Monday, December 1, 2008

Rhetorical Analysis of Video



The video "Cookie Jar" by Gym Class Heros contains images that are questionable to the moral views of many people. Through the use of analogy and compare and contrast, the pathos of this video will be explored in more detail.

If someone had listened to this song before they watched the video, they may have thought that the song was an enjoyable tune. However when watching the video, there are many instances where analogies are used to sway the meaning of the song in the eye of the viewer. For example, in the the first chorus, "I wanna be faithful but i can't keep my hands out the cookie jar" takes the cookie jar to mean women that are not in a relationship with the man in the song. Also in the first verse, the lyrics "I left crumbs in the bed once but I told her I was through with that" is an analogy towards cheating, and the man claiming that he would not do it again. During the second verse, variations of cookies are compared to different ethnic women. Asian women are compared to oatmeal raisin cookies and Macadamia cookies are compared to Caucasians.

There are two main emotions that can result from watching this video. One of those emotions is disgust/shock. People feel this way about the video because of the way women are portrayed. Comparing women to cookies is degrading to their image. The other emotion that can be seen is pleasure. I mean that people find these analogies and comparasions humorous. The clever way the writer points out the different ethnic backgrounds of the women by comparing them to different types of cookies is a light and funny interpretation. The mixed pathos that result from this video intentionally drew people with different backgrounds to view it and make their own judgements on it.

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