The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Audiobook): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Jon Stewart (Author), The Writers of The Daily Show (Author), Author (Reader)

Book Description

Series: Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents | Publication Date: September 20, 2004

Jon Stewart, host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "The Daily Show", and his coterie of patriots deliver a hilarious look at American government . . . Termed a "political king-maker" by Newsweek, and "the Dan Rather of infotainment" by Vanity Fair, Jon Stewart, along with the writers of "The Daily Show", combines his riotous wit and razor-sharp insight in this hilarious book.American-style democracy is the world's most beloved form of government, which explains why so many other nations are eager for us to impose it on them. But what is American democracy?In America (The Book), Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" writing staff offer their insights into our unique system of government, dissecting its institutions, explaining its history and processes, and exploring the reasons why concepts like "One man, one vote," "Government by the people," and "Every vote counts" have become such popular urban myths.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon.com Exclusive Content
Jon Stewart on America (The Book)

Sure, we could write a pithy blurb telling you all about America (The Book), by Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show, but it's much easier--and funnier--to let Jon Stewart tell you all about this irreverent book himself.

Watch Jon Stewart talk to Amazon.com customers about America (The Book) from the set of The Daily Show.

Read or listen to our exclusive interview with Jon Stewart.

Read our exclusive Election 2004 interview with Jon Stewart.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Comedy Central's TheDaily 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Hachette Audio; Abridged edition (September 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586217011
• ISBN-13: 978-1586217013
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 5.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (656 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #569,717 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Books on CD > Humor

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

529 of 573 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buoyantly profane, actually thoughtful, supremely funny, October 14, 2004

By 

bensmomma "bensmomma" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Hardcover)

Jon Stewart and his Daily Show writers would have you believe this is humor masquerading as a "fake" civics textbook, but they undersell themselves. It's both funnier and smarter than that premise. It actually does spell out, chapter by chapter, the workings of the branches of government, the election process, and the role of journalism in creating and destroying all these (complete with in-class exercises and homework!)

If you're a fan of the show, you will enjoy listening to Stewart riff on journalism's loss of integrity, to Samantha Bee's apologetic asides about "do you mind if I tell you how we do it in Canada?", Ed Helms' presentation of his qualifications to be Supreme Court justice, etc. The book is, however, not just a rehash of pieces from the TV show; the book form allows the writers to make their favorite comedic jabs against our system's foibles with more historical and literary support. (Who knew, for example, the role that the rivalry between newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer played in instigating the Spanish-American war?)

Coming from any source but the Daily Show, this premise might have been tedious, but from this team it is consistently and hysterically funny. Free of the time and vocabulary limits of TV, they really cut loose. The seven-dirty-words-you-can't-say-on-television here are put to good use, amended by such popular modifiers as bat, horse, bull, and mother. So don't bring it home to the kiddos, or listen to the audiobook on your mini-van stereo, and avoid it altogether if you don't yourself throw a good hearty @*$%&% around every now and then. But remember the best, funniest lines about the preservation of democracy and repeat these lessons to your kids. It's funny and important stuff.

93 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Educational satire makes for lots of laughs!, September 18, 2004

By 

Michael Drake (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Hardcover)

Jon Stewart and the crew have done it again with a hilarious, bitingly satirical, and often true take on America and our political system. A good amount of the book's commentary is well-founded and educational; I found many of its parts to be a good review of the material we've all undoubtedly forgotten since government class (important court cases, etc.). But on occassion, I've remembered so little of actual political history that the line between the jokes and reality are blurred to the point that I don't know what is real and what isn't.

I've found myself smiling and laughing out loud through entire chapters, and the supplemental material sections (interspersed throughout the book) are hilarious. "Discussion Questions" and "Classroom Activities" start and end each chapter with additional laughs, and the opinion essays are unbelievably funny. This is a must read for every American or anyone who loves a good laugh.

114 of 127 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Take My Government, Please!...ba-bum-bum, September 20, 2004

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (Hardcover)

This book may not be the most incisive in its examination of the performance of the Bush administration, but it sure is the funniest. We are talking laugh-out-loud funny, not the bemused chuckling of Maureen Dowd's "Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk" or the laughter-through-fears treatment of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11". But Bush is hardly the only target in this consistently clever, brightly illustrated book. This may very well be the textbook you wish you had while you were pretending to listen to your civics teacher in high school. Even if you don't get the Comedy Central cable channel and watch the "Daily Show", you can still enjoy this book for its shamelessly funny but sadly accurate observations of our government at work. However, if you have seen the clever antics of Jon Stewart and his crew, you know what you're in for, and you won't be disappointed. All you miss with the book is the clever editing of TV news clips, press conferences and convention speeches, which they love to skewer.

Any cynical thought you have had about government bureaucracy and the execution of democratic principles will be supported wholeheartedly here. The writers go as far as illustrating the timeline for democracy from its supposed birth in prehistoric times through the lightning-striking Biblical period to early American history and then of course, to the current political landscape. It all has a strong Mel Brooksian feeling of Borscht Belt schtick and frat house humor topped off with some tasty zingers like "...it turns out if Betsy Ross was alive and sewing American flags today, she'd be a 13-year-old Laotian boy". By all means, get this book as we all need a good laugh considering the paucity of options we have come November. You may find something sadly ironic when you read it and absorb the abuses and absurdities built into our political processes and institutions. But then again, any book that introduces a potential Bush-Kerry boxing match as "The Thrilla in Vanilla" is aces with me.