In our day and age in America, one of the most impacting social issues is body image. If you go to a foreign country, they make jokes that the United States is going to sink because our diets are extremely unhealthy, our portion sizes are enormous and we do not exercise enough. While our health probably is not where it should be, pointing out this specific insecurity and making jokes will hurt people too. The meme Dr. Phil, uses bolded text, offensive humor and the celebrity status of Dr. Phil to have readers read the meme in a humorous way. These modes use pathos and ethos to achieve this end.
The Dr. Phil meme to begin with has a large, white, bolded headline stating, “You’re Fat” and then the bottom line reads, “Don’t sugarcoat it // Cause you’ll eat that too”. The positioning of the wording is purposeful because the first thing you read is …show more content…
Among younger crowds of people, making “fat jokes” or other jokes is a common trend to do in order to be found funny by other peers. Pathos is involved because the meme is stating an opinion then trying to soften the blow with the pun at the end. Regardless if the pun is found funny, it still evokes emotions from the reader reinforcing the usage of pathos because being called fat is usually never taken lightly instead it is taken in an offensive way. It makes you feel bad about yourself since the term fat has negative connotation, no one wants to think that others think that of themselves. The second way pathos is used is through the bolded text. Not only is the meme stating an opinion, but the creator of the meme made this part of the text bigger than the rest. This was done to get the statement across easier and make it more powerful. Along with getting this statement across to readers, it is intended that this is the first thing you see and read. This evokes pathos as well because it is trying to be as clear as possible in stating the