Three Stupid Kids That Ruined the Fun for the Rest of Us

     There are many instances where a toy has seemed to be dangerous for children, or may promote a risk to those involved in using it, however, this was not eh case for the Aqua Assault RoboFighter, which was a very fun toy for 99% of users. It shot plastic missles as well as squirted out water, making it a super exciting toy for chilren. However, three children managed to kill themselves because of this toy, and as a result, the toy is now discontinued. The article named "Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids" was published by Theonion.com and it very harshly reprimanded these three children for engaging in dumb acts that led to their deaths, but more importantly, the discontinuation of the toy. Obviously, this article is full of sarcasm adn satire. One can notice merely by reading the title that there is no way that anyone thinks the death of three children can be less important than a toy.
     The first little boy died by shooting teh plastic missle launcher up his nose, ausing a severe brain hemerage. The purpose behind his actions was that so teh plastic missle can launch through his body and shoot out of his belly button. The second little girl died by breaking the toy into pieces, adn then consuming the pieces, assuming they then became edible. The third boy died by jumping off of the roof with the toy above his head, hoping to fly. All  of these stoies seem very sad, but teh author of the article, being very humorous as well as bluntly honest, deliberately mentioned how stupid these childre were, adn how they deserved to die because they are so stupid. Though the article may seem brutal for some, I had complete sympathy for the author, because it seemed as though he really liked that toy.

Coyote v. ACME SOAPST

     This week in class, we began the satire/parody section of the cirriculum. Fortunately, this theme came about the same time we were learning about satire in our Armenian class. Though it is much more difficult to understand 1930 Armenian humor, both are a refreshing relief from the same old, boring narration.  In "Coyote v. ACME", a satirical piece is written in relation to the old cartoon that we all know and love, "Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner". In this story, Wile E. Coyote is sewing the ACME dynamite company for selling him faulty equipment that caused much more harm to him than it did benefit him. The story is set up as a court ruling, where Wile E. Coyote is the plantiff, and ACME is the defendant.
     The speaker of this story is the lawyer of the plaintiff, Wile E. Coyote, who is presenting the case to the court, jury, judge, and the reader. All these people would be the audience of the story. The purpose of the story is to persuade the judge and jury that ACME is at fault for all injuries that it has "caused" to the coyote. However, from teh reader's point of view, the purpose can be for Ian Frazier to display the actual corruption of the court system at the time, mocking the type of cases that were presented at the time. The subject is the court case, adn the tone is an overall sarcastic, satirical, adn falsely serious tone, which the author uses to emphasize the sarcasm.