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Questions

1. Editorial cartoonists often use humor to make light of serious situations. What comic device does the cartoonist use to highlight the Islamic State’s use of the internet to recruit more terrorists?
a) caricature
b) satire
c) understatement
d) hyperbole

 


Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.

Cartoon by Jerry Holbert

Answers

1. b) satire – satire is defined as: the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
ISIS actually recruits many jihadists using social media.

The cartoonist did not use:

a) caricature: A description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts a character’s prominent features, usually for purposes of mockery. For example, a cartoon of a gaunt Abraham Lincoln with a giant top hat, a very scraggly beard, and sunken eyes could be considered a caricature.

c) understatement: A figure of speech in which statements are purposely understated. It may be used to indicate the speaker’s nonchalance (or obliviousness) regarding an often important or otherwise remarkable situation. It often results in irony where, for instance, the speaker’s response to an event does not match how the viewer expects the speaker to react.

d) hyperbole: An extreme magnification or exaggeration of actuality. It blows something completely out of proportion for a distorted effect. The purpose of hyperbole is to create a larger-than-life effect and overly stress a specific point.