the onion

"Everyone is worrying about an uncertain future and coming together to express their outrage, and I don't get to be a part of it."

The article "Rich Guy Feeling Left Out of Recession", found on The Onion website, begins with a photo of a lonely looking man, Michael Chandler, who is a real estate developer and whose grandfather was a wealthy oil baron. Alone in his shiny limo in his business suit, holding his cell phone and staring off into the bleak distance, Chandler's forlorn look makes the reader ask the question, "Why on earth is he sad?"

The answer to that question is that Mr. Chandler simply feels left out--of the recession. Like a scraggly third grader picked last for a soccer game at recess, Chandler wants to be a part of something (the recession) that he doesn't fit into. He wants to have that bonding experience of hardship with his fellow Americans, but the truth is he's not 'fortunate' enough to be unfortunate enough. Chandler even "took the extraordinary step last week of speaking openly with a chauffeur about how hard the recession has been on everyone. He even went so far as to tip the driver 50 percent less than usual in an attempt to show the man that he, too, was hurting financially."

The Onion is dedicated to providing an endless source of sarcastic and rhetorically backwards articles. It's similar to magazines like "The National Enquirer" which are known for their ridiculous and inaccurate stories and rarely have any truth to their articles. It's appeal to ethos is its reputation for providing a hilarious satirical news article for all sorts of events in the world. The audience knows what they're getting themselves into when they enter this website. They know they entering a zone of sarcasm and poking fun at people. Even though the stories are ridiculous, they are extremely relatable to life, just on a more exaggerated scale. The sarcastic approach makes the rhetoric of this article interesting and is actually effective, but this will be discussed later. The appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos, are all made in an interesting and unusual way. The arguments are backwards and this contrast with reality convinces the reader of the point that The Onion is trying to make.

This certain article narrates a rich man's unhappiness due to his lack of participation in the current recession. He feels secluded from the world and its problems and he wants to have a part in them. Like Chandler says, "Everyone's supposed to get a fair shake at this misery." This article does a great job of emphasizing how ridiculous the world is getting in terms of creating universal equality by illustrating a situation where a man wants to be as unfortunate as everyone else instead of vice versa. This is where the appeal to pathos comes in. Chandler wants pity for the way his life is going. He wants sympathy and just wants to be accepted. The audience, of course, cannot feel bad for this man who has a picture perfect life with everything one would ever need. The audience starts to despise him for his lack of logic and his senseless jealousy for whatever he can't get. The newspaper delivers the story with an objective view and doesn't insert any opinions about Chandler's attitude; it just states the facts. The reader then forms his own opinion purely from Chandler's behavior.

The audience is expected to have a sense of humor on the topic. Although the recession is a very serious subject to almost everyone, The Onion knows how to pull the reader in and get him to laugh about it. The rhetorical situation isn't likely to appeal to everyone because of its sarcastic approach. The article probably appeals to people ages 20 to 40 because of its accessibility online and the way it jokes about politics and other current matters. It requires an audience who is updated in news and wants to laugh about political matters. The article isn't focused towards one gender, so it easily appeals to both. The reader should have a basic education regarding the economic situation, but does not need an extensive one. The message is very basic but it is also biting in its regards to the way humans act and the way society has changed recently. According to The Onion, "Chandler 'constantly' inquires as to whether any of his diversely invested mutual funds are losing money, but is always let down." It is quotes like these which make the reader keep coming back for more.

"And here I am, not scrimping and saving at all, with no demoralizing periods of financial hardship, or frantic weeks living paycheck to paycheck. What about me, you know? Where's my struggle?"

Human tendency is to want what you can't have. People envy others for their cars, their jobs, their homes, their looks, etc. The Onion takes this to its extreme meaning when they apply it to a wealthy man wanting a part in the risk and uncertainty of the recession. "Every month they announce tens of thousands of layoffs," Chandler said, "and every time, I'm not one of them. No matter what I say or do, it'll never be me. My only memory of this historic point in time will be the prosperity I have always known." His reasoning makes no sense, and that is what makes the article so hilarious. There is no direct appeal to logos in the article, but through the ridiculous situation written about, the reader makes his own connections to reason and logic. The best part of the article, and all of the articles on The Onion, is the way that truth is achieved. Through the usage of a sarcastic tone and exaggeration, the rhetoric of the article is very strong. The reader can't walk away thinking, "that had no relation to reality, nobody ever acts like this." The truth is, so many people do such ridiculous things when they want to fit in. Logos is appealed to in an indirect way. Through the senselessness of the article, the reader finds sense. Especially when Chandler's financial advisor speaks about how Chandler has been part of the cause of what happened with the economy, he provides a contrast to Chandler's nonsensical argument. His contrast helps the reader come back to reality and be able to directly relate to someone in the article.

According to Chandler's financial advisor,"his only real connection to the recession is that he helped to cause it by artificially inflating home prices and making millions off unstable derivatives trading." In the end, this quote seals the deal. Chandler has no idea how he is affecting the recession. All he knows is he wants to be a part of his own monster. People can relate this to actual events in these past couple of years when the wealthy have not taken any part of the blame for the recession. The disaster in the realty market with high defaults on mortgages, bank and other businesses' bailouts, and other factors are all ways that people have messed up the economy because of someone's irresponsible decisions. The reader can clearly see the relationship the article has and the way Chandler acts, to the way people in the country have been acting. The Onion does a remarkable job of keeping readers entertained and also get them thinking. It is much easier to formulate ideas and opinions when you have something ridiculous to contrast them against. The sarcasm, exaggeration, and satirical approach of this article give a new perspective for the reader and that is why The Onion succeeds.