Arts & Entertainment

Luke Simcoe
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Colbert's Book is Better Heard than Read

Review of “I Am America (And So Can You!)”

By Hisham Kelati, The Fulcrum (University of Ottawa)

OTTAWA (CUP) —I had the option of
buying either the novel or audio book of
Stephen Colbert’s J Am America (And
So Can You!). Although the novel would
have been a hilarious read, I figured
having the entire book read aloud to
me by Colbert himself would be a hell
of a lot more fun. The truth is, it was.

I Am America was written by Colbert
as half satirical autobiography and half
thesis on the state of contemporary
America. It | showcases—through
suspiciously well-detailed life lessons
— the issues that are at hand in the United
States and how to deal with them all to
bring Good Ol’ America right back to the
top. The book concludes with a glimpse
of “The Future,” wherein Colbert
directs his thoughts to future inhabitants
of America, but also to the world at
large, leaving detailed instructions
based on possible future scenarios.

In one, he even generously offers to

r

free the enslaved humans from their
robotic overlords by overloading their
cybermetic processors with his genius.

The novel is really a lampooning
of American life, culture, history and
politics, packaged in Colbert-like packets

tee. Which is also, by a twist of fate, his
middle initial. Coincidence? Probably.

There are a few advantages to
buying the regular book over listening to
Colbert’s sexy voice. Hilarious pictures
of him preface every chapter, illustrating

of  truthiness. ‘ the theme
It satirizes all “Phe novel is really behind each
aspects of the i section. There
world today, a lampooning of arealsorandom
showing the = pictures of
absurdity of American life, culture,  reople Colbert
“the system” . ee eo has helped
through story and politics.” «come
Colbert’s right- “American”.

wing character. His style of comedy is
to embody the caricature of the caustic,
right-wing bully and showcase the
ludicrousness of the flagrantly ignorant
things they, along with 90 percent of
right-wing media, tend to spew out as
“Intelligent” observations of America.
In J Am America, Colbert does it all to a

It features Red Margin Notes that
could basically equal “The Word”
segments from The Colbert Report,

, and those are always good. Lastly, the

book comes with some nifty extras,
like a page of “Stephen T. Colbert
Award for The Literary Excellence”
stickers (of which his own book was the

 

first recipient), as well as a transcript
of the infamous 2006 Whitehouse
Correspondents Dinner speech that
Colbert gave, honouring George
W. Bush’s “greatest achievements”.

The advantage the audio version
has over the book is a great lineup of
cameos, including Amy Sedaris, Jon
Stewart, and Paul Dinello. Plus, would
you rather “read” a “book” filled with
“facts,” or have Colbert “feel” things at
you for a solid 3.5 hours?

A final little tidbit for diehard Colbert
fans: when he’s talking about “Old
People” at the beginning of Chapter 2, if
you listen really carefully after Colbert
says, “They don’t believe in, buying
multiple collector’s copies, no matter
what rare, bizarre coded message appears
in them”, some gibberish follows. Listen
to the narration of this garbled quote
backwards for a fun surprise.