The Powerful Cartoon

I respond to humor, though I hadn't given it much thought before Melody's presentation of humor as a form of rhetoric. Her examples, especially the jib-jab clips, were excellent examples of a way in which we don't notice rhetoric being presented to us. Her examination into the cartoon was insightful in that it questioned not just the word, but the image as well - something we haven't discussed in depth as a class yet.

As I was thinking about the presentation I started to get a little paranoid - is all humor rhetoric? Is the wool being pulled over our eyes everywhere we go? Humor is what keeps me sane when I'm running on caffeine and leftovers; it keeps a lot of us sane, especially now when we're under a lot of pressure. But at those moments, are we not having a rhetorical discussion within our minds, that we should look on the bright side and laugh, when we're not feeling up to laughing? In addition, humor is used in almost all aspects of advertising (not just political!) - it makes sense that if a person laughs they're more likely to feel positively about whoever or whatever made them laugh. Hmmm.

Reminds me of a song from Mary Poppins, "I love to laugh...ha ha ha ha! Loud and long and free!" (Isn't it a good thing I don't know how to put sound clips on the blog?)