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Lauren Darnell

Emily Kane

RC 1000

27 September 2019

“The Machine” True or False?

Comedy is a professional entertainment intended to make people laugh by the use of

jokes and satirical sketches. It needs certain essential elements in order for the comedian to

portray their joke in a sense that the audience feels as though they can relate. The most important

elements are surprise because the best humor is unexpected and the comedian in a sense controls

the joke. Lastly, truth because if the joke is not true to some extent and completely non-relevant

it is not as funny, and the audience cannot relate. The overall goal of comedy is to relate to

another and cause them to feel emotions. Bert Kreischer displays these characteristics through

his telling of his college trip to Russia and joining the Mafia in his stand-up comedy show “The

Machine.” He also uses many elements of exaggeration to make the audience question his ethos

and draw the question do we as the audience believe this story?

In the piece “The Machine” one could say there are many rhetorical devices used but

mainly Ethos. The purpose of ethos is to make the audience in this case feel as though there is

truth to the story. A question that is raised while listening to Kreischers story is do we as the

audience really believe that this happened. He tells a story of him while in college going on a

school trip to Russia and going to Mafia during his time there. As the audience listens it comes

across as a very funny story told with lots of details but as the viewer goes back and really thinks

about what is being said it becomes a bit of an unbelievable story. While there is an absence to

the ethos appeal it is a part of what makes the comedian so funny. The story becomes so
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unbelievable its laughable. Kreischer also uses Pathos in his piece which is eliciting emotions in

the audience. He uses this device when he compares robbing a train to cheating on his wife.

Those should not be compared to each other as this is something very sensitive that many people

have to go through in relationships. The way he compares this real-life problem to robbing a

train shows such a lack of sensitivity.

Exaggeration is often used in comedy because it makes the story more enjoyable along

with entertaining, it increases the drama. The audience picks up many times Kreischers

exaggerations and false claims. The first example is when his Russian teacher told him he had to

do no work at all, and she would pass him with a C if he stayed in her class. Now yes, some

teachers may be more lenient and nicer towards workloads, but it is hard to believe that a teacher

would pass a student for not completing any assignments or putting any effort forth. We as an

audience can assume that this statement was an exaggeration. Another instance is where he says

he has taken four semesters of Russian and had failed to learn a single word. Yes, he may not

know a lot of the language, but someone cannot sit through two years of a language and not pick

up a single word. Next his teacher tells him that if he attends this trip, he can get a minor in

Russian, which he claims he cannot speak, read, write, nor understand the language. Clearly, this

is lie because you have to have some knowledge of your minor in order to receive it.

Kreischer continues his story by stating that the school paid the mafia off to protect them.

The Mafia is organized crime in Russia, so somehow when one thinks about it, it is highly

unlikely a school would pay the Mafia to keep them safe. As they continue their trip, he goes on

explaining how he got involved with them. The next point in question was when him and his

class were on the train and he rode first class with the mafia guys. He tells the audience that

while on the train all the workers came and “paid their respects” including the conductor giving
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him the stars and stripes off his uniform. Of course, everyone laughs but this bit is extremely

unbelievable. As the story continues, he explained how they robbed the train which there is no

doubt that someone could rob a train without any of the passengers noticing. This is an example

of a fallacy as it appeals to authority because the audience is likely to interact with the

comedian’s story because he is on stage which represents authority. This piece could also this

could appeal to Ignorance because no one in the audience was there to prove him and his story

otherwise.

Kreischer in his stand-up piece does a lot of culture assumption. This is when one

assumes something about a group of individuals or in this case their culture without any proof.

He does this when he has the Russians in his story say, “Fuck that bitch this is Russia.” He is

making it seem that there’s no respect and no laws within their culture. Another example of this

was when after they were done robbing the train an officer was speaking to his class, the ones

that were robbed. Kreischer than goes and speaks to the officer who pulls him aside and says, “I

hear you are the machine, tonight you party with us” and continues about and gets in no trouble.

He is portraying the fact that people can get away with whatever in Russia with no

consequences.

The audience for this particular piece I says would range from high school level and older

as there is vulgar language and references to alcohol. Some may argue what him having no shirt

on adds to the piece. Him not wearing a shirt adds a sense of humor and almost a hobo slum look

that already makes the audience laugh while looking at him. I think that the argument he is

making is nothing matters in Russia clearly, he did not get in trouble by any of his actions.

Kreischers argument would have been well supported if this were a true story however

evidence and many exaggerations prove that this is untrue. It would be so unlikely for a school to
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even let this behavior occur in the first place. Again, the cultural message that seems to be

portrayed is that in Russia no one cares. Bert Kreischer did deliver this story in a quite a

humorous manner by using his voice, interacting with the crowd, his whole appearance and way

he carried himself were quite hysterical. The audience however can conclude from the lack of

ethos presented that this was an untrue story.