Sunday, February 22, 2015

HANDS UP

In this episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart uses satire to express his opinion of the “hands up” movement all around America. Members of the football team,the St. Louis Rams, ran out before a game holding their hands up in respect of the Ferguson case. The St. Louis Police Association complained, saying that they are deeply offended and expect an apology and punishment for the players. They stated the action to be “tasteless, offensive, and inflammatory” (1).   Jeff Roorda states, “To us, it seems like rather than allowing wounds to heal, that they are picking at the scabs”. To this comment, Jon Stewart states very sarcastically that the police think that punishment and apology is the only way to get past this ‘outraging’ incident. The players and coach refused to apologize, but according to the police and media, they had apologized. The Rams official and players, however, denied they ever apologized at all. The police department tweeted the definition of apology and one of the responses from the Rams players.
“Apology: “Expression of regret for not being able to do something”
@KDEMOFF: “I regretted any offense their officers may have taken” “

What the officers did not realize is that this response was merely passive-aggressive and not at all sincere. Stewart’s satirical response to this was creating various tweets between the St. Louis County PD and the St. Louis Rams. He also states that the Rams released a ‘non-apology’ and that instead of rejecting this ‘non-apology’ like a group of normal people, they accepted, making it a “he said, she said” type of situation. 

5 comments:

  1. What a hilarious post! Jon Stewart always manages to make me break a smile. Although, I would not understand most of the things if you did not break it down for me. Many thanks to you! Jon Stewart’s sarcastic tone on news makes me so much more interested in the current news.

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  2. John Stewart is arguably the funniest news host ever even though that is the main purpose of his job and his show is on Comedy Central. He brings up some fair points that most biased news channels do not and although the show is in a satirical manner, he does get his point across.

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  3. Wonderful post! The original video was hilarious and well done, but your analysis in this blog post added to it. You added your own words to an already nicely formulated argument and just made it much better! Jon Stewart's work was a perfect pick for this topic because his satire and sarcasm are clear and extremely entertaining.

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  4. That police chief reminded me of the big burly southern officer with a hard hat in Selma. Stewart always knows how to blend reality with his own comedic ideas in an effort to create a work of art. This video was an excellent example of how the seriousness of politics can be alleviated with properly expressed humor. Well done.

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  5. Jon Stewart does an impressive job at bringing an important issue to topic by using the right amount of satire. He mixed actual politics and humor and clearly made his point. The original video is actually hilarious and you presented a neatly written argument. Talar, impressive work keep it up!

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