Satire Project Essay

Article:

1. The topic of this article is Lance Armstrong, who recently admitted to doping throughout his cycling career. The article is written based off of an actual interview on Lance conducted by Oprah Winfrey. In this interview, Armstrong admits to fraud and taking performance enhancing drugs in preparation for races. 2. This article’s main claim is that Lance Armstrong is completely guilty of the crime. It is more informative; explaining the real situation and presenting quotes from Armstrong himself. 3. I would cite this article as shown below:

Litke, Jim. “Lance Armstrong Interview: Cyclist Confesses Doping To Oprah.” Huffington Post. 17 01 2013: n. < http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/17/lance-armstrong-interview-doping-oprah_n_2500456.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular,lance-armstrong>

Cartoon:

1. The event that inspired my cartoon is professional cyclist, or rather unprofessional, Lance Armstrong, admitting to doping. Armstrong’s use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs over the years of his cycling career caused him to be stripped of 7 Tour de France titles and many other awards.

This event was even more controversial because of the cancer charity, Livestrong, that he created. 2. The target of my satirical political cartoon is Lance Armstrong. In particular, I am targeting the bad choices that he has made throughout his career. It is because of this that my intended audience would be anyone who thinks that what Armstrong did wasn’t right.

3. My satirical critique is that Lance Armstrong should not have used performance enhancing drugs. It was completely unfair to the people that participated in all of the races with him. It was also awful of him to lie about it for so long especially because so many people, all over the world, saw him as an inspiration and even donated to his cancer charity. 4. My purpose in making this cartoon is to criticize Lance Armstrong. I am criticizing the fact that he lied and used steroids and performance enhancing drugs during his cycling career. 5. The response I mainly want from my audience is go get them to see that what Armstrong did was ridiculous and unfair. It is just so hard to believe that someone could go on this long, lying to the world and ruining other cyclists’ dreams of winning a race in which they got nothing and he got all of the glory.

6. I incorporated the political cartoon technique of irony by drawing an I.V. pole being dragged by Lance Armstrong who is on a bike. This is ironic because he might as well have been doing that since he was doping in preparation for big races. I also used the technique of labeling to make it clear to the audience that the bags hooked up the I.V. pole were filled with performance enhancing drugs and blood, then being fed into Lance’s arm. 7. I would place my cartoon closer to the juvenalian side of the satire continuum. It belongs closer to this side because it is sarcastic and harshly ridiculing Lance Armstrong.