Cake Wrecks has hundreds of blog posts covering topics from “Chocolate “Poop” Icing” to cakes of Jesus holding a dinosaur. These examples, however, do not come close to the depth, creativity, and thought put into creating these posts. The hilariousness and pure genius used to portray horribly made professional case created a difficult decision; which post will I analyze??! This one? No…This one…NO! This process continued for about an hour until I found the most amazing button ever! The lime-green “surprise me” button! This magical device turned out to be my savior and led me to what I did my analysis on; behold…(drum roll please) CUPCAKE CAKES (or the acronym CCC). The authors of Cake Wrecks have an extreme prejudice against cupcake cakes, if you are thinking to yourself “man I love cupcakes!” think again…these are no ordinary cupcakes. Words can hardly describe why Cake Wrecks simply hates CCC’s (but pictures can). Hopefully, after providing some examples Cake Wrecks have presented using creative logic, diction, and of course, the pictures of the horrific cakes themselves, will help you realize how rhetoric with an unhealthy case of prejudice can sometimes persuade a whole online audience to agree with an author. Cake Wrecks have three posts which will all be analyzed based on the diction, tone, figurative language, and how the author used the cake photos.This site is intended for mature audiences and may have some suggestive material so browse at your own risk :)
Post 1- Cupcake Cakes: Always Wrecktastic. Always.
The original post introduces the idea of CCC’s (and their nastiness) to readers that are not as familiar to the CCC. The beginning statement gives a very “logical” argument that goes a little like this…
“Hi, my name is Jen, and I hate cupcake cakes.
Why? ‘Cuz their ugly.
Don’t believe me? Keep reading.”
The format of the writing suggest that these statements should be read like a confession in a AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting, but the wording is humorous and intrigues the reader to find out why cupcake cakes are ugly even though the argument is hardly logical. Luckily the reader is not let down.
The first example of a CCC is precluded by the story of Shara; a lady that just wanted a nice Curious George cake, nothing too fancy. The format of the pictures is also very funny saying “this is what Curious George looks like...and this is what Shara got..." (Pause for rhetorical effect)
The fact that this is an actual cake a “professional” person made is also what makes this argument extremely convincing but at the same time, amusing. The thought that someone was paid to create this cake is ridiculous because the cake does not look like Curious George! The author, after showing the CCC, states her opinion on the cake…
“So apparently what the decorator heard was "Curious George after he's been flattened by a cement truck". That, or maybe he/she was going for an homage to Teen Wolf:”
“After he was flattened by a cement truck.”
The author uses figurative language by using the image of a cement truck and Teen Wolf which can both be related to the cake that was created for Shara’s birthday. This gives some evidence that cupcake cakes are indeed “ugly” although the next example that is shown takes the cake (haha)
The "Ojai, it's worth the drive!" cake persuades by using the grotesque description (and picture) given by the author..
"I would love to ask what the heck "Ojai" is, but I'm way too distracted by the poo souffle on the bottom. Honestly, this thing is in serious competition with the modly-camo cake in my "dry-heave-inducing" category.
The commentary made by the author is what makes the statement "cupcake cake's are ugly" so convincing; the figurative writing (poo souffle) is used once again to make the picture seem much worse than it really is. The witty ending has an emotional effect, creating a flabbergasting response that leaves a smile behind.
Post 2 - It seems the cake wrecks website went down right when I was about to do the second post about cupcake cakes...hopefully I'll be able to finish the rest later. That would suck if I had to start all over!
2 Things working well:
ReplyDelete1. The visual aids are perfect. They actually enhance your points instead of distracting them from what you are trying to say.
2. Introduction is genius. Right away, I was hooked and want to read on.
2 things to improve:
1. You could give your own opinion on the cakes
along with that of the authors.
2. More ugly cake pictures!