America (The Book)

[Dave Monroe]

This is America?
Jon Stewart and company write ‘The Daily Show' version
of U.S. history 
BY AILEEN JACOBSON
STAFF WRITER

September 27, 2004


First, a pressing question for Jon Stewart and his
co-conspirators.

Can their new book with the teeming title - "The Daily
Show With Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A
Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction ... With a
Foreword by Thomas Jefferson" - have an impact on the
coming election?

"Absolutely," says Stewart, leaning forward on the
cluttered desk in his Manhattan "Daily Show" office.

"Imagine you buy this book - and that's a heavy book -
and you throw a disc, and you're laid up. Now this is
going to take six to eight weeks, maybe longer, before
you're mobile again.... And if you can't get to the
polls, this could really suppress turnout."

And should that happen frequently, who would benefit
at the polls?

"I think Republicans and Democrats are equally
osteoporotic. So I imagine it would be a bit of a
wash."

Equal time

Indeed, the book makes equal fun of both presidential
candidates in a 16-page "election guide" bound into
the 228- page main volume, a textbook parody complete
with discussion questions and classroom activities at
the end of every chapter, and a "This Book Is the
Property of" stamp inside the front cover.

A study guide at the beginning lays out the chapters
and what you will learn from each, starting with
Democracy Before America ("Witness thousands of years
of history casually dismissed in a few pages") through
The President: King of Democracy ("Learn that not
everyone can be president and why people should really
stop spreading that rumor") to The Rest of the World:
International House of Horrors ("See most common
stereotypes reinforced"). Dozens of graphs, charts,
photos and "Were You Aware?" boxes (because, the book
says, a rival publisher has copyrighted "Did You
Know?") pepper the pages.

The book is also far "dirtier" than the Comedy Central
TV show, points out David Javerbaum, its supervising
producer and head writer, and one of the core trio of
writer-editors (with 16 other contributors)
responsible for the book.

The other two are Stewart and Ben Karlin, who, like
Stewart, is executive producer of "The Daily Show."
Karlin asserts that, in counterpoint to the "low"
humor, the book also contains "numerous Joyce and
Pynchon references.... I don't know about numerous,
but there definitely are some." ...

http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-p2two3983638sep27,0,7258533.story?coll=ny-bookreview-headlines

Stewart, John et al.  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
   Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to
   Democracy Inaction.  New York: Warner Books, 2004.

http://www.twbookmark.com/books/11/0446532681/index.html

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