Happy April Fool's Day, everyone! While scrounging my brain for something to write about this week, I thought about this lovely "holiday" that is April Fool's Day. I've found that people either take it very seriously, or don't even realize what day it is. Then I started thinking about the rhetoric of pretty much everything for the day. I was looking around at news websites such as Time.com and cnn.com, and found myself wondering if all of the articles were true, despite the fact that these are very reputable news sources.
I found myself judging whether or not they were real by the language used and the content of the articles. I didn’t actually end up finding any joke articles, probably because I was on all credible news sources. But earlier in class I overheard two girls discussing the latest edition of the Phollegian, the Penn State joke newspaper, and was thinking about how we decide whether or not something is true. The Phollegian is an extreme example because the topics they write about are extremely outlandish, and obviously not true. Despite this, the articles are still written professionally and in the same fashion as a legitimate newspaper. So if you wanted to write a joke article and make it convincing, the key would be to write it in the same format.
I also overheard a lunch lady telling a couple of girls that the commons ran out of grilled cheese, which was also just a joke. Pulling something like that off in person is much more difficult than writing it because it requires you to control more than just your choice of words. Aside from just having a convincing story, you have to control your body language, facial expressions, and vocal tones. This is often difficult to do because you may not even realize that you’re doing something that’s giving away your lie.
Moral of the story; if you want to play a prank on someone, make everything seem as normal as possible for as long as possible.
I found myself judging whether or not they were real by the language used and the content of the articles. I didn’t actually end up finding any joke articles, probably because I was on all credible news sources. But earlier in class I overheard two girls discussing the latest edition of the Phollegian, the Penn State joke newspaper, and was thinking about how we decide whether or not something is true. The Phollegian is an extreme example because the topics they write about are extremely outlandish, and obviously not true. Despite this, the articles are still written professionally and in the same fashion as a legitimate newspaper. So if you wanted to write a joke article and make it convincing, the key would be to write it in the same format.
I also overheard a lunch lady telling a couple of girls that the commons ran out of grilled cheese, which was also just a joke. Pulling something like that off in person is much more difficult than writing it because it requires you to control more than just your choice of words. Aside from just having a convincing story, you have to control your body language, facial expressions, and vocal tones. This is often difficult to do because you may not even realize that you’re doing something that’s giving away your lie.
Moral of the story; if you want to play a prank on someone, make everything seem as normal as possible for as long as possible.
I agree pulling an April Fool's Day joke is a lot harder when done in person. You need to make sure your smile and body don't give it away but you can drop the "April Fools!" catch phrase! I haven't been fooled today yet, let's see if I can read into the rhetoric of the situation.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that humor often includes elements of rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteyeah, I also agree. I'm pretty gullible, so I often fall for these jokes, regardless of their absurdity.
ReplyDelete