Humor In Amy Poehler's Speech

Amy Poehler, a known comedian-actress, was asked to give a speech to the graduating class of Harvard University on May 26, 2011. Her usual wit pulled her through a memorable segment in the ceremony where nobel-prize winners have spoken. The Commencement ceremony is the day before graduation where seniors get to spend their last time together as Harvard undergraduates. Harvard graduates that have been sitting in the heat with their parents listening to speech after speech about their future and how bright it is now that they have been educated at the all-knowing, superior school that is Harvard University. Humor played an exuberant role in her speech to keep the rising temperature tolerable. Being alone and succeeding is not the equation she …show more content…
The majority of Poehler’s speech is pathos because as a comedian-actress, there isn’t any credible information she says, mostly because it’s a joke half the time. Hosting an advice vlog series on Youtube credits to her pathos because she is used to giving advice. Ethos is integrated when she refers to her career: Saturday Night Live, Baby Mama, and Parks and Recreation. This device is to become more relatable to her audience from seeing her on the screen. Logos is only mentioned when she compares her generation to the millennial audience she is speaking to. The comparison was based off fears that both generations had to go through starting with theirs being 9/11, orange alerts, unaccomplished missions and hers being …show more content…
“Even though, as a class, you are smart, you are still allowed to say, "I don't know." Just because you are in high demand, you are still allowed to say, "Let me get back to you." That message was delivered more efficiently with that rhetorical device. Anaphora was a popular device when she became personal and relatable to her young audience. “You never know what is around the corner unless you peek. Hold someone's hand while you do it. You will feel less scared. You can't do this alone.”
In conclusion, Amy Poehler was extremely effective and influential in bestowing her view of humility and collaboration using silliness, purposeful anecdote, and brisk sentence structure. Poehler passes on this bigger connection of coordinated effort using rhetorical devices in a straightforward and clear way to the young group of graduates. Collaboration is an extraordinarily important skill that not just the Harvard students removed from Poehler's speech, additionally can be utilized through