The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Audiobook)

A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

By: The Writers of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart

Narrated by: Jon Stewart

Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Audiobook), 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.

Among the topics:

Ancient Rome: The First Republicans

The Founding Fathers: Young, Gifted, and White

The President: King of Democracy

The Supreme Court: 18 Legs, Four Tits, One Mission

Running for Office: What Are You Thinking?

The Media: Can It Be Stopped?

The Future of Democracy: The Constitutional Robocracy and You!

This program contains explicit language.

(P)2004 Time Warner Audiobooks

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Humor, 2005
• Quill Award Winner, Audiobooks, 2005
• Grammy Award Winner, Best Comedy Album, 2005

"Cheeky, irreverent, and playfully ingenuous....This humorous sendup of American politics never fails to entertain, poke fun, and provoke thought." (Publishers Weekly)
"The devil's own comedic handiwork, a side-splitting guide to the abuses and absurdities built into our political processes and institutions....Sustained clever writing and a smart, durable premise....As with Mr. Stewart's priceless anchorman persona and his show's hawk-eyed editing for real news gaffes, there is enough truth here to make America almost as instructive as it is sly." (The New York Times)

Love him; disappointed with the book

I've only recently started watching The Daily Show. I love it. I think Jon Stewart is always bright; sometimes brilliant and often funny. But this book is sophmoric. I'll get his next one because he deserves another try, but this rarely goes above high school clever.

Wait for the next one, gang.

Stewart flops

As a big Jon Stewart fan I ignored the bad reviews and bought the book anyway ... mistake. Think I'll take those warning signs more seriously next time. This one is beyond dull ... the "humor" falls so short as to be painful to hear.

Boring

I decided to get this book as one of my free books when I did a free trial because I had heard both positive and negative reviews and wanted to find out for myself. Now I wish I hadn't wasted the credit. While I am a fan of "The Daily Show" I found this audiobook to be unfunny and boring. The four chapters I listened to seemed to drag on forever.

Save your money and your credits and get something else.

God Awful

Complete waste of money. Smug, shallow. Save your money. I know, ask me how I REALLY feel.

Pass This One By

To use the vernacular, Jon Stewart phoned this one in.

I LOVE him on "The Daily Show". Unfortunately, this is NOT that. The only similarity is the voice.

IF you just HAVE to buy this audiobook, fast forward to about 60 minutes in, wait for the laugh, and then fast forward again to 150+ minutes in. You will miss one other laugh, but it's more of a chuckle. I can't tell you what's after 150 minutes in 'cause I couldn't take it any more.

Save your money and, more importantly, your time. Pass on this book.

Syrup Without the Pancakes

I'm a huge Jon Stewart fan who always TIVO's his half-hour shows. If Jon Stewart claims that he has a smart college-educated audience (his response to the nut Bill O'Reilly) why has he dumbed down the book with such an *abridged* version of it. He mistakenly thinks audio book readers have a short attention-span. To a reader who regularly reads 16-hour audio books AND who reads everyday, I was a bit annoyed that they choose to produce a book that is less than 4 hours (a day?s commute and a couple of workouts). Wait for the UNabridged version or READ the book. Definitely pass on this download - it's syrup without the pancakes.

A disappointment...

Stewart's Daily Show is both insightful and irreverent--a great source of both information and laughs. This audio, however, is just middle-school locker-room humor for the first two-thirds of it's length. Toward the end, when Stewart & Co. turn their wit upon the electoral process and candidates, past and present, this audio becomes worth it--thus earning my two stars. The low price actually makes it worth it for just that last hour of material.
Up to that point, however, this audio is a zero. Skip ahead to Part Six, if you can. You won't miss anything worth hearing.

Not Funny, Lots of Swearing

This book was a disappointment. There was a lot of swearing in the place of pithy writing I have come to expect from the Daily Show.

I would have rather watched old Daily Shows on YouTube than listen to this audiobook.

Doesn't show his genius

I become a fan of his watching him debate political figures on you tube. A great thinker with special integrity.
I suspect these Audiobook performances were much better when you could watch him. This justdidn’t do anything for me.

More Comedy than Content

I really like Jon Stewart and I use his show as a reality check from this crazy media age we live in. I find him to be funny and spot on most of the time. As far as the book goes the reading seems a bit dry. I guess I'm missing his hilarious facial expressions from the show. Mainly I'm disappointed in the swearing. It was like a listening to a new comedian at the local comedy club. If you like dirty jokes and the f-bomb you'll love this book. I was hoping for a little more balance between the silly and the serious.