There are always comments on The Daily Show that I want to blog, but then never get around to doing so. I did want to make sure to mention this one though, from last Wednesday (Sept 29), since it’s blog related. Jon Stewart was talking to Ed Helms about the next day’s presidential debates. Helms read out the notes he would be using to report on the debates, that is, he had already written them up a day before the debates.
Stewart: “What if any actual news happens?”
Helms: “That’s what bloggers are for.”
A propos TDS, America (The Book) is absolutely hilarious! I highly recommend it. I didn’t realize it was written in the form of a textbook. It’s got lots of little inserts, quotes on the sidebar and illustrations like most American textbooks good for those with attention problems. Not that you’ll have any such problems while reading this book (unless you’re trying to multitask and do something else at the same time in which case the other activity will get none of your attention). I don’t know if reading anything has ever made me laugh out loud as much as reading this book has.
{ 7 comments }
DeAnn 10.04.04 at 12:39 am
I LOVE The Daily Show and I cannot wait to read the book!
KCinDC 10.04.04 at 2:17 am
I was on the verge of buying it but then had doubts about whether it was the sort of book I thought it was after I heard about the naked Supreme Court justices. It’s still sitting in my shopping cart.
eszter 10.04.04 at 4:13 am
Hmm.. I hadn’t heard about the Supreme Court justices and hadn’t seen that page until I read your comment. That’s definitely not my kind of humor. I guess the book has different types of humor in it. Much of it is witty in the way that’s characteristic of the show.
Kevin 10.04.04 at 4:39 am
The book is just the best. It’s everything The Onion seems to fall short of, lately. I didn’t know about the textbook layout of it either, but the “book condition stamp” on the inside cover was a fantastic touch.
nick 10.04.04 at 10:38 am
As a filthy furriner, I wouldn’t have appreciated much of the format jokes, had I not read my (now-) wife’s Government and Civics textbook while she was at class back in the summer of ’99.
There’s no real equivalent in the UK, but the inanities of the real textbook certainly made it ripe for parody.
nhayhoe 10.04.04 at 3:09 pm
Eszter,
I emailed you the info you wanted RE: attending The Daily Show…but I added some attachments (pictures of us in the studio) so perhaps you didn’t recieve it.
-Nate
Chris Lawrence 10.05.04 at 6:14 am
Yes, teaching an American government course based on a typical, “by the numbers” textbook greatly enhances the parody value of “America (The Book)”.
I think the “dress the Supreme Court” exercise is supposed to be a parody of some of the inane exercises that high school civics books have students do (“Pretend you’re Congress passing a bill”, etc.)
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