Story: The crew at The Daily Show turn their attention from fake news to fake education with “America (The Book),” a satirical look at American government structured as a civics textbook. The presence of actual facts within its pages is purely by accident, but the book will certainly make you laugh – if it doesn’t make you cry first.
Review: Jon Stewart has said in several interviews that one of The Daily Show’s biggest targets is hypocrisy, and that is certainly true of “America (The Book)”. Most mentions of the Declaration of Independence or the founding ideals of the country are accompanied by a parenthetical comment or footnote reminding the reader that at the time, “all men are created equal” meant “all white male property-owners are created equal.” A page of mock campaign buttons includes one with the slogan “My 5 slaves cast their 3 votes for…” There’s a fair amount of intelligent wordplay humor here – the table of contents identifies a section on foreign geography with the tagline “Denial: It’s not just a psychological defense mechanism.” But what often comes through is a certain amount of rage at the way America’s leaders and citizens have fallen short of its ideals.
Nowhere is that rage more evident than in the chapter on the media, which opens with a rant so strident that the authors cut themselves off and start the chapter over. If you’ve seen or heard of Stewart’s appearance on CNN’s Crossfire, you know that this isn’t mock anger. There’s an undercurrent throughout the book that the American system is screwed up and manipulated, but the writers seem to have a belief that if people were better informed, they would be outraged and more likely to see through the manipulation. By failing in its job of shining an informed light on the process, the media has failed everyone. The media’s response to Stewart tends to run along the lines of “if you’re so smart, why don’t you do better?” Said response seems to me to miss the point entirely. Satirists might be able to highlight underlying truths or force a re-evaluation of traditional beliefs, but they’re not in the fact-gathering and fact-checking business. The cable news networks, newspapers, magazines, and other traditional media outlets are – or at least they’re supposed to be. Stewart can’t do his job and theirs as well, and for the Tucker Carlsons of the world to say he should is a ridiculous cop-out.
When I saw the structure of this book, I was reminded of Dave Barry’s outstanding “Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort-Of History of the United States,” which also used the mock textbook approach, including footnotes and discussion questions. The designers of America (The Book) have taken the conceit to a whole new level, thanks to the hardcover color production. From the inside cover’s “This Book Assigned To” block to the sidebar articles (many of which feature The Daily Show’s on-air contributors) to the factoids in the margins, the book captures the feel of a high school civics text. It’s an impressive example of how strong design can elevate strong writing.
Year: 2004
Author: Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show
Publisher: Warner Books
Pages: 240