By: Meher Ahmed <[email protected]>

Looking for your daily dose of political sarcasm? You’ve found just the book. Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) hit the stores this October and proved to be a comedic classic.

The textbook-style coffee table book seems like any other opinionated stance on American politics at first glance. But upon opening the book, readers will discover it is much more than an ordinary story. I Am America is a whole new level of humor, with sarcasm dripping from every one of Colbert’s words. The book is separated into three main sections titled “My American Childhood,” “My American Adolescence” and “My American Maturity.” And each section is chock full of blunt and often offending statements. On his chapter about religion, Colbert gave a summary of the Quakers: “These folks produced only two things I like – Oatmeal and Richard Nixon.”

The unexpected humor, however, was in the margins. Throughout the book, Colbert injects his exaggerated opinions into the margins of the book. The small and often pointless phrases are worth the squinting; it feels as if no one else would be reading them.

However, midway through the book, the sarcasm does get a bit tiring. The knee-slapping laughter turns to chuckles, then to smiles and then to just plain boredom. The bonus stickers within the book proved to make up for any boredom. The silver seal on the cover, which most would’ve overlooked, ended up being a “Stephen T. Colbert Award for Literary Excellence.” Twelve more were included inside so that the reader may place them on books they deem worthy of the award.

A warning to any readers who may be in any way conservative: this book is definitely offensive. In fact, as a warning to any reader, this book offends everyone except for Steven Colbert. From homosexuals to immigrants to the elderly, Colbert tackles and undermines everyone in the United States in one way or another. Why do we keep reading? The jokes are funny enough that we forgive him.

Overall, I Am America was an immaculately written and detailed book. The more I read it, the more I found it to be hilarious. The devil’s in the details and the humor is, too. As I was closing the book, I found a small picture summary of “How to Retire I Am America for the Evening,” which even featured two boy scouts. Does the book deserve the same amount of respect the American flag does? Certainly not. But it does deserve a “well done.” This book was hilarious.