Running head: Rhetorical Analysis: Trump Supporters Sour Over a Bipartisan DACA

Deal: The Daily Show

Rhetorical analysis: Trump Supporters Sour Over a Bipartisan DACA Deal: The Daily

Show

Juan M Gama T.

University of Texas at El Paso

September 24, 2017

 Abstract

The Daily Show is an American late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs

each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The Daily Show draws its comedy

and satire from recent news stories. The segment of the show we are going to analyze its a

coverage of the Trumps meeting with the Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi,

and its repercussions in Trumps way of approaching certain topics as the border wall and

the DACA legislation. This segment aired September 14 of this present year. I choose this

video because it has a lot of elements that can be analyze in a very short period of time, and

because since the election of president Trump, I got more interested in the U.S politics.

Also this topic its very controversial because Trumps border wall and the hatred speech

that he has about the Dreamers, so its very important to start the conversation about what

can be a real and viable solution for this problematics that the U.S government has, that and

the fact that we really have to start thinking if Trumps actions are really a good way of

running the country because, as you would see in the analysis and the video, he has made

pretty questionable decisions in less than a year.

Purpose of Trump Supporters Sour Over a Bipartisan DACA Deal: The Daily Show

This video is a fragment of a show that airs on comedy central, that tries to inform in a

funny way the news in the U.S. Thats why we can see how calm and relaxed the anchor

Trevor Noah is, he is trying to make us understand with examples and metaphors the

incongruity Trumps decisions. Trevor always use Trumps tweets and the news to make a

statement about how he says something and then tweet the absolute opposite, because thats

who he is. When you see the video you can almost instantly notice Trevors point of view;
and thats good for a political satire show, because thats how you can make you bond more

with the anchor and laugh more.

Audience Characteristics

The audience is adults from 18 and up, but I think everyone can see this, it doesnt have any

bad words or things that are too smart to understand, its pure comedy, he uses a lot of

ways to make you laugh, from metaphors to logical fallacies, the variety in the comedy is

huge, thats why even a Trump supporter can see this and still laugh about the irreverence

of the show.

Ethos

Trevor Noah has a vast career in the Daily Show, since 2014 start as a contributor and in

2015 succeeded Jon Stewart as an anchor in the Daily Show, but before that he was the host

of an educational program Run The Adventure from 2004 to 2006. And he has been

nominated for a Writers Guild Award (Comedy/Variety Series), so we can see that he is a

very reliable writer with a lot of career and recognition in the U.S. also the most reliable

source was when he cited tweets from Trump account so we can see that he is really saying

what Trevor Noah claims in the coverage. The only thig that would maybe demerit the

coverage its were they aired it, Comedy Central, that its that a comedy channel that could

make you think that they are only joking and inventing things for the comedy, but with all

the logos that I would show later, we would see that the facts are veridical.

Pathos

The use of pathos in this video comes in a good way, the use of a news scene makes you

feel like you have to pay attention to the news that the host is giving you, but it also uses a
lot of bright color to represent the relaxed tone that this show has in particular. A big part of

the screen is all images and visuals to make you understand better what he is talking about,

for example when he uses a metaphor about Darth Vader, in his left side is a photo of

Vader with a storm trooper. Also he relies on the laugh as his best way to introduce Donald

Trumps way of acting, like when Trevor starts to respond Trumps tweet about the

protection of the Dreamers by saying he was the one that wanted the Dreamers out in the

first place, but doing it in a funny and clever way. For this things I really think he

accomplish his goal of inform you but also entertain you with the comedy involve, at my

point of view, this formula its the best way to make normal people get into politics.

Logos

With the logos first I want to applaud the writers of this program, they make a really

interesting and silly note into a masterpiece in a little bit less than 7 minutes, as I explain in

the ethos part, maybe we can say that because the show its aired in Comedy Central we

cannot be sure if its a reliable source of information, but because that same argument, the

writers give you a visual that its reliable in almost every statement Trevor Noah does, for

example when he says that Trump wanted to protect the Dreamers again, they show you the

tweet of the verified account of president Trump to support it, or when Trevor wanted to

explain the meeting with the democrats, they show a fragment of CNN and ABC NEWS

two national programs that are serious. This pattern continues in all the segment, so we as

viewers we can be sure that all the things are veridical and gives the show the credibility

that needs.
Conclusion

As a conclusion I can say that the video is good at what he does that its entertain and

inform the audience, it has a lot of the things that the news need to have like good sources

and charismatic host, but it also has some things that make it different, like how its clearly

to the that neither him or the writers are impartial, the jokes, or how they explain the news

with examples and metaphors, but this is obvious taking that in the end its more a comedy

show than a news show. To end I really think that the writers really achieve the goal, they

entertain and make the audience laugh and inform them a really important topic for all the

American population.

References

The Daily Show (2017). Trump Supporters Sour Over a Bipartisan DACA Deal: The Daily

Show. [video] Available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4RAlBD_wmk&index=11&list=WL [Accessed 24

Sep. 2017].

Noah, T. (2017). About Trevor Noah. [online] Trevornoah.com. Available at:

http://www.trevornoah.com/about/ [Accessed 24 Sep. 2017].