Writing and Rhetoric 1 So Far

Writing and Rhetoric has hands down been the most interesting english class I have taken yet. I am so thrilled that this class focuses way more on society and it's problems and norms, rather then grammar or book reports. I feel that this class has even affected some of my general views on things, such as today (sorry this is late as hell) when we had the discussion of the environment. So many cool facts have been brought up in our engaging debates and it's simply insane to see how my class mates get so motivated and into the debates we have. One downside is all of the charisma and different characters, leads to a lot of screaming and there are times where I feel like I cannot participate or share my opinion because I will be lashed down. All the short stories we have read are fantastic because I am a huge short story fan and they are captivating stories about race, gender roles, and so much more. They are all fantastically written to, with some unreliable narration (huge fan) and the occasional curse word to make these stories seem actually told by real people and much more entertaining. If we had to read some boring "classic" literature from shakespeare again I would feel the need to shoot myself. Everything about this class has me engaged and interested and I have never had a class truly like this. I like how Ms. Chereskin lets us control a lot of what we do and never has some boring take notes sort of class. The work and essays are all very interesting because I can relate them to my life and I can finally really see not only what shapes my opinions, but how they came to be. They have given me a very good understanding of my life and myself. The amount of characters again, is something rare to come across anywhere and I truly think that this class is the definition of what Columbia College should be all about.

Daniel Tosh, the Ultimate Internet Celebrity

            When I think of a celebrity with strong ties to the Internet and it’s community, Daniel Tosh pops to mind. Daniel Tosh is a cutting edge comedian whom has his own show on Comedy Central called Tosh.0. Tosh.0 is a television show that revolves around finding the most absurd, hilarious, or downright disgusting Internet videos, usually one’s on youtube. He helps bring barely watched videos to the masses, while cracking all sorts of offensively clever jokes. At the end of his show, he picks from thousands of sent in video, the best comedic short skit.

This has affected a lot of struggling actors and comedians as he helps find great youtube comedy groups and individuals, come to the spotlight. One of my favorite videos I found through his show was a sketch done by mailordercomedy. These 2 extremely talented and hilarious individuals had less then a thousand views on their videos before his show. After showcased on tosh.0, their success has been rising quickly. He shares all of his thoughts on what could be anything on the show, making fun of many sport teams and stereotypes of people. Within watching the show for 2 minutes, you already know what he is all about.

             He often responds to his fans and their suggestions, through his twitter and his website. He runs on a blog, where his fans can post funny comments on certain pictures or videos. Many of the comments, he picks and chooses to put in a segment on his TV show. I deeply respect that fact that he can actually touch out to fans, in a way beyond the VIP backstage pass, which always seems to end off with a broken hearted fan getting a half assed handshake from the snooty celebrity they so loved. He lets other comedic talents from everyday people, be shown on his show

He definitely doesn’t care too much about his reputation and image as he sarcastically offends and jokes about controversial subjects every time he opens his mouth. He receives a very big amount of criticism for some of his jokes, yet he always keeps pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to laugh at. This is extremely different from other celebrities online, who try to keep a cookie cutter image (Beiber). I think this is because he is very comfortable with himself and to be different, which definitely has impacted fans.

By reaching out to on his twitter and blog, he shows that he does like to impact people’s lives. It is extremely interesting to see in this day and age, a celebrity this active with talking to fans and putting them on his show.