Here's a list of recommended political books and humor books looking at the lighter side of politics, including best-sellers by Stephen Colbert, "The Daily Show," The Onion, Dave Barry, and others.
See Also: 2009 Political Gift Guide
See Also: 2009 Political Gift Guide
The Onion: Our Front Pages
By The Onion staff, 2009 - "Our Front Pages" features the funniest, most piercing and absurd headlines from 21 years of everyone's favorite satirical newspaper, The Onion. Among them: "Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job," "Bush: Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over," and "U.S. Vows to Defeat Whoever We're At War With,."
Obama's BlackBerry
By Kasper Hauser, 2009 – The funniest Obama humor book to date, "Obama's Blackberry" serves up a satirical glimpse at the private messages sent by our nation's first BlackBerry-toting president. With hilarious emails and replies from Obama's wife and daughters, Joe Biden, and the likes of Palin, Limbaugh, and Hannity, the book pokes fun at everything from security briefings to basketball practice to dealings with the First Mother In Law. Obama may not be an easy target for comedy, but the comic geniuses of the Kasper Hauser comedy troupe provide some of the best laughs of the Obama era in this highly entertaining book.
I Am America (And So Can You!)
By Stephen Colbert, 2007 – The celebrated host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report speaks truthiness to power in his hilarious debut book. Always controversial and outspoken, Colbert addresses why Hollywood is destroying America by inches, why evolution is a fraud, and why the elderly should be harnessed to millstones. You may not agree with everything he says, but at the very least, you'll understand that your differing opinion is wrong.
How to Win a Fight With a Conservative
By Daniel Kurtzman, 2007 - "How to Win a Fight With a Conservative" is the ultimate survival guide to arguing politics. Combining humor with practical self-help, this irreverent guide is filled with irrefutable wisdom and damning facts guaranteed to bait and baffle conservative blowhards everywhere. Learn how to detect right-wing lies, propaganda, and general BS; avoid the 7 habits of highly ineffective partisans; mock members of the Conservative Hall of Shame; insult conservatives in 27,000 possible ways, and much more. (Full disclosure: I wrote this book.)
How to Win a Fight With a Liberal
By Daniel Kurtzman, 2007 - "How to Win a Fight with a Liberal" is the ultimate survival guide to arguing politics, filled with all the foolproof strategies and merciless ridicule conservatives need to lay the smackdown on loony lefties everywhere. Learn how to confidently clash with liberals in any situation -- from surviving family sparring matches to engaging in Internet flame wars, or even what to do if you're sleeping with the enemy. (Full disclosure: I wrote this book.)
The Little Quiz Book of Big Political Sex Scandals
By Paul Slansky, 2009 - Renowned satirist Paul Slansky satisfies the public's thirst for schadenfreude with this hilarious look at public officials who have been caught with their pants down. Through a comprehensive compendium of quizzes, Slansky chronicles the political sex-scapades of the past half century -- Bill's cigar and Monica's stained dress, Gary Hart's cruise on the good ship Monkey Business, Larry Craig's restroom romancing, and scores of other career-ending shenanigans. Devastatingly funny yet also meticulously researched and historically relevant, this book offers an endlessly entertaining peek under the covers of our political establishment.
The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2010 Edition
Edited by Daryl Cagle and Brian Fairrington - The creative minds behind the Professional Cartonists index have compiled more than 600 cartoons covering the major topics of 2009, a historic year when America saw its first black president sworn into office. The economy sank despite humungous bailouts and unemployment hit new highs--not to mention the drama of Octomom, Sotomayor, Swine Flue, GM's bankruptcy, Iran's election chaos, and the death of Michael Jackson.
Aristotle and Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington
By Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, 2008 - Deploying jokes and cartoon as well as the occasional insight from Aristotle and his peers, Cathcart and Klein expose double-speak, flim-flam, and alternate reality of politics in America. Drawing from the pronouncements of everyone from Caesar to Condoleeza Rice, Genghis Kahn to Hillary Clinton, and Adolf Hitler to Al Sharpton, Cathcart and Klein help us learn to identify tricks such as "The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy" (non causa pro causa) and the "The Fallacy Fallacy" (argumentum and logicam).
Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme
By Calvin Trillin, 2008 - Displaying the form that made bestsellers of "Obliviously On He Sails" and "A Heckuva Job," tales of the Bush Administration in rhyme, Calvin Trillin trains his verse on the 2008 race for the presidency. "Deciding the Next Decider" is an ongoing campaign narrative in verse interrupted regularly by other poems, such as a country tune about John Edwards called "Yes, I Know He's a Mill Worker’s Son, But There’s Hollywood in That Hair" and a Sarah Palin song about her foreign policy credentials: "On a Clear Day, I See Vladivostok."












