Rhetorical Analysis On Drunk History

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Comedy Central’s Drunk History abridged television series episodes, “Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks” and “John Adams vs. Thomas Jefferson” feature an inebriated individual that tries to recount moments in history. The Onion’s video clip of “Breaking News: Bullshit Happening Somewhere” mimics a news report of a bear cub being spotted running through a neighborhood. The Drunk History video episodes’ purpose is to slightly inform and entertain viewers of historical moments through a different engaging perspective; the Onion’s video clip’s purpose is to taunt at news reports while retaining their basic sequence and structure. These three videos demonstrate the different use of rhetorical strategies to achieve their purpose while adopting humorous tones to appeal to their viewer demographic. The Drunk History episode “Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks” explains how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) initiates a bus boycott with Rosa Parks after being influenced by the actions and arrest of the young girl, Claudette Colvin. The decision to start the boycott with Rosa Parks demonstrates an ethos strategy as it is “composed of everything that makes an audience consider him or her persuasive” (Austin 664). The video briefly denotes a woman arguing that Colvin is too young, viewers …show more content…

Thomas Jefferson” is about the absurd fallacies and rivalry that initiated between Adams and Jefferson during their campaigns for the election of eighteen hundred. Although the two candidates made outstretched claims about one another, they hoped it would appeal to the logical reasoning of the voters. For example, Adams’s claim that Jefferson was dead is a false dilemma fallacy or “The rejection of one choice in such a situation [that] requires the adoption of the second alternative” (Austin 661). Adams hoped the voters would believe Jefferson was dead and therefore make them have “no other choice” than to vote for

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