Toothpaste for Dinner

Toothpaste for Dinner cartoons are published daily, and utilize simplistic drawings and short, witty captions/dialogue to comment humorously on what are at times pertinent issues (and other times, they're just silly for the sake of being silly, which I also appreciate.)

I think one of the more interesting (and hilarious) things about these cartoons is that they always have the same strange square-headed characters in them. Perhaps it is the unity and simplicity of these designs that partially enables them to have the impact that they do. While for the most part their intent seems to be humor, they also work to point out the absurd and ridiculous things that happen in our society every day, challenging the public to take another look from a square-headed perspective for a change.

Little Beauties

While watching TV with my roommate one night, we came across a documentary that simultaneously grabbed our attention and made us cringe uncontrollably. "Little Beauties" is a documentary-style special that follows the lives of beauty queens--all of whom are 6 years old or younger.

We watched mouths agape for an hour as these little girls were dolled up (literally) with makeup, outfits (including swimsuits), and even fake teeth, and then paraded around a stage to be judged on their appearances. At the end of the program, we swore this was something we would never do to our daughters.

Yet, upon further reflection, I wondered whether or not other girls this age were feeling these same sorts of pressures. While not as blatant as, say, spray tanning a 6 year-old, aren't images of other seemingly perfect girls floating around out there forcing other young girls to confront them and react to them before they're ready? And what are the more lasting effects of this type of obsession with body image like eating disorders and hypersexualization at a young age? This is definitely something that I want to explore in my final project, and I think I will definitely use a small clip from this piece as well.

I think the underlying concept is especially noticeable at about 4:20 in the above video, when 6 year-old Aleena tells her mother all about how she can't wait to get her boobs. It is especially poignant, as the music and joking nature of the dialogue make it seem harmless, yet my roommate and I were left cringing. No legitimate care or concern seemed to be paid to anything other than making sure the girls looked perfect, to the point where a 6 year-old was excited for her boobs to grow. However, perhaps by exposing the world of these young beauty queens in such a sickeningly positive and lighthearted manner, the filmmakers were trying to get the response of that my roommate and I experienced after all.

Americans Dropping Out of Presidential Race

The Onion is one of my favorite online humor sites. As a satire of other more serious newspapers, it often utilizes the power of comparison/contrast and allusion to create its humor. The graphic on the left and its accompanying article, Americans Announce They're Dropping Out of Presidential Race are no exception.

Written in the style of an article covering the upcoming presidential election, this article turns the table on typical election discourse by saying that the voters, rather than a candidate or two, are dropping out of the presidential race:

"The U.S. populace, which has participated in every national election since 1789, said that while the decision to abandon next year's race was difficult, recent events, such as disappointing victories by both Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani in regional straw polls, left them with no real choice.

"We gave it our best shot, and for a while it seemed like the American people actually had a chance of coming out on top,' Weare, NH resident Mark Simmons said at a press conference in front of his suburban home. 'Unfortunately, as much as we'd like to remain optimistic, it's become clear that this just isn't our year.'

Added Simmons: 'Maybe you'll see us again in 2012.'"

The accompanying graphic (left) also lends to the "authenticity" of the satire, as it looks just like a map used to track which states are favoring which candidate or political party. Instead, reasons why Americans are no longer interested in voting in the 2008 election are listed.

Similar to Colbert and Stewart (see earlier post), this article uses humor to point out the ridiculousness of many aspects of U.S. politics and politicians. By utilizing satire through effective visual and verbal rhetoric, this article comments on the despair that many Americans feel when attempting to make sense of politics today, as well as America's apparent inability to fully participate in one of its fundamental freedoms--the right to vote.

Offensive Beyonce

This billboard is somewhat related to what I think my final project is going to end up being about. It is an advertisement for Las Vegas radio station KWNZ that features music icon Beyonce clad in a bikini. According to this article, resident Pamela Keeney claims the billboard to be obscene. She says, "I have my two little grandkids coming over here, and they don't need to be seeing that. You can change the channel on the TV but you can't change that." Another resident, Ward Ryan collected 100 signatures on a petition protesting the billboards.

The other side of the argument comes from the radio station itself. Scott Seidenstricker, manager of KWNZ, said: "The billboards were taken from publicity shots and this is the way those people perform. So to show them in a jogging suit probably wouldn't be the right thing."

So, who is at fault here? Something as public as a billboard that can be visible by all, particularly people and their children from their homes, can't just be ignored. But is the entertainment industry also to blame (on a higher level) for forcing that sort of imagery into the mainstream in the first place? I think that this piece of rhetoric raises bigger questions, like why is it that Beyonce can't be pictured in a jogging suit? She's a beautiful, talented artist, but all we are allowed to focus on in the billboard is her chest and bare midriff. Are not only advertisements but the sheer existence of scantily clad women that appeal to younger generations of girls creating larger problems, such as forcing younger girls to confront issues like sex and body image before they are cognitively ready to handle them? I think that this billboard and the controversy surrounding it does an excellent job of raising these questions, which I hope to further explore in my final project.

Divided We Fail

This PSA uses the power of ethos and pathos to encourage viewers to check out dividedwefail.org, a site devoted to uniting Americans in the cause of fighting for better healthcare. The most obvious rhetorical strategy it utilizes is ethos, as it is jam-packed full of celebrities from Morgan Freeman to Eva Mendes to Dakota Fanning. I think the dialogue is also particularly noticeable, as the piece begins with one-word contrasts that help emphasize the idea of being different. The "divided we fail" name is also an obvious allusion to the famous (and often patriotic) slogan "united we stand, divided we fall."

The background music is a more subtle strategy, as its patriotic undertones are masked by starting out as purely emotive at the beginning of the PSA. While it is not obviously patriotic at the beginning, when Joaquin Phoenix starts speaking, the patriotic feel of the music builds and then fades at the end. The use of this type of music traditionally elicits an inherent feeling of togetherness and uniting under one natioin, which is the overall point of the PSA.

Interestingly, the concept of healthcare is not directly shown here in any way. While another PSA regarding this type of material may have opted to show, for example, pictures of sick children who cannot afford healthcare to really hit an emotional nerve, Divided We Fail opts instead to encourage Americans to participate by making them feel that they are a part of this big nation that must rise up together despite its differences as one voice. I think this is an excellent example of showing an "idea" rather than the object. I also believe it to be far more effective by being slightly untraditional where this subject matter is considered, causing people to take notice rather than ignore it.

Nobel Peace Recognition of Rhetoric

Al Gore's win of the Nobel Peace Prize in October is essentially a reward for his effective use of rhetoric. By making the documentary An Inconvenient Truth and essentially taking the lead in bringing global warming discourse to the average household, Gore used the power of all three of Aristotle's strategies to appeal to Americans and the world to take the threat of global warming seriously by taking action in reducing their climate change impact.

This article cites the Nobel citation, which states that Gore's "strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change...He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted."

Such a notable award not only speaks to the ability of effective rhetoric to have a real impact on the world, but serves as a form of rhetoric itself. Validating Gore's actions on such a grand scale gives them the justification that many skeptics need to take his claims seriously.

War Leaves Scars

This powerful piece of rhetoric pretty much speaks for itself. The iconic "mother and child" appeal immediately to the viewer's emotions. The real holes, obviously created by artillery fire, that pierce the painting of the mother's head are a sharp and very real contrast to the peace and beauty that the mother and child image is supposed to evoke. The contrast between the painted image and the real concrete visible in the holes also destroys the idea that war, in reality, can be anything but violent and deadly. The simple slogan "War leaves many scars" hits home immediately, commenting not only on the physical scars left by artillery, but the emotional scars of the violence that everyone involved must endure. The slogan works perfectly with the image, creating an overall effective piece of rhetoric.