I Am America (And So Can You!)

"I Am America" redirects here. For the song, see Krista Branch.
I Am America
(And So Can You!)
Author Stephen Colbert
Rich Dahm
Paul Dinello
Allison Silverman
with
Michael Brumm
Eric Drysdale
Rob Dubbin
Glenn Eichler
Peter Grosz
Peter Gwinn
Jay Katsir
Laura Krafft
Frank Lesser
Tom Purcell
Stephen Colbert (uncredited)
Country United States
Language English
Genre Political satire
Humor
Publisher Grand Central Publishing
Publication date
 October 9, 2007
Media type Hardback & Audiobook
Pages 240 pp (1st edition)
ISBN 0-446-58050-3 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC 166924679
818.607 22
LC Class PN6165 .I25 2007
Followed by I Am a Pole (And So Can You!)
A sample image of the sticker found on the book, which reads "The Stephen T. Colbert Award for the Literary Excellence".

I Am America (And So Can You!) is a 2007 satirical book by American comedian Stephen Colbert and the writers of The Colbert Report. It was released on October 9, 2007, with the audiobook edition released several days earlier. The book is loosely structured around the fictional life story of Stephen Colbert as he appears on The Colbert Report. As of the April 6, 2008 publishing, the book had been on the New York Times Bestseller List in the Hardcover Nonfiction category for twenty-four weeks, ranking number one for fourteen of them.[1]

Description

I Am America (And So Can You!) is described as being a "pure extension" of The Colbert Report, delving into the views of Colbert's "well-intentioned, poorly informed high status idiot"[2] character on what he considers to be the most pressing issues facing the United States. The book is influenced by the literary endeavors of the character's pundit models, such as Bill O'Reilly's book, The O'Reilly Factor (2000) and Sean Hannity's Deliver Us From Evil (2004), which Colbert says he forced himself to read as a reference.[3]

Red margin notes appear throughout the book, providing humorous reactions and counterpoints to Colbert's arguments in a style comparable to the Report's "The Wørd" segment.[4] The cover features a sticker depicting a burning book, declaring I Am America to be a nominee for "The Stephen T. Colbert Award for the Literary Excellence". A sheet of twelve similar stickers are provided inside, with which readers are provided to nominate other books for the award. A second sheet of stickers containing positive expressions such as "Hell Yeah!", "Nailed It!" and "It's Morning In Colbert-ica" is included for readers as bookmarks to remind them "when you agreed with me most."[5]

Colbert, whose character frequently used his show to advertise his own satirical products, frequently promoted I Am America at the time of its release, including in a commercial which depicted the book emerging from an erupting volcano in a manner similar to commercials for Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. On October 9, 2007, the day of the book's release, Colbert interviewed himself as the show's featured guest. On Meet the Press, he signaled that his book was testing waters for a Presidential run, much like other politicians.

Audiobook cast and crew

Awards

The audiobook was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2009. The award was ultimately won by Al Gore and his book on global warming, the companion book to the film An Inconvenient Truth.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "New York Times Bestseller List". The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2008.
  2. ↑ Solomon, Deborah (September 25, 2005). "Funny About the News". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
  3. ↑ Colbert, Stephen (October 16, 2007). "Meet the Author" podcast. Retrieved on October 27, 2007.
  4. ↑ Maslin, Janet (October 8, 2007). "It May Be a Book, but You Can Read It". The New York Times. Retrieved January 5, 2008.
  5. ↑ Colbert, Stephen (2007). I Am America (And So Can You!). New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-58050-3
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Preceded by
My Grandfather's Son
by Clarence Thomas		 #1 New York Times Best Seller Non-Fiction (first run)
October 28, 2007 – December 2, 2007 		Succeeded by
An Inconvenient Book
by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe
Preceded by
An Inconvenient Book
by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe		 #1 New York Times Best Seller Non-Fiction (second run)
December 16, 2007 – January 13, 2008 		Succeeded by
In Defense of Food
by Michael Pollan
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