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.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book)
By Jon Stewart and The Daily Show staff, 2010 - Where do we come from? Who created us? Why are we here? These questions have puzzled us since the dawn of time, but when it became apparent to Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show that the world was about to end, they embarked on a massive mission to write a book that summed up the human race: What we looked like; what we accomplished; our achievements in society, government, religion, science and culture.
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.
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,."
How to Win a Fight With a Conservative
By Daniel Kurtzman, 2012 - "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, 2012 - "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.)
Don't Vote - It Just Encourages the Bastards
By P.J O'Rourke, 2010 - A brilliant, disturbing, hilarious, and ultimately sobering look at why politics and politicians are a necessary evil — but only just barely necessary. O'Rourke presents his Sex, Death, and Boredom Theory of Politics, which breaks the social contract down to power, freedom, and responsibility by using a party game, Kill, F@#k, Marry, more typically found in late-night giggle sessions at all-girls boarding schools.
New Rules: Polite Musings of a Timid Observer
By Bill Maher, 2005 – Bringing the brilliantly conceived "New Rules" segment of his HBO Show to the written page, Bill Maher rants about topics including cell phones, fast food, Martha Stewart, pretentious Chinese-pictogram tattoos on your lower back -- oh, and George W. Bush.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book)
By Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" Staff, 2004 – 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 -- "a citizen's guide to democracy inaction." Every bit as funny as the show itself, the book offers insights into our unique system of government and explores the reasons why concepts like one man, one vote, government by the people, and every vote counts have become such popular urban myths. (Also available: The Teacher's Edition)
Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth
By The Onion, 2007 – Today's news-parody consumer cannot possibly understand made-up current events without the context of fake world history and geography. That is why The Onion has published a world atlas: to help us.
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).
