8.2 /10 1 Votes
4.3/5 Barnes & Noble Publication date October 9, 2007 Pages 240 pp (1st edition) Dewey Decimal 818.607 22 Publisher Grand Central Publishing Country United States of America | 3.9/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Hardback & Audiobook OCLC 166924679 Originally published 9 October 2007 ISBN 0-446-58050-3 Genres Political satire, Humour | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Stephen Colbert books, Humour books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I Am America (And So Can You!) is a 2007 satirical book by American comedian Stephen Colbert and the writers of The Colbert Report. It was released on October 9, 2007, with the audiobook edition released several days earlier. The book is loosely structured around the fictional life story of Stephen Colbert as he appears on The Colbert Report. As of the April 6, 2008 publishing, the book had been on the New York Times Bestseller List in the Hardcover Nonfiction category for twenty-four weeks, ranking number one for fourteen of them.
Contents
Description
I Am America (And So Can You!) is described as being a "pure extension" of The Colbert Report, delving into the views of Colbert's "well-intentioned, poorly informed high status idiot" character on what he considers to be the most pressing issues facing the United States. The book is influenced by the literary endeavors of the character's pundit models, such as Bill O'Reilly's book, The O'Reilly Factor (2000) and Sean Hannity's Deliver Us From Evil (2004), which Colbert says he forced himself to read as a reference.
Red margin notes appear throughout the book, providing humorous reactions and counterpoints to Colbert's arguments in a style comparable to the Report's "The Wørd" segment. The cover features a sticker depicting a burning book, declaring I Am America to be a nominee for "The Stephen T. Colbert Award for the Literary Excellence". A sheet of twelve similar stickers are provided inside, with which readers are provided to nominate other books for the award. A second sheet of stickers containing positive expressions such as "Hell Yeah!", "Nailed It!" and "It's Morning In Colbert-ica" is included for readers as bookmarks to remind them "when you agreed with me most."
Colbert, whose character frequently used his show to advertise his own satirical products, frequently promoted I Am America at the time of its release, including in a commercial which depicted the book emerging from an erupting volcano in a manner similar to commercials for Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. On October 9, 2007, the day of the book's release, Colbert interviewed himself as the show's featured guest. On Meet the Press, he signaled that his book was testing waters for a Presidential run, much like other politicians.
Audiobook cast and crew
Awards
The audiobook was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2009. The award was ultimately won by Al Gore and his book on global warming, the companion book to the film An Inconvenient Truth.