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[[File:America_1746.jpg|link=The Daily Show|frame|[[El
{{quote|''"I would certainly read this book if I were alive today, which, for all you geniuses out there, I am not."''|'''[[Abraham Lincoln]]'''}}
''America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction'' is a [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche]] of high-school textbooks about the history of American democracy and politics by the writers of ''[[
Now has a sequel [[Spiritual Successor|of sorts]]: ''[[Earth
Not to be confused with ''[[I Am America
{{tropelist}}
* [[Animeland]]: Japan, according to this book.
* [[The Annotated Edition]]: The second printing of the book contains humorous "fact check" annotations in red ink.
* [[Attack of the Political Ad]]: An entire page in the chapter on campaigning is dedicated to satirizing negative political advertising as well as highlighting some of its most famous [[Real Life]] examples. Among the book's surreal claims, a year after [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63h_v6uf0Ao "Daisy"] ad from the 1964 US Presidential election suggested that his opponent Barry Goldwater would start a nuclear war, Barry Goldwater started a nuclear war; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io9KMSSEZ0Y Willie Horton] was Michael Dukakis's running mate in 1988; and an underground smear campaign in ancient Rome depicted [[Emperor Caligula|Caligula]] as "a pretty nice guy."
* [[Canada, Eh?]]: Canadian contributor Samantha Bee has a recurring feature called "Would You Mind If I Told You How We Do It in Canada?", mocking Canada's reputation for being polite, unassuming, and boring.
** Don't forget her own full length book, ''Pardon Me, but May I Interest You in a Book About Canada?'', advertised in the back.
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: The "corrections" in the Teachers' Edition.
* [[Crapsack World]]: The portrait of future America, replete with zombie politicians, evil children, no water, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|rampant obesity]].
* [[Dedication]]: ''To the huddled masses, keep yearnin'!''
* [[Drinking Game]]: Invoked. Page 66 provides a number of drinking games for C-SPAN. For instance, when members of Congress are forced to argue politely instead of calling each other assholes, drink.
** That's called chugging...
* [[Fan Disservice]]: Naked pictures of the Supreme Court Justices (of course not real, but their heads are imposed on naked bodies appropriate for their age and shape). This got it banned from Wal-Mart.
* [[Fell Off the Back of
* [[Footnote Fever]]: The sidenotes are to keep up the illusion of being a school textbook, which often have all sorts of bizarre infoboxes in the margins. The footnotes are unexplainable except by [[Rule of Funny]], however.
** One of these was as follows.
{{quote|
** It also has a faux essay on "How to [[American Political System|Filibuster]]" that's basically a page of footnotes, footnotes within footnotes, symbols that look like footnotes within footnotes...
** A later "Teacher's Edition" of the book adds another layer of commentary, in the form of angry red notes scrawled all through the book by a history professor who is almost but not quite aware that the book is comedy. He gives it a passing grade of B-.
* [[George Washington Slept Here]]: Among the list of George Washington's achievements is "All-time record holder for Most Places Slept."
* [[Hair of the Dog]]: The RNC schedule has a wake-up call at 7:15 am and "Hair of the Dog" at 7:16 am.
* [[Hiroshima
* [[Historical Hilarity]]
* [[The Internet Is for Porn]]: It referred to the Internet as a source of communication, information, and "a staggering array of human sexual fetish".
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* [[Naked People Are Funny]]: The aforementioned naked cut out paper dolls of US Supreme Court Justices.
* [[Note From Ed]]
* [[
{{quote|
Congo. Inherent lies in name: 0. Oppression level: bloody.
Republic of the Congo. Inherent lies in name: 1. Oppression level: sadistic.
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Inherent lies in name: 2. Oppression level: genocidal.
People's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lies in name; 3. Oppression level: inhuman.
[[Sugar Bowl|Shiny]], [[Shout
* [[Robot War]]: The Constitutional Robocracy appears to take place after one.
* [[Sarcasm Mode]]: Frequently.
{{quote|
* [[Sensual Slavs]]: The section on Russia notes the Russian Paradox that young Russian women are beautiful while old Russian women are hideous. A picture comparison purports to show a young beauty queen before and after she crosses the threshold, becoming an old crone in the span of two weeks.
* [[Sequelitis]]: Invoked. According to the book, John Locke's ''Second Treatise on Government'' was panned by critics "who saw it as a flimsy pretext to bring back the characters from the ''First Treatise''".
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Comic Literature]]
[[Category:Non
[[Category:America The Book]]
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