16
Rhetorical Analysis 2
Samuel L. Jackson’s “Wake the F!ck up!” video was originally uploaded by “JCER”, however, the YouTube user was required to remove the video because of copyright issues. However, this video still went viral and many YouTube users downloaded the video and reuploaded the video themselves. Wake the F!ck Up was directed by Boaz Yakin and Kitao Sakurai, written by Adam Mansbach, and produced by Jesse Schiller. The url provided for this assignment linked back to Telegraph TV, a UK news source.
The primary audience of this video is United States citizens who support Obama for president. Because “Wake the F!ck Up” scrutinizes Mitt Romney and his republican party using crude language and satire, younger audience find this video more humorous. Besides Obama supporters, this video is also attended for Democrats and undecided voters. Although this video’s primary audience is for the United States, the video was uploaded by a UK news source; therefore, another secondary audience includes those interested in politics and political humor.
The purpose of this video is to convince undecided voters why Obama should be elected as the next President and to ignite the emotions/support of Obama voters. In this rhetorical text, the video claims that Mitt Romney is an out of touch millionaire, who sends jobs overseas, doesn’t support student loans or planned parenthood, and will cut Medicare. In order to support this claim, the video highlights 4 different types of voters, including; middle aged parents, elderly grandparents, college student, and young high school girls. Upon closer inspection, the directors chose Samuel L Jackson, an African American actor to deliver political satire and comic relief to these 4 groups of undecided Caucasian voters. Samuel’s L Jackson refutes Mitt’s poor platform to the movie characters (and viewing audience), justifying how Obama’s platform acknowledges each groups’ needs and concerns.
Because this viral video is under 4 minutes, short, and mildly crude, it appeals to a younger crowd with short attention spans. Additionally, the music affects your perception of a scene and how you view the character.
This video argues that Obama is the clear choice for president because Mitt Romney is an out of touch, incompetent candidate. To support the argument, the video used logic and emotion to convey its message.
“Wake the F!uck Up” was uploaded by Telegraph Tv on September 27th 2012, t-minus 2 months from the United States Primary Presidential Election. During the last two months on the campaign trail, both Obama and Romney worked extremely hard to captivate undecided voters as well as capitalize and motivate their strongest supporters.
