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Questions

Editorial cartoonists often uses humor to to make light of serious situations. Which 2 comic devices does Steve Sack use to highlight an issue relating to the corona virus? Explain your answer.
a) caricature / personification
b) parody / spoof
c) irony / hyperbole
d) understatement / exaggeration


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

Cartoon by Steve Sack

Answers

ANSWER
c) irony / hyperbole.

  • Irony is defined when the opposite of what you expect to happen occurs. You expect the heavily armed guard to be guarding a shipment of money or gold; instead it is a very inexpensive item: toilet paper. People having been buying up toilet paper and it is now hard to find in many stores.
  • Hyperbole is an exaggerated boast, character, situation, or environment. It stretches the truth well beyond reality. The key to good hyperbole is the tone; it has to be clear to the audience that it’s an exaggeration for comedic effect.
    The cartoonist uses hyperbole to exaggerate the length which a store will go to to guard its toilet paper shipment.