Abstract
This thesis examines digital news headlines about the cancel culture controversies surrounding Shane Gillis, Dave Chappelle, and Whitney Cummings through mythic criticism to understand how online cancel culture discourse utilizes headlines as sensemaking tools. The study uncovered points of mythic activation across headlines using Rowland’s (1990) formal/functional approach to myth. Analysis of media headlines revealed that each mentioned comedian was depicted as a unique villain archetype in headlines within one week of viral consciousness of cancel culture discourse: Shane Gillis as the scapegoat, Dave Chappelle as the shadow villain, and Whitney Cummings as the shapeshifter. A discussion of the study and directions for future research are included.