5. Ryan Hamilton

Recently in class, we were shown a clip from Ryan Hamilton's newest Netflix comedy show. It was so hilarious and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good laugh. After watching this show, our professor challenged us to write a blog post about the rhetorical strategy behind this show. At first, I was stumped. "How does a comedian use rhetorical strategy? They are not convincing! They are just funny." However, I thought about this for a while and I realized that comedians are the prime example of using rhetorical strategy. They are convincing their audience members to laugh and agree with the things they are saying.

Throughout Ryan Hamilton's show, he makes references to New Yorkers and what life is like living in New York City. The reason why this was so funny to the audience and to anyone watching that has visited this city is because it was relatable. He used the rhetorical strategy of "pathos", which is to persuade using emotion, to get his audience to laugh. Through sharing experiences of frustration and humor, the audience was able to invoke their own personal feelings about that specific subject and it became relatable to them. At the end of the show, everyone was in tears from laughing so hard.

So, through this experience, I quickly learned that comedians are the prime example of how to use rhetorical devices to persuade their audience members.