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Fallacy: Appeal to Ridicule
Also Known as: Appeal to Mockery, The Horse Laugh.
The Appeal to Ridicule is a fallacy in which ridicule or mockery is
substituted for evidence in an "argument." This line of
"reasoning" has the following form:
This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because mocking a
claim does not show that it is false. This is especially clear in the
following example: "1+1=2! That's the most ridiculous thing I have
ever heard!"
It should be noted that showing that a claim is ridiculous through
the use of legitimate methods (such as a non fallacious argument) can
make it reasonable to reject the claim. One form of this line of
reasoning is known as a "reductio ad absurdum" ("reducing
to absurdity"). In this sort of argument, the idea is to show that
a contradiction (a statement that must be false) or an absurd result
follows from a claim. For example: "Bill claims that a member of a
minority group cannot be a racist. However, this is absurd. Think about
this: white males are a minority in the world. Given Bill's claim, it
would follow that no white males could be racists. Hence, the Klan,
Nazis, and white supremists are not racist organizations."
Since the claim that the Klan, Nazis, and white supremists are not
racist organizations is clearly absurd, it can be concluded that the
claim that a member of a minority cannot be a racist is false.
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Description of Appeal to Ridicule
Examples of Appeal to Ridicule
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