The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Audiobook)

Starred review from October 4, 2004
Comedy Central's The
Daily Show
proudly touts itself as a fake news show, so it's fitting that phony blurbs adorn this audiobook's packaging ("A Bridget Jones's Diary
for the comedic nonfiction government textbook set," says Melissa Bank, author of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
; and "So informative, I even found out who I
was," raves Albert Gallatine, Secretary of the Treasury from 1801–1814). The discs inside offer more deadpan wit, as the authors trace not only the history of America, but of democracy and humanity, all in a mere four hours. The editors and producers who handled this audio adaptation deserve a round of applause; they managed to take a book dependent on a wealth of charts, graphs and sidebars and translate it into audio while still preserving the fact that the book is a parody of a textbook. The result is a highly entertaining listen that showcases the expert comic delivery of Stewart and his Daily Show
"correspondents" Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry and Ed Helms. Stewart narrates the bulk of the audiobook, and the others chime in at the end of each chapter to read the "supplemental material," which includes Discussion Questions, Classroom Activities and sidebars on everything from how things are done differently in Canada to why the founding fathers were "unelectable." Nifty sound effects (like classroom bells) and well-chosen music (which consists primarily of stately, almost pompous horn orchestrations) round out this excellent audio package.

Starred review from September 6, 2004
Cheeky, irreverent and playfully ingenuous, this abbreviated history of democracy is everything one would expect from the writers of Comedy Central's fake news program, which recently (and somewhat scandalously) won the Television Critics Association's award for outstanding news and public affairs series. The book is laid out like a textbook, with "Discussion Questions" ("Why do you think the Framers made the Constitution so soul-crushingly boring?"), "Classroom Activities" ("Using felt and yarn, make a hand puppet of Clarence Thomas. Ta-da! You're Antonin Scalia!") and plenty of amusing graphics, including a board game that resembles the game Life but which follows a presidential term: "Optimistic press release on economy ineffective. Spin again." No one evades the authors' scrutiny, not even the Pilgrims, who came to America "to escape religious persecution... create a society where they could worship as they pleased and one day, God willing, even do some persecuting of their own." The media fares the worst, however. An entire chapter is devoted to telling the "inspirational" story of how the media "transformed itself from a mere public necessity into an entertaining profit center for ever-expanding corporate empires." But if this and other criticisms kindle a few unpatriotic feelings, a section describing how worse off the rest of the world is should buoy spirits. From its dedication ("To the huddled masses—Keep yearnin'!") to its final chapter, which lampoons the 2004 presidential candidates, this humorous sendup of American politics never fails to entertain, poke fun and provoke thought. Agent, Dan Strone at Trident Media.
(Sept. 20)

FYI:
Big numbers on this one is a no-brainer. The same goes for the audio adaptation, which will be released simultaneously by Time Warner Audiobooks; listeners will miss the goofy graphics (e.g., the Supreme Court justices in their birthday suits) but will relish Stewart's comic delivery.

May 15, 2004
In time for the election, political satire from Stewart and his writers at the popular and award-winning The Daily Show.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.