Halloween: Weekend filled
with burlesque delights
Continued from page 11
Bond’s is Terpsichor’s Daughter, a
burlesque dance troop. The “For
bidden Halloween in Red” begins
at 9 p.m. and costs $5.
John Henry’s is hosting a special
Halloween edition of its Sunday
night Broadway Revue. Featuring
burlesque dancers and vaudeville,
the show starts at 10 p.m. and the
cover charge is $5.
amylichty@dailyemerald.com
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■ Book review
'America (The Book)' delivers
the epitome of political satire
The Daily Show team
of comic writers backs up
prose with astuteness
BY RYAN NYBURG
PULSE EDITOR
Political satirists must often ask
themselves why they even bother
anymore. No matter how cynical one
becomes about the American political
system, something happens such as
the Watergate scandal, which shows
that things are actually much worse
than expected. You think you are at
the height of edgy political satire
when you make fun of the billions
spent on useless military projects, and
then you find out that a group of polit
ical cronies are operating a shadow
government and selling arms to Cen
tral American death squads. But until
the U.S. government proves once
again that it is run by a pack of greedy,
cannibalistic child molesters, “Ameri
ca (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to
Democracy Inaction” will stand as the
definitive statement on modern poli
tics in this great country of ours.
Written mostly by staff writers of
“The Daily Show,” “America” is for
matted like a high school civics text
book, right down to the library check
out stamp. The structure allows the
writers to systematically satirize as
pects of government such as election
campaigns, bills, judges, the role of
the media and even the effectiveness
of political satire.
Much of the book’s effectiveness is
based on the writers’ political astute
ness. These people actually know how
not just how government is supposed
to work, but how it actually works. For
example, in the book’s description of
what positions make up the presi
dent’s cabinet, the necessary qualities
for a Secretary of Transportation are
summed up as: “Driven a car before?
Seen an airplane? Hispanic? Good —
put on this tie. ”
The book is cynical to its core, but
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART PRESENTS
America
{ THE BOOK )
A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction
■rSBHSnSnSSSBBMSnSSSSSHSSMHSSSHSSSIMSSMSMSBi
Courtesy
The 'Citizen's
Guide to
Democracy
Inaction' uses
mixed humor to
attack American
politics.
this is not cynicism born of hopeless
ness, but of righteous indignation.
This book is pissed. Anyone who saw
Jon Stewart’s recent appearance on
“Crossfire” should know that both he
and “The Daily Show” writers are pas
sionately angered by the system they
mock every weeknight. It should come
as no surprise that the chapter on the
media is the most scathing. In a time
line covering the major media high
lights of the century, the discussion of
Watergate is, “President brought down
by investigative journalists. Investiga
tive journalists declare ‘nice work’ and
take rest of millennium off.”
Throughout the book’s 242 pages,
the tone of a civics text is maintained
and heavily iced by layers of sarcasm.
The book directs its assaults not only
to the corruption of the systems it de
scribes, but to the myths that hold
them together. “Consider this re
markable fact: The United States of
America, the greatest country in the
history of the world, would not exist
had England simply been less stingy
with the chamomile. ”
With a sharp sense of humor, a
keen eye for the absurd and the hard
earned cynicism of a veteran political
journalist, “America” gleefully cuts
through layers and layers of pompous
B.S. about the political systems we
work under. However, the scattershot
approach, mixing every kind of hu
mor imaginable into an attack on just
about everything political in this
country, might make the whole thing
a bit hard to take in one sitting. But
textbooks were never meant to be
read in one go. Standing alongside the
work of The Onion and David Rees
(of “Get Your War On” fame), “Ameri
ca” cements the “Daily Show” team’s
writers as some of the best modern
American satirists. Let’s just hope that
means something for a while.
ry army burg@ daily emerald. com
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