy is known as an award-winning writer, an investigative journalist, and a comedian. She’s written for The Atlantic, Fast Company, Los Angeles Times, Vox, and Mother Jones, which are newspapers that covers various subjects including politics. The effect of satire in her writing allows people to see these issues in a new light. Dupuy’s style, being characterized with ethical appeal, colloquial expressions and diction is expressed through wit and many rhetorical questions.
Thomas Jefferson” by Comedy Central are videos that did not use any rhetorical strategy. For the whole purpose of rhetorical devices is to be used as an argumentative tool, one that helps the author convey a message that will affect the opinions of the audience. These two videos are both used to be purely comical, and do in fact succeed. In addition to these two videos, the “Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere” video also succeeds in being comical. However, this video persuades the audience that mainstream news is not always informative and factual, in fact, it may be filled with nonessential time consuming stories. In conclusion, these rhetorical devices may or may not be intertwined with comedy, sometimes a video is purely meant to be a joke, but other times, they are meant to have an underlying meaning underneath the jokes and
In the past, Canada’s government-funded, universally accessible, health care system has been praised and admired both at home and abroad as one of the finest in the world. A great source of pride and comfort for many Canadians is that it is based on five fundamental principles. Principles that are a reflection of the values held by Canadian citizens since the formation of Medicare in 1966. These principles were reinforced in the Canada Health Act, (CHA), of 1984 and state that the Canadian system is universal, accessible, portable, comprehensive and non-profit.
Canada’s health care system “can be described as a publicly-funded, privately-provided, universal, comprehensive, affordable, single-payer, provincially administered national health care system” (Bernard, 1992, p.103). Health care in Canada is provincial responsibility, with the Canada Health act being a federal legislation (Bernard, 1992, p. 102). Federal budget cuts, has caused various problems within Medicare such as increased waiting times and lack of new technology. Another problem with Medicare is that The Canada Heath Act does not cover expenditures for prescriptions drugs. All these issue has caused individuals to suggest making Medicare privatized. Although, Canada’s health care system consists of shortcomings, our universal
Oliver’s use of the three artistic proofs was overall very effective and funny, which is especially important towards his audience. The show’s media spectrum falls mainly on the Internet, where about 94% of Oliver’s demographic watches his show, while the audience 's’ top interests are entertainment, media, famous people and societal issues. When looking at audience demographics, John Oliver is generally doing an excellent job of using an argument to persuade his
At some point in time, we all must have had a chance of sitting in a waiting room of a hospital. I had a chance to visit the doctor last week and it was horrible, I had to wait to meet the doctor for around 4 hours While I was dying of pain. That made me to curse the whole hospital system in Canada and that 's the main reason that lead me to prepare this essay . British Columbia health care system with emphasis on " Providing " patient-centred care". which is defined as "Shifting the culture of health care from being disease-centred and provider-focused to being patient centered". This represents a great polished political language which they use to make people feel content and confident by confusing without them knowing that they are being confused.
Satire is constantly evolving in order to maintain with the times. As technology, culture and humanity change and grow, satire is forced to grow with it. Satire of our modern time is more likely to be found on our phones than on print, more likely on a television than a telegram. By merging with pop culture, in forms of Family Guy and Comedy Central news shows, these forms of satire are able to stay relevant. But, despite the change in medium, the purpose of satire and effect of satire holds true. Modern satire, just as that of past satire, sheds light on the problems of our society through ridicule and mockery, without reinforcing and further cementing the stereotypes and prejudices they are trying to expose.
Jon Stewart treats the pundits as well as the political figures as propaganda. He discovers the falsities committed by the pundits and the political figures and puts his discoveries out to the public to watch as entertainment.