More

“Hey Transformers- Robots or cars. Pick a side. We’re at War.” - Stephen Colbert

I Am America (and so can you!) by Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert (the last ‘t’ is silent) is a opinion-based comedy character created by Stephen Colbert (the last ‘t’ is not silent). He has his own show, The Colbert Report (the last two t’s are silent). He started on The Daily Show but soon gained his own show and I actually enjoy it more than The Daily Show now.

Photo credit: thelastminute

Colbert is modelled on a conservatively-opinionated host who goes into every story with pre-conceived opinions that never change. He isn’t too impressed by new ideas his guests may come up with, either. It should come as no surprise that Colbert often refers to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly as “papa-bear”. The comical aspects of O’Reilly’s performances are often highlighted in Colbert’s show. Here is the interview that Colbert (in character) did on O’Reilly’s own show. You can hear the crew laughing in the background.

So then, we come to this book. It is basically Colbert’s thoughts on a range of topics from animals to religion to sex to science and everything in between (but not sex with animals…I don’t think so, anyway). This book is great for a 5 minute read every now and then because the stream of thoughts are cut up into nice bit-sized pieces (probably catering to the younger generation that watch his show on Comedy Central). There are humorous footnotes everywhere and stuff in the margins also. This works in a similar way to his “The Word” segment, shown below talking about the Beijing Olympics.

What will ultimately hamstring Colbert in his audience appeal is that he requires the viewer to know who a lot of the political, social and media heavyweights in America are. For an Aussie like me, this can be difficult at times. For example, not many people would know that Nancy Pelosi, featured in the above clip, is the Democratic speaker of the US Congress (and third in line to the Presidency). Not knowing that means you wouldn’t get that aspect of the gay yak joke. Having said that though, Colbert does act as an educator and if you stick it out (or just whip out Wikipedia) you should get most of the jokes eventually.

For the above reason, I would be very hesitant to recommend this book to someone who doesn’t enjoy Colbert’s politically and socially-charged show because this book is merely an extension in a paper form. Not that that’s a bad thing but if you don’t like the show you’re not going to like the book.

(You can watch The Colbert Report online legally and for free)

In the US, the death of Anna Nicole Smith received more news coverage than any single country other than the US and Iraq.

BRMC rock.

ow, my eyes.

…farmer finds sheep.

Link