In contemporary culture satire and comedy more broadly have become more popular because they are a coping mechanism. In today’s political society things that we never believed would or could happen are happening and satire and comedy have become a way to poke fun at things that are hard to talk about so one can laugh and forget for a moment. The role of satire should be to shed light on the things that cause us pain by way of comedic tactics to give a moment of relief. Satirists in the U.S can respond to a political reality that is in many ways out satirizing satire by using irony to point out the ridiculousness of our current political climate.

In Christopher Hitchens’ article “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” he attempts and fails to use ethos and logos in order to convince the reader that women are not funny. Hitchen’s uses ethos to enhance his credibility by informing the reader about his time at Stanford University School of Medicine. He participated in a study in which a researcher named Dr.Allen Reiss “showed 10 men and 10 women a sample of 70 black-and-white cartoons and got them to rate the gags on a “funniness scale.” In this experiment, Riess concludes that “women appeared to have less expectation of a reward, which in this case was the punch line of the cartoon, so when they got to the joke’s punch line, they were more pleased about it.” He also concludes that “women were quicker at identifying material they considered unfunny.”  Hitchen fails at his attempt to use ethos in order to convince the reader that women aren’t funny because his evidence shows no proof of these facts, instead it shows that women simply have a different sense of humor. Later in the article, Hitchen then attempts to use logos in order to convince the reader of his points by quoting American female author Fran Lebowitz. Lebowitz states, “Men obviously like gross stuff. Why? Because it’s childish.”  According to Hitchens, 90% of all comedy comes from filth and because filth is childish and women bear children they are unable to find the humor in said filth. Once again his point fails to answer the question “why women aren’t funny” and directs the readers’ attention to the difference in sense of humor between genders. Hitchen’s use of ethos and logos to support his argument aren’t effective because the reader never receives a clear fact-based explanation of why women aren’t funny.

One of the main themes in Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is an in-depth exploration of the ignorance that is associated with tourism. Kincaid takes the reader on a journey through Antigua a land that from a tourists’ perspective is lavish and perfect for escaping their homes for a nice vacation. Meanwhile, those native to the island of Antigua are living in immense poverty and do not have the privilege of basking in the fake world created for a tourists pleasure. The image Kincaid presents is very similar to what one would find today in Africa. More often than not Africa is viewed as a single country rather than a continent. It is pictured as a destitute land deeply embedded with the “white man’s burden” given to it by the media. Images appear daily of starving children in Africa and the primitive safari adventures that take place there. These images draw tourists to the country for either two reasons. One they wish to save to poor, dying children in a single part of Africa that does not reflect the entirety of the continent. Two they wish to embark on an African safari with a new found image of the lush adventures to be had in Africa. This scenario mirrors that of the one presented in Kincaid’s A Small Place because the tourists aren’t putting in the time and effort to know the continent and it’s country’s and it’s people for what they really are. Their ignorance only further disables tourists and the places they travel to from growing.

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