topic proposal

Elizabeth Spivey
January 29, 2008
Topic Proposal
English 102

I want to write about why ridicule is necessary in humor for my first essay. The questions I want to focus on are 1. What is the purpose of the argument? What does it hope to achieve? 2. What appeals or techniques does the argument use- emotional, logical, and ethical? 3. What are the facts used in the argument? What logic? What evidence? How is evidence arranged and presented? and 4. What are the contexts- social, political, historical, cultural- for this argument? Whose interest does it serve? Who gains or loses by it?
The first question has a simple answer. The point of this argument is to show how useful ridicule can be. It can be both an offensive and defensive mechanism. In Laughing Matters the section on ridicule is entitled “Ridicule: An Instrument in the War on Terrorism” so the whole article pertains to war but is meant literally and as a metaphor. Whoever reads this article can apply the facts and techniques illustrated to their own personal “war”, whatever it may be.
The argument strongly focuses on emotional and logical techniques. Obviously ridicule is going to pull on emotions. Everyone has been ridiculed or laughed at at some point in their lives. Now like I said before this article talks about it on a much larger scale than what happens at recess but the same principles can be applied. J. Michael Waller, the author, tries to get the reader to understand that ridicule is an emotional battlefield. If you’re going to go to war you have to go full force and know how to throw the punches as well as defend yourself from them. He gives plenty of examples to illustrate the emotional effects that ridicule has on individuals as well as whole countries. I also think the argument uses logical techniques because it makes sense that if you laugh at someone their spirits will be down. No one wants to do the stupid thing that everyone makes fun of later, so Waller points out that it is logical that if you want to hurt someone or something ridicule them.
The facts presented in the argument are a lot of examples where ridicule has been used in the world of politics and warfare. One example Waller gave was of Ceaser when he banned any type ridicule from the people that was directed towards him or his empire. Waller gives a ton of other examples where people in political power ban any sort of ridicule that is directed towards them or their peer leaders.
The contexts in this article are social, political, historical, and cultural. This question kind of goes hand in hand with the third question I’m talking about. Many of the examples Waller gives are historical and political in nature, but I know that it will be easy to find examples dealing with social and cultural ridicule.