Book: Dave Barry Slept Here

I'm casually paging my way through Jon Stewart's America: The Book and while it's darn funny at times, it still doesn't beat my favorite contender for the Funniest Fake Textbook -- Dave Barry's Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States.

Here's a little excerpt about the early days:

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, America was very different. There was no civilization: no roads, no cities, no shopping malls, no Honda dealerships. There were, of course, obnoxious shouting radio commercials for car dealerships; these have been broadcast toward Earth for billions of years by the evil Planet of Men Wearing Polyester Sport Coats, and there is nothing anybody can do to stop them. But back then, you see, there was no way to receive them, so things were pretty peaceful.

He works his way through to modern times in his incomparable style. The better your grasp of American history, the funnier the book gets.

The first major president to be elected after the War of 1812 was President Monroe Doctrine, who became famous by developing the policy for which he is named.

This book should be in every history buff's library. Oh, all right, here's one more:

The Soviet Union at this time was being run by the Communists, a group of men fierce in their dedication to wearing hilariously bad suits. Their leader was Josef Stalin (Russian for “Joey Bananas”).

Link (on Amazon.com)