I Am America Too!
I just finished reading Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)
While writing this book review, I read that he's already moved on to running for President! The man is unstoppable.
Book Review
The Chapters are: The Family, Old People, Animals, Religion, Sports, Sex & Dating, Homosexuals, Higher Education, Hollywood, The Media, Class War, Race, Immigrants, and Science. It's all fresh material and LOL-funny (I LOL'd many times while reading it) delivered in typical Stephen fashion. There are also extra chapters titled "How to Read this Book, " "A Note to the Future: Instructions on How to Defrost My Head," and "How to Retire this Book." The last one shows drawings of boy scouts and step-by-step instructions on the proper way to close his book (which is similar to folding an American flag).
In "How to Read this Book" there are a list of rules beginning with an agreement to "treat this book with the Accepted Minimum Standard of Respect." Rules include: No highlighting, underlining, or margin doodles. You cannot use it as a coaster, to swat a fly, or "right a wobbly table." Don't use it to press flowers (because he's allergic to them). You cannot dogear any pages, you have to use the attached ribbon. If there's no ribbon you can use money as a bookmark, but nothing less than a $20. You can also use it for testimony if a Bible isn't available.
I was reading the reviews on Amazon.com. I think this is the first book that ever got 5-star ratings from readers before the book even went on sale. Right after it was released, Stephen wrote the first Amazon review of his own book. There isn't an author alive who could get away with rating and reviewing his own book, except for Stephen. But, would we expect (or want) anything less from him? I thought that was funny as hell too. Just like the stamp on the cover, The Stephen T. Colbert Award for The Literary Excellence.
This is an excerpt from the book that I thought was great:
"In 1997, I was made the anchor of the Channel 7 News on WPTS Patterson Springs, North Carolina. I got promoted after I narced out the previous anchor, Wayne Colt, for his coke addiction and won a local Emmy for my investigative report, "Anchor Away: The Tragic Downward Spiral of Wayne Colt."
I was getting too big for Patterson Springs (Pop. 620), so that fall I sent out a reel of my best reports: "From Wayne to Worse: The Continuing Struggles of Wayne Colt," "Wayne Damage: The Hidden-Camera Footage Wayne Colt Begged Me Not to Show You," "Wayne, Wayne Go Away: Living in Fear of a Former Colleage," and "Never the Wayne Shall Meet: My Restraining Order Against Wayne Colt, Coke Fiend."
What Makes Stephen so...Stephen?
Besides the fact that he's hot, he's an original as America's first fake pundit. Just like Jon Stewart (he's hot too), we not only get the joke, we're in on the joke. But Stephen takes it a step further, and being the little bad-ass that he is, invites us to participate in his jokes and pranks. Who can forget The Great Wikipedia Prank of 2006? If Stephen wants a bridge named after him or to get on some "top favorite people"-type list, fans are more than happy to help make that happen.
Now that he's running for President, ANYTHING could happen and it will be fun to see what does. The Atlantic Magazine analyzed his chances of winning (using statistics and everything!). See The Colbert Notion for the article. Some news reporters have asked whether he's serious or not. I don't think he's serious, but by participating in it, he'll have a lot of material for showing how the process works and then making fun of it. And Jon will be able to poke fun at his candidacy on the fake news. Whatever happens, I'm sure, at the very least, he'll annoy the other candidates and that's enough to make it all worth it.
Websites
- ColbertNation - "The #1 and #2 Colbert Report Fan Site."
- The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (New!) - Jon finally has his own website.
- Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 - "Something approximating election news with something approximating honesty."
