When parents counter their daughter’s request to go to a party with her friends by comparing it to following them off a bridge, they are doing little to persuade her. That’s because they have extended their argument to the level of absurdity, a fallacy known as reduction to the absurd. Pushing an argument beyond its logical limits in this manner can cause it to unravel: the teenager sees no connection between going to a party (which is fun) and jumping off a bridge (which is committing suicide).