Review of Earth (The Book) A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race

Apr 6, 2011
Andree Lachapelle

Jon Stewart's Earth - Hachette Book Group

Using wit and biting insight, Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart answers puzzling questions about our species in a new guide to the human race: Earth (The Book.)

Comedy fans and sarcasm aficionados rejoice! Not content with simply entertaining us four nights a week with his popular television show, our favourite political pundit brings us another juicy pop culture morsel to sink our teeth into: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Book) A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

The popular Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Daily Show has been hosted by Jon Stewart since 1999. Every week, from Monday to Thursday, Stewart and his news team entertain live audiences and Comedy Central fans by bringing insightful commentary and a unique blend of charm, humour and biting sarcasm to current events and political happenings.

In this latest publication, Jon Stewart (Naked Pictures of Famous People and America, The Book) introduces potential extraterrestrial visitors to everything our planet has to offer. From science to religion and from life to death, Earth (The Book) has it all.

Earth (The Book) A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race

The premise of Earth (The Book) is simple - the human race is extinct and our legacy is this: a user’s guide to our planet. Loaded with colourful pictures, graphs and charts, each chapter takes a humorous yet affectionate look at the human race:

The life cycle and life itself – everything from floriography “my heart aches," says the rose, on page 24 to DNA and what puts a twinkle in George Clooney’s eye. (In the book’s foreword, human readers are invited to use the enclosed form to apply for genetic reconstruction, in the event that alien visitors to our planet will be able to replicate life, “from nothing more than a strand of DNA.")
Earth – its location, geographical and environmental makeup and all the wonderful things we loved about our planet: namely diamonds and gold.
Man and Society – brain size, skin colour, customs and manners, reproduction and the surprisingly relevant (albeit dubious) details of Larry King’s anatomy, as well as human culinary delicacies such as Peeps.
Religion – polygamy, Scientology and our prayers and rituals. Stewart even pokes gentle fun at his own Jewish roots: “boys and men wore yarmulkes to symbolize their subordination to their mothers” (page 151.)
Science – the Periodic Table of the Synthetic, which chronicles the invention of such great materials as Kevlar, Spandex and Latex; developments in technology; and medical advances, including a photo documenting the contents of a typical medicine cabinet.
Commerce and culture – books, music and cultural traditions such as pole dancing; the thrill of drugs, alcohol and gambling; and the allure of pornography, from the frescoes of 79 AD Pompeii to the Penthouse forum.

According to Earth (The Book) pandemics, black holes, shark-bee mutations and our lack of control over our worst impulses have led to the our untimely demise and the human race died before we could realize our full potential. Perhaps a gentle race of alien invaders will take pity on us poor mortals and use the knowledge found in Stewart's book to build a better human race.

One can only hope that this new race of super-humans will be able to avoid the pitfalls documented in Earth (The Book) while maintaining some of our best qualities: passion for our beliefs, empathy for our fellow humans and the ability, in the end, to laugh at ourselves.

About the Author

American comedian, actor, and political satirist Jon Stewart has hosted the Grammy Awards and the Academy Awards, and has appeared in numerous films and television shows including:

The Larry Sanders Show
Half Baked
The Aristocrats
Death to Smoochy

In the fall of 2010, Stewart and The Colbert Report’s Stephen Colbert co-hosted their answer to Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally, "The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Jon Stewart lives in New York City with his wife and two children. Earth (The Book) A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race is his third book.