Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Consequences: Key and Peele logical fallacy

While surfing YouTube due to procrastination, I came across a Key & Peele comedy sketch that humorously displays a logical fallacy. The set-up of the scene is that a principal has called an ex-convict to 'scare straight' a few misfit students. The speaker begins talking about the bad things he had done at their age. The consequences, however, of his actions are completely unrelated and aren't direct consequences at all. At one point in his speech, he says,"And then I really started getting into crime. Oh yeah, oh yeah. And then.....I got trampled by a heard of buffalo. Consequences!"
Other consequences include having a piano dropped on his head, getting AIDS, and getting shot from a catapult into the mouth of a dragon. According to him, these were all direct Consequences of his crime during his youth.

This is a great example of the Post Hoc logical fallacy. The speaker is arguing that because of his crimes all these horrible and completely non-related consequences happened, without further explanation. Another example of this logical fallacy in the short is when the speaker says, "I did a drive-by at my own sister's quinceanera. And then.....I got sucked into a wormhole. Consequences!"


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