Truthiness Redux

With The Colbert Report in reruns for several weeks over the holidays, this was a fine time to read his new book, "America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't." As with his previous book (and two similar ones published by the staff of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), it's not really a single narrative as much as a loose theme to hold an eclectic batch of material, like you'd find on the show itself.

Stephen Colbert and the writers of his show have a wonderful symbiotic relationship. When I watch The Colbert Report and it makes me laugh out loud (which happens fairly often), I usually find myself thinking about the cleverness of the writers after the fact. It's particularly noticeable in his regular feature, "The Word," where the snide on-screen comments are usually the source of the laughs.

Reading America Again often made me appreciate the reverse of the relationship. I definitely smiled a lot reading the book, and even laughed out loud once or twice at a clever turn of phrase. But I also often found myself thinking, "there's something about Colbert's delivery that really would have sold that joke." Just as Colbert is great because of his writers, the writers are great because they have Colbert doing their material.

America Again is quite clever, and perhaps even more shrewd in its sociopolitical commentary, but it doesn't quite pack the punch of the best episodes of Colbert's show. However it also isn't the sort of book that you just sit down in read cover-to-cover either. You don't even have to read it in full chapters at a time, really. It's a great book to just mark your place and then take in a few more pages whenever you have a few minutes. Every page has a smart bit of comedy.

I'd give the book a B. Fans of The Colbert Report will definitely enjoy it, though it really is a supplement and not a substitute. I'll be glad when the show itself is back on the air.