The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race Paperback – October 18, 2011

I picked up 'Earth (The Book)' with some trepidation, because I absolutely loved 'America (The Book)' and assumed from reading several critical reviews on Amazon that I would find 'Earth' to be inferior to 'America'. For full disclosure, I should mention that I am a huge fan of both 'The Daily Show' and 'The Colbert Report', and have read all of Jon's books as well as Stephen's, with various degrees of enjoyment.Within ten pages, and with a certain amount of relief, I knew that I was quite mistaken, and 'Earth (The Book)' was just as brilliant and thought-provoking as 'America', and perhaps even more so. It is different, certainly - with 'America' I wanted to sit down and consume the whole thing as quickly as possible. With 'Earth', I felt like I wanted to take the time to savor and enjoy it over several sittings. The book definitely rewards you for taking your time and poring over each page, as there are plenty of jokes to be found hidden in the images and asides. (Judging from other reviews, some may find this off-putting, but personally I enjoyed the change of pace.)'Earth (The Book)' is essentially about well, earth, but more specifically, our relationship with the planet and ourselves. If I had to summarize the book, I'd say 'Earth' is what happens when several very intelligent and funny people get together to take a long, hard look at how we live our lives and all of the ludicrous, ridiculous and occasionally self-defeating things that humans do - and distill it into bitingly funny chunks of truth. It confronts everything from materialism to religion, environmental destruction to politics, as well as corporate ethics and celebrity culture. It's thought-provoking and at times even uncomfortable to read, but only because it holds up a mirror to so many of your long-held traditions, habits and assumptions, and asks, with a heavy dose of humor: "Why?"I think 'Earth (The Book)' is similar to 'The Daily Show' in some respects; there's something there for everyone, but the more you know about a subject, the funnier you will find it. I certainly didn't get all of the jokes the first time around, and that is probably a good thing, because I'm sure I'll get more out of it when I re-read it. Still, I got enough of them that I was laughing out loud at least a couple of times a page throughout most of the book. And as I mentioned earlier, some of the humor is quite dark and had me smiling grimly about a nerve being hit, rather than being laugh-out-loud funny.I've noticed that another common complaint reviewers seem to have about the book is that its humor won't age as well as 'America's', because a lot of the jokes may not be easily understood in a few years time. Again, I would say this is a mischaracterization - yes, some of the humor is very current, but mostly it consists of timeless observations about human behaviour. I don't think the book will be a significantly poorer read in 20 or 50 years due to a few references to current events (like the Gulf Oil Spill or various politicians and celebrities), and I'm not sure I agree that the authors of this book should be writing with that in mind anyway.To sum up, in my opinion Earth is a fantastic, five-star book, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone, especially if you enjoy 'The Daily Show's' brand of satire. Perhaps some elements of it may not be to everyone's taste, but I still think it is a rare and worthwhile read that forces you to think at the same time as it makes you laugh, and that can only be a good thing.As a final aside, I will add that I really think that 'Earth' is the kind of book that works best as a physical thing in your hands, rather than as an audio book or on a device. The images and page layout frequently make up a significant part of the gags, so I would strongly recommend that people buying the book consider getting it in book form so that they can easily appreciate the whole package.

If you've read or heard about America (The Book), know first that this book is fairly different. America (The Book) makes itself out to be a mock textbook, and has many long, hilarious text passages that skewer politics and education at the same time. However, there are also the occasional pages that are infographics, with jokes both in the images and the captions, that take up complete pages.Now imagine that the entire book were made out of these commented infographics, with the subject matter shifted from the USA to the entire planet, and aimed at an audience of aliens who find the Earth deserted after the human race spectacularly manufactures its own demise, and you have Earth (The Book).If you haven't read America (The Book) - and if not, what are you waiting for? You can grab the paperback for less than $10 here on Amazon - just think of this as the anti-coffee table book. It's a tome that delightfully destroys all aspects of society, from our perceptions of aliens to the planet itself to commerce, religion and culture. It can be picked up occasionally and flipped to a random page, as each joke is encapsulated and confined. Or, it can be read large sections at a time, with every word and picture perused until you can laugh no more. There is at least one brilliant joke per page, and quite often more than that.This book pokes fun at anything and everything, and you may find the finger pointing at yourself now and again. If you can't laugh at your own idiosyncrasies and beliefs, skip this book and recommend it to someone with a sense of humor. If you can't take a joke, this book isn't for you.The only down side, one that America (The Book) has less of a problem with, is that some of the jokes can't stand the test of time in the long term. In 50 years, the numerous pop culture references throughout the book will be largely forgotten, lost to the winds of time. It's better that way, of course, as their shallowness is a significant reason why this book makes fun of them. So perhaps this won't be one of the great literary classics, discussed and venerated for all time, but there's certainly enough timeless humor in here for it to be funny at least as long as you'll be alive. Get it now, and leave it in a conspicuous place when you're not reading it (the coffee table, perhaps?), so that when we do destroy ourselves, the aliens can see this message.Hopefully, they'll get the joke.

Where do i start? I'd like to keep my review somewhat simple, in that i would rather not provoke or spark a political debate.I love The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report and this book is as good as both of those shows at their best. Very literally, this, in my opinion, is a quality piece of work! Most of this book is satirical, and not meant to be taken seriously; however, like The Daily Show, you have to be able to differentiate what is fact and what is fiction.In this spirit of the long running show, this book is fiction based on fact. And i've never read a book that has the two blended in a more entertaining way. This is basically a satirical textbook on Earth, and honestly, it actually reads and feels somewhat like one. Though It's infinitely more entertaining than any other textbook i've ever read. Nearly every picture is accompanied by a clever one-liner.Though the most surprising thing about this book is that while all of it is entirely dedicated to making fun of everything that has ever existed on the planet Earth, the base of most of the jokes are actually based on fact.I want to make it perfectly clear that I'm not trying to say that the information contained within this book or on The Daily Show is entirely fact, but rather putting a satirical spin on facts.This was definitely a book that I was constantly looking forward to reading because even after reading on the first couple of pages, i knew it was going to provide constant entertainment throughout the rest of it. Will definitely be buying America ( the book ) after reading this.

It's simply excellent. If you enjoy using logic to assess the world around you, than the application to our entire civilization will surely have you both laughing historically, and rethinking some information many of us haven't considered since school years. It gets A+ for presentation, and each piece is excellent and concise (I would actually love an annotated one with TONs more text, but that's me).I noticed some reviewers mentioned that some jokes were "predictable" - with which I party disagree, and entirely think is a byproduct of the best part about this book - that it was written by logical and intelligent beings. For example: it's a book written "for" aliens who visit our planet, to tell them of our society, as it would likely be extinct by then. Is explaining to them our idea of Geo-centrism (old idea that Earth = Center of the Universe and what all orbits around) logically predictable? Yes. If I had to look at it logically based on current understanding, the jokes about self importance and egoism are obvious to make. Are they still hilarious? Yes! Is putting a small picture of "Miss Universe" in a obscure corner (of a fully packed and beautiful page), and asking our "alien visitors" if they agreed with her crown for the entire Universe? Yes, it's definitely a plus.I was more impressed that they still managed to make some really clever remarks and connections, as many were definitely unexpected! And even if you didn't sleep through school and enjoy the.. sciences for example, you'll still learn a few things as while it's comedy-centrist (hi-hi), it is also .. an encyclopedia, even by definition. And a fair and honest one, if we have to be fair and honest about it. And for the times I read a line and went "yep, that's how I'd also interpret that a rational grown up" - while not "groundbreakingly unique", I'm happier that now I have my thoughts echoed by someone else, in a hilarious way, in a beautiful book, surround by other excellent facts and interpretations, all neatly organized and excellently decorated and presented.The only way I can see someone not loving this is if you/they never went to or slept through any/all school; lived entire life in a cupboard under the stairs (but that was IT!); or somehow can't stand Jon Stewart and/or the Daily Show, and thus hate the fact they are on the cover (and could not figure out a way to get past that).If you've read this far, my only advise left would be to consider your own OCD-ness (excuse the expression) and consider which version to get, and if not to get a second "reading" copy. I bought myself a "hardcover" (actually a beautiful library binding, which makes a lot more sense once you read the library stamp joke on the inside of the front cover), but I almost don't want to touch it. I have it in digital form, but it's sooo much better on real paper, that I'm considering getting a second (possibly used) one just for reading and showing to guests.

Funny book. Mostly laugh out loud funny. This book is witty enough to brighten your day.

This book is sort of an encyclopedia about modern humans. The premise is that we don't have long to live as a species, so this book is meant to be a guide for future generations who somehow survive the upcoming apocalypse and/or aliens who visit our planet after we're gone. The book is in the format of a visual guide, with lots of scribble notes to explain the pictures. There is regular text too, but the book is really full of interesting and funny pictures.The content runs the range from the Earth itself, biology, human biology, culture, science, and religion. The writing is classic Daily Show material. Jon (and members of his show) spare no one in their lampooning modern people, our culture, and our views of the world. Of course, special treatment is given to tea-baggers, or at least, people who think like they do. If you enjoy the Daily Show (and I do), I think you'll definitely enjoy the humor of this book. The humor is not for the faint-hearted, particularly those who are sensitive about religion. In a way, I think this is what Jon Stewart does best. Sure, his show is often more informative than the so called "news networks" (CNN, Fox, MSNBC), but at it's core it's a comedy show that tries to sneak in some information too. I think that's what this book does too. It's a funny book that also makes you stop and think for every once in a while. Which makes it just about perfect as a coffee table book (which it is supposed to be a parody of). I don't think it will be a timeless classic in comedy (for one thing, there's too many pop references), but right now, it's a great bit of light, funny reading. Highly recommended!

NO disappointment with the "Daily Show" team and a touch of genius from Jon Stewart. Making fun of the humans is the ironic medicine the doctor recommended.

I bought this book as a gift for a Daily Show fan. The team working on the show and the book is the same so you can expect sarcasm everywhere. If you ever watched the show you know what I mean. And if you like the show at all you will love the book, for sure.Although there's no "see inside" the book option here in Amazon I can tell you it looks like a DK-encyclopedia book inside. That means there is text here and there, several images per page and a few full text pages to start the chapters and scattered around. You might love the format or you might hate it.The Daily Shor fan I gave this too kept laughing every 5 minutes so if you're buying it for a good laugh it is garanteed.