So I overheard someone talking about a new book by Jon Stewart, so the next time I was in the bookstore, I found "Naked Pictures of Famous People" (the quotes change everything in that sentence). Anyway, to make a long story short, the people I overheard must have been talking about "America: A Citizen's Guide", because NPOFP was written in 1999.
Naked Pictures is a collection of short comedic essays, and is pretty hit and miss. One essay is a formula for hosting an awards show, and with the knowledge of his Oscar performance this year, ends up being pretty funny. For example:
HOST:
General greetings and a query as to the audience's well-being. Affirmation of audience's well being. Statement of own well-being. Survey of surroundings. Improvised analogy comparing surroundings to different surroundings. Sarcastic jab at expected length of proceedings.
Pause for laughter.
HOST:
Confusion about actions of government officials. Statement of proposed personal action if given opportunity to govern.
Use. Repeat for Oscars. Repeat for Daily Show. Repeat. Repeat. And yet he makes it seem like new each night. You've got to respect that. Yet in many respects, the book is not nearly as entertaining as his performance on television (I was going to say "or film", but well, it is better than that).
Another good essay is on "The New Judaism", in which he suggests ways to get the kids to keep the faith:
Old Judaism Passover Seder
Child: Why on this night do we eat bitter herbs?
Adult: To remind us of the pain our ancestors felt while enslaved in Egypt.
New Judaism Passover Seder
Child: Why on this night do we eat hot fudge Sundays?
Adult: To remind us that being Jewish is like having your birthday everyday!! Plus they're delicious!
There are some duds, in one essay he poses as Vincent Van Gogh on an AOL chatroom, but there's nothing terribly funny, and doesn't really go anywhere.
The praise on the book cover compares Jon Stewart's book to Woody Allen's Without Feathers and Steve Martin's Cruel Shoes. I Haven't read "Cruel Shoes", but it has quite a reputation, and Feathers probably defined the genre of the short-absurd-comic-compilation. While it was a fun read, it didn't quite live up to those standards.
