Still, Colbert affirms his place as a master of the kind of satire that, if you aren’t paying attention, you might just miss is a joke. Whether or not you can laugh at it will now depend on how easy it is for you to a.) chuckle at the end of life as we know it and b.) get used to listening to an imagined conversation between Jon Stewart (now dead) and a space alien. I Am A Pole (And So Can You) Kindle Edition by Stephen Colbert (Author), Paul Hildebrand (Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition 375 ratings Goodreads Choice Award nominee See all formats and editions Kindle 9.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0. Pole’s pursuits underscore that Colbert’s adult fans will be the book’s primary audience-like Go the F**k to Sleep, this is a not-for-children “children’s book” (Pole considers becoming a “Gallup poll” and interns as a stripper pole before becoming an American flagpole). The book is a letter written to aliens who might stumble upon our planet after the human race becomes extinct. Colbert’s deadpan humor traipses into the tactless as he riffs on singsong verse (“I maypoled for a month,/ Learning pagans aren’t my type./ I didn’t cut it as a totem-/ Me no smoke-um the peace pipe”), and the digital illustrations, unskilled by design, mock amateurish art. The result: a patriotic parody of saccharine, over-earnest picture books. Starring a dopily earnest, bug-eyed pole seeking a purpose in life, Colbert’s tongue-in-cheek debut picture book was born out of a segment with Maurice Sendak on the Colbert Report, in which the late author/illustrator decried the talentless individuals (particularly celebrities) creating children’s books.

I am a pole by stephen colbert