1.) Marijuana Legalization (The Daily Show)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/fri-february-28-2014-
In this episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart uses satire to address the issue of marijuana legalization. He starts off by analyzing a news report about Colorado legalizing recreational marijuana. Stewart talks about the “new pot industry” of Colorado, implying that it is a fallacy that marijuana is new to Colorado. He then sarcastically mentions the “strict purchasing qualifications”, including: purchasers must be at least 21, pot shops cannot open until 8:00 AM and must close by midnight. The sarcasm in his voice indicates that it is actually quite simple to obtain marijuana. He further compares Colorado sarcastically to the “wild west” to introduce the fallacy that marijuana can cause aggressive, criminal, and uncivil behavior. Stewart then asks the rhetorical question “So what are the restrictions of how much marijuana one can possess?”, then plays a clip from a government official stating that one can possess no more than one ounce. The camera returns to Stewart with a smirk on his face. He says, “So no restrictions”. Stewart satirically attacks the conservative view by playing a clip of Bill O’Reilly (conservative ethos) saying that smoking marijuana is “literally like playing Russian Roulette”. Stewart reiterates the false nature of this statement by repeating it in a mocking tone.
2.) Drones (The Daily Show)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/fri-february-21-2014-
In this episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart uses satire to address the issue of drone usage. He starts off the episode by sarcastically stating that the drones are greatly successful in assassinating leading members of Al Qaeda. He then mentions that though sometimes the drone assassinations do not work out perfectly and they end up shooting innocent citizens. Stewart then makes fun of the unclear logos followed by the government in determining when drones can be used. He plays a clip of a government official stating, “drones are only to be used in cases of imminent threat”. This outlines the fallacy that the justice department is entirely lawful and follows judicial procedures when conducting missions. Stewart then attacks the ethos of Vice President Joe Biden by playing a clip of Biden saying, “…ain’t constitutional” in a foolish way. Stewart later talks about the unconstitutionality of using drones for other purposes, such as spying on farmers for environmental purposes.
3.) Malaysia Missing Airplane (The Onion)
http://www.theonion.com/articles/malaysian-airlines-expands-investigation-to-includ,35524/
This article, posted on The Onion, offers a satirical approach to the missing Malaysian airplane. The main purpose of this article is to address the failure of the people searching for the plane to narrow down the realm of possibilities of what could have happened to it. The article satirically states that not only has the range of possibilities expanded to a mechanical failure, pilot error, terrorist activity, hijacking, but also, “the overarching scope of space, time, and humankind’s place in the universe”. The article also calls upon sarcastic logos, mentioning that the plane could be anywhere in the several hundred square miles of the Indian Ocean, or it could be in each of the 7 to 22 additional spatial dimensions of the universe. This satirical approach renders the search efforts as pathetically inconclusive. In fact, instead of narrowing the possibilities, as time goes on, search efforts are broadening the possibilities of what was the actual fate of Flight 370. The article concludes with a satirical remark regarding the ethos of the Malaysia Airlines, “Our top people are on it right now.”