Jack Ohman a cartoonist for the small Sacramento Bee newspaper, drew an interesting cartoon depicting the hysteria that has struck America because of Ebola. Ohman's intended audience was the standard newspaper reading Sacramento citizen that has heard enough about this "Ebola" crap. The basis of the cartoon is to make fun of the stereotypical morbidly obese, cheeseburger chomping, cigarette smoking, beer guzzling American and their reaction to this vicious disease Ebola.
Ohman's purpose behind this cartoon is to bluntly state to America that Ebola is being too "hyped up" and it is the least of our worries. Ohman is trying to point out just how hypocritical Americans are being about Ebola and their deep concerns with how badly it is going to affect them as they continue to pound down liters of beer and fly through packs of cigarettes in a day.
Ohman used a bunch of rhetorical devices including satire, hyperbole, and I would even classify the cartoon as a whole as a parody of American citizens. Every facet of the cartoon contains extreme exaggeration in one way or another. Standardizing Americans as that severely obese holding a burger and a beer in both hands, with a big gulp and large fry in lap, and a cigarette protruding from the side of the mouth is all in one an embellishment of American citizens. It is important to note however that the standard, plain black text in the background displaying the numbers of deaths per year in the United States is actually very accurate. According to the National Institutes of Health all of the numbers Ohman put were exactly correct. By contrasting the havoc that the primary focus of the comic brings with the subtle background text, it makes the meaning and purpose of the comic much more distinct and powerful. At first it is a humorous piece to look at and have a nice chuckle about but then after staring at it for a little longer you begin to think about the severity of obesity, alcohol, and tobacco on American society.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/10/09/6771205_a6771204/jack-ohman-americans-concern-over.html
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