Earth by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Grand Central Publishing, September 2010)
Jon Stewart takes readers through a clever look at various aspects of earthly living. With an Alien Preface, this guide is a handbook for post-human existence. Stewart and the writers of the Daily Show take these planetary outsiders through the gamut of all things Earth: from our of understanding of planetary geography to weather to evolution to the human body to reproduction. Our views of politics, science, and social practices, such as religion and weddings, are explained.
“For Earth, weather was the physical manifestation of daily and yearly fluctuations of the atmosphere. For us, weather was the topic of choice used to fill the myriad of awkward silences that plagued our daily lives. No other shared experience evoked this kind of elemental empathy. Weather reminded us that we were all in this together, that for all our differences, rich and poor, black and white, zealot and atheist could all agree that yes, last Wednesday was, in fact, cold enough for us.”
Interspersed throughout are helpful FAQs (Future Alien Questions). A few of my favorites include:
“Q: What was the happiest period in a human’s life?
A: Either the one immediately preceding the period one was currently in, or the one immediately following it.”
“Q: In a population of billions, how did you decide whom to marry?
A: Most of us believed we had one perfect soul mate somewhere on earth. Luckily for us, that person usually lived not too far away, spoke the same language, was of an equivalent level of physical attractiveness, and shared our love of mountain biking.”
-Peyton
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