Two Birds With One Stone

This cartoonist has taken out two birds with one stone.

Analyze the rhetorical mimicry
and satire at work in this New Yorker cartoon. What's being mimicked? What's being satirized? Explain why this cartoon is both apt and funny. What are the two birds I have in mind here? Present your answer as a well written and carefully proofed paragraph.
Girls: Due Thurs. morning, Nov. 10, at 7:30 am.

(Sorry. There's no better way to kill a joke than to analyze it...)

TWO MODEL RESPONSES

I

When surfing through channels, one can easily come across commercials or infomercials that feature overly enthusiastic salespeople pitching new, innovative diet pills or other methods for losing a tremendous amount of weight in a very short time. These ads are loaded with clichés and platitudes, much like political speeches. When running for office, candidates tend to promise a higher quality of life and a better country for the citizens. Particularly in our current economic situation, candidates are offering budget cuts and programs that will create a flurry of job openings. By portraying a man watching a politician deliver a trite speech containing a number of classic weight loss commercial lines, the cartoonist has cleverly satirized weight loss commercials and political speeches.

The rhetoric of the speech alludes to current issues that our government faces each day. The speaker, who vows to “trim ugly fat and waste from government,” is clearly a target of mockery due to his overzealous language. He includes phrases that allude to extreme weight loss commercials in his address regarding government. The picture elicits chuckles and smirks because this is a concept that we all know too well. We are all familiar with the jargon of politicians, the ever reassuring and far-fetched ideas that they present to their voters. Just turn on a television and one can listen to any politician claiming that they will solve the world’s biggest problems. At the same time, turn on the television to find infomercials with salespeople bragging how they can transform an overweight man into a trim and healthy figure. This is most appropriate now because we are on the verge of the 2012 presidential election, and we are already beginning to see such far-fetched bids for election from many candidates. (BY SADE COOPER)

II.

Cartoons are created for many purposes: to engage the audience, provoke questions, satirize societal tendencies, etc. In this New Yorker cartoon, the cartoonist depicts a presidential candidate blabbering to the television viewer about a crash program that will turn government waste into super services. The cartoonist not only mimics the over-promising rhetoric used by politicians, but also satirizes the similar platitudinous rhetoric of dietary programs and commercialization.
This cartoon is funny because of the obvious exaggeration, the genuineness of the presidential candidate portrayal, and how bona fide his figure and flag placement appear. It is apt because it attacks both diet programs and elections very accurately in the diction it uses, such as "super services," "for you the American people," "natural mechanism" and others.
The two birds that are being killed by the one stone are diet commercials and presidential candidates popularity attempts. The cartoon is very comparable to an exercise program because it indicates that government will lose all its fat and waste to make it look beautiful and natural. It seemingly equates presidential candidates, such as the "Herman Cains" and "Mitt Romneys," to exercise program representatives.
Both commercials over-promise and make guarantees that are virtually impossible or totally unfeasible to fulfill.
This cartoon is a commentary on how politics have reached a new low in terms of media. Presidential candidates just do whatever pleases the American people. The cartoonist uses his cartoon to send the message that the age of candidates being over-promising must terminate, or else the American government will become the new, effective exercise program.

(BY DYLAN COOPER)

Visual Rhetoric #2

What we have here, regardless of your politics, is an effective example of street art: a protest poster anonymously created for the recent protests taking place on (and against) Wall Street in Manhattan.

This poster is graphically dramatic and instantly "readable." It references ideas and images familiar to most Americans, but does so in a fresh way. It deploys only three words, but gets a lot of mileage out of them.

In a brief paragraph, analyze everything that's going on here. (You may need to zoom in on the image to capture the details.) Comment due Tuesday morning, 10/25/11 by 7:30 am.

BEST OF BATCH (according to student vote and Mrs. J ... truly a consensus affair!)
By Sade Cooper

America was founded in the spirit of democracy and liberty. These unique and distinct values can be seen whenever an individual asserts his right to freedom of speech, religion, press, and protest. Occupy Wall Street, the manifestation of the people’s frustration with the economic crisis, showcases the rights of the people outlined in the First Amendment of America’s Constitution. In the past few months, people have formed a grassroots movement, camping out in the financial district of New York City in order to express their discontent with the income inequality, unemployment, and collapse of the housing market, for which many of the protestors allege Wall Street is at fault.

The picture of the larger fish seemingly eating the little fish, dubbed Wall Street, symbolizes the goal of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Upon looking closely at the larger fish, one can easily see that it is comprised of many smaller fish, all working together to form one big fish. This depicts the mission of this demonstration: when all the individuals come together, they can be successful in defeating what they regard as the all-mighty, powerful Wall Street.

The poster urges people to “Organize!” themselves in order to create a movement strong enough to have an impact on Wall Street. This battle cry is written on the poster in order to show people that with organization, the movement can be effective. The sense of organization is conveyed through the combination of smaller fish, which creates one dynamic unit.

Wall Street is depicted as a smaller fish that lacks the idea of the “pieces of a whole” that the larger fish so clearly stresses. According to this drawing, Wall Street is comprised of identical corrupt and power-hungry corporate businessmen that all share a common goal. They are not complex or multifaceted; instead, they are one evil being responsible for the current economic crisis and the crimes committed on the people at the grassroots level.

Through this poster, one can see several of the primary goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It displays the people’s desire to unite in order to conquer their targeted enemy and change the economy and America as a whole.