topic proposal

Topic Proposal

Laughing Matters

Reasons presidents need to make fun of themselves to get elected

4 main questions that I will address

-What shape does the argument take? How is the argument presented or arranged? What media does the argument use?

-What is the purpose of the argument? What does it hope to achieve?

-What appeals or techniques does the argument use- emotional, logical, and ethical?

-What are the contexts- social, political, historical, cultural- for this argument? Whose interests does it serve? Who gains or loses by it?


The argument implies that political candidates need to go though some comedy related event or show in order to get elect. This is backed up throughout the text because it gives examples of all the political candidates that have went through the process. And for them to get elected they must make fun of themselves a little bit because it will make people laugh and reassure the public that these people show some sense of human functionalism. It is presented through documentaries and late night shows such as The Letterman Show and SNL.

The purpose of the argument is basically that all these figureheads of our society enjoy the same comedy that ordinary people do. Just because they are politically important doesn’t mean that these people are not slightly entertained through comedy. The argument hopes to achieve conformation from the public that in order for someone to get elected they must first endure the wrath of comedy. It has proven true because every single president nominee has been on a late night show of some sort.

The argument uses a combination of ethical and emotional appeal because comedy effects people both emotionally and sometimes ethically. Sometimes jokes can get a little bit unethical and cross over the line but since these are presidential candidates I would think that they know what is going to be said about them before they agree to the show. Comedy mainly appeals to us emotionally because seeing these people on television getting ripped for ridiculous things makes us laugh and helps us gain a perspective on what kind of sense of humor the candidate has. Anytime you laugh you draw some sort of emotion whether you try to or not because most of the time you are entertained.

The contexts of this argument is political and cultural because these are politicians that are molding to today’s culture which is that these nominees are basically required to appear on some sort of comical show in order to get elected. It interests the voting population because they are the ones that are eventually going to have to elect one of these candidates. The candidates have basically nothing to win but everything to lose on one of these shows. The public really benefits from this because they are given to opportunity to see another side of the candidate.