Will Ferrell Acceptance Speech

Inventions:

Will Ferrell accepts the Mark Twain award, and in the spirit of celebration, drops it. By doing so he created this sense of irony that he accepted the award and mocks what was going to be his acceptance speech.

Ferrell ushers into his encounter with the Kennedy Center, along with his research of Mark Twain. His comical explanation adds to the overall reasoning for him being the 15th recipient of the award (which he further explains that he is only the 11th Caucasian recipient).

Arrangement:

Will Ferrell used a big event in the beginning to capture the audience’s attention. From there he goes from his history and the history of the award to comically incorporate his family and their support (in particular the 3 wives and Gary Busey).

Style:

Throughout the speech, Ferrell uses satire and sarcasm. He jokingly talks about how his dreams and aspirations were initially leading him to insurance sales instead of comedy. Through this casual form of speech, he was able to reach everyone in the audience.

Memory:

He made a memorable impression by dropping the head bust, along with, his banter about who Mark Twain actually was. With this in mind, Ferrell used satire to his advantage to present the briefest of examples of his humor while still being professional.

Delivery:

Ferrell delivered his speech casually and was able to adlib and use improve to make the crowd react the way that he wanted, which was to laugh.