"Pirates Aboard" An Analysis of "SOPA" by Stephen Colbert

SOPA

     In Stephen Colbert's video segment, Stop Online Piracy Act, humorous satire to clearly evaluate both sides to the discussion of the strongly despated act. Stephen Colbert, a well known comedian of the 21st century, uses this segment from his hit television series, The Colbert Report. This policy, also known as SOPA, was designed by members of the U.S. government to end the infringement of copyright. Colbert inflicts the humorous aspects of hyperbole, diction, and logos into his video report in order to grasp the attention of his audience and display his ideas effectively.

     Hyperbole is used throughout the video to exaggerate each aspect of the argument in a satirical form. Even though piracy is illegal, Colbert believes it "is just one of those crimes that everybody commits" and compares it to "jay walking or setting your ex-girlfriends couch on fire." By comparing the two crimes to one another, Colbert proves that although these are all laws created by the U.S. government, they are broken on a regular basis. Continuing to push laws further and restricting the internet will not be the final way to stop these crimes. Colbert states that due to the piracy act, the government of the U.S. will at last "bring swift and sure justice to heartened criminals on youtube." Although he uses a tone of sincerity, a video of young girls carelessly dancing to a hit Beyoncé song is shown while he speaks. By referring to children dancing as criminals, he is implying the idea that several that view this as a positive law are simply overreacting. 

     Through the entire video, Colbert's habit of provocative diction shows his concern and also proves to the reader his non biased opinion of the issue. While interviewing Danny Goldberg, Colbert acknowledges  that "if there are criminal penalties" involved and many are being "prosecuted" for the crime, "it will [begin to] stifle art." Colberts word choice shows the reader the intensity of the situation. Simply singing along to hit songs many be punishable by inprisonment, even though several of todays artists were discovered this way. Jonathan Zittrain was later interviewed in order "to defend thieves and pirates" while Colbert claims they are the ones that "want artists to starve." Colbert claims that the producing artists will starve if piracy is not disposed of and insults them with name calling. By degrading both parties of the argument, Colbert is portrayed as a non opinionated member. 

    Colbert's use of logos provides accurate facts and presents reasonable examples and solutions to the issue. Colbert continually discusses the fact that "piracy is everywhere" and over "70% of [adults] aged 18 to 29" have "copied or downloaded bootlegged music or video" from the internet. By showing the actual article from which the pull quote came from he is able to provide aqurate statistics to his audience. Colbert uses this information to display the outlandish number of illegal downloads. Many believe that China will no longer "[kick] our [butt] in business" if "parts of the internet" are shut down because employees will strive to work more efficiently. China has been the leading nation in production and economic aspects for several years. Colbert is able to provide solutions to many of the problems the country is facing.
      Stephen Colbert's video response to the infringement of copyright and the newly created SOPA provides an understanding to the issue as well as well thought out solutions.  Although the U.S. government continually struggles to make the country a better place for all to live, the creation of new laws will never be able to solve all issues perfectly. As the country continues to grow and develop, modern problems will occur.