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'I Am America' generates laughter

Angela Langster

Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Entertainment

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Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's nightly hit show "The Colbert Report" and his team of writers, bring the same right-wing humor to the bestselling book "I Am America (and So Can You)." Awarded the Stephen T. Colbert Award for the Literary Excellence, "I Am America" is satirical from the start, which includes the infomercial like phrase " A great read! I laughed, I cried, I lost 15 pounds! I cannot highly recommend this book enough!"

The book, which is a combination of autobiography, Highlights children's magazine, and a textbook, is divided into 14 chapters on topics such as family, higher education, race, the media and religion. Also included in this book is Colbert's speech from the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, which was not well received by those in attendance, but reading the text itself was hilarious.

At times, "I Am America" presents Colbert at his best. An example of this is the clever annotations in the margins, such as in the introduction when Colbert declares in the margin: "I deliver my truth hot and hard. Fast and furious. So either accept it without hesitation or get out of the way because somebody might get hurt, and it's not going to be me. It's going to be you." Another example of this is in the "Sports" chapter, which throughout includes sponsors poking fun at the marketing and sponsorship that occurs in professional sports. The religion chapter displays some of the contradictions in "I Am America." Colbert, in this chapter, encourages readers to ride on the "Jesus Train," but then claims that Jesus founded only one church, which is the Catholic Church, and they have many advantages over other denominations based on the number of saints and the architectural design of their churches. Another contradictory factor of this book is in the sections "Stephen Speaks For Me," where average citizens are giving testimonials on how applying Colbert's lifestyle to their own lives has helped them but still they are somewhat useless afterward.

The content of "I Am America" with the 14 topics filled with Colbert's right-winged humor and persona can at times seems to be forced and verbose; however, the book does serve its purpose of making the reader laugh.

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