Professional Documents
Culture Documents
English 1010
09/28/2015
Bangerter Sensei
Rhetorical Analysis #6
Intro & Summary
On of the most intriguing methods to control the opinions of the masses, is
through censorship. Censorship allows you to control and monitor the information the
public receives. For this reason it is an extremely useful tool for keeping and gaining
power. After the invention of the printing press made literacy a useful method of
receiving/sending information; people have attempted to influence others using this
medium. The article I chose is titled 5 Insane Examples of Censorship Backfiring
Hilariously and it explores the unexpected outcomes of this censorship. The article is
written with sarcasm and humor to convey the ridiculousness of the attempts at
censorship.
The article explains several examples of censorship, starting with how Germany
has censored video games in order to minimize the players exposure to violence and
gore. The second example the author gives was of Japan censoring a different video game
by replacing a torture sequence with a tickle sequence. The third example the author
examines involves the World Championship Wrestling league issuing a company wide
mandate that the word foreign had negative connotations and should no longer be used
network wide, opting instead for international. The third example of censorship was
regarding the alternate ending filmed by the Chinese government for 2013s 21 & Over
movie. The final example is of a TV adaption of the film Show Girls in which they
censored the nudity by creating poorly animated CGI clothing.
Rhetorical Analysis
the WWE censoring Foreign by replacing it with International. The author explains
how this backfired by making the objects appear to be foreign in the sense of culture
instead of foreign to the ring itself; which is exactly what the WWE was intending to
avoid.
Overall the writer effectively states the information in a way that is easy to
read even while casually browsing the internet. He is also fairly entertaining with his
delivery; his writing voice is witty and a bit cynical. This matches well with his intended
audience, since college humor is notoriously crude and sarcastic. He also does a great job
of not isolating his audience by attaching himself to a certain opinion about the topic. He
simply presents the facts in a humorous, easy going way. I enjoyed reading this article
and will read more of them in the future.