The Lighter Side of the Green Movement: The Three Stooges as Early Environmentalists 48 Oklahoma Law Review 1995

48 Okla. L. Rev. 35 (1995)
The Lighter Side of the Green Movement: The Three Stooges as Early Environmentalists

handle is hein.journals/oklrv48 and id is 57 raw text is: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THE GREEN MOVEMENT:
THE THREE STOOGES AS
EARLY ENVIRONMENTALISTS
RONALD J. RYCHLAK*
Aristotle's Rhetoric,' written 2400 years ago, explained that there are three
important aspects to any persuasive presentation. He called them the logos, the
ethos, and the pathos. The logos is the logic or reason of the argument. The ethos
is the character or integrity of the speaker. The pathos is the emotional content of
the presentation.'
In attempting to make persuasive arguments in court, lawyers are well aware of
the need to draw upon all of these components of persuasion. Arguments are always
structured to at least appear logical; lawyers jealously guard their credibility; and
emotional appeals are common. We most often think of the emotion of sympathy,
but effective advocates use anxiety, love, fear, excitement, joy, tension, anger, and
even humor to be persuasive.3
Like lawyers in court, judges use emotions, including humor, to make points in
their opinions Similarly, law professors often strive for humor in the classroom.
Authors of law review articles, however, rarely appeal to emotion,5 and humor in
* Associate Professor of Law, University of Mississippi School of Law. B.A., 1980, Wabash
College; J.D., 1983, Vanderbilt University School of Law. The author would like to thank John
Czarnetzky and Claire Rychlak for their comments on early versions of this article. Thanks are also due
to Emmett McAuliffe for assistance and the loan of materials. Finally, thanks to Joseph, Lindsey,
Susanna, and Mary Helen for reintroducing the author to children's literature and television programming.
1. ARIsToTLE, RHETORIC bk. 2, ch. 1 (,V. Rhys Roberts trans.), in THE BASIC WORKS OF ARISTOTLE
1380 (Richard McKeon ed., 1941).
2. Id.; see John W. Cooley, A Classical Approach to Mediation - Part I: Classical Rhetoric and
the Art of Persuasion in Mediation, 19 DAYTON L. REv. 83, 89-90 (1993) (setting forth and defining the
original Greek terms).
3. Others have noted the persuasive power of humor.
Humor can be an exceedingly persuasive device. It can convey succinctly a desired point
with a facility that might not otherwise be achieved. Humor often resonates on many
levels, including one of irony, which in turn may bring legal analysis to life. Moreover,
the way in which humor conveys legal thought may be profoundly more human and
accessible than purely detached inquiry. The appeal of humor is simple but significant:
it helps people communicate and enjoy communicating.
J.T. Knight, Comment, Humor and the Law, 1993 Wis. L. REv. 897, 908 (footnote omitted).
4. See Adalberto Jordan, Imagery, Humor, and the Judicial Opinion, 41 MIAMI L. REv. 693 (1987);
Marshall Rudolph, Judicial Humor: A Laughing Matter?, 41 HASTINGS L.J. 175 (1989) (questioning
whether humor is appropriate in such a situation); David A. Golden, Comment, Humor, the Law, and
Judge Kozinski's Greatest Hits, 1992 B.Y.U. L. REv. 507.
5. Max Stier, et al., Law Review Usage and Suggestions for Improvement: A Survey of Attorneys,
Professors, and Judges, 44 STAN. L. Rev. 1467, 1469 (1992) (The commentators consider most law
review articles to be devoid of passion, and believe that the precious few that do not suffer from this
defect are so laden with jargon that they are unintelligible.); see also W. Lawrence Church, A Plea for

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