Jon Stewart proved he could play in the same league as Steve Martin and Woody Allen

Jon Stewart’s Naked Pictures of Famous People has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for many years, alongside some of my favorite comedy essay collections by the likes of Woody Allen and Steve Martin. It was time to finally read the 1998 book. Here are my brief thoughts on each piece; most of which you could read while taking a bathroom break.

Breakfast at Kennedys imagines what would happen if the Jewish narrator went to the Kennedy compound, which ends up being a strange mishmash of the Kennedy compound, a concentration camp, and a carnival.  Seems Stewart is just getting warmed up on this wacky tale. 4 out of 5 stars.

A Very Hanson Christmas, 1996-1999 details the letters of the Hanson band's mom, who shifts radically from being a loving Christian into an anti-abortion mama to a schizophrenic with a fear of all things in the world. The glimpse into 1990s superstardom in Oklahoma is a highlight of the collection. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

While many of the tapes were "recorded over with Grateful Dead bootlegs," Lack of Power: The Ford Tapes presents a look into the bumbling Gerald Ford presidency. 4 out of 5 stars.

Martha Stewart’s Vagina starts out really funny as a take on keeping care of one’s private parts. But the second half goes a little too far as the essay suggest setting up an office in one’s vagina as a real possibility. 3 out of 5 stars.

The New Judaism is a great light-hearted review of the differences between Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism and the direction the the religion should go if it has learned from history. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Pen Pals is the best story in the collection, offering the correspondence between Mother Theresa and a very obnoxious Princess Diana. 5 out of 5 stars.

Local News is a brief report on the Taco Bell chihuahua being killed in a bar fight. Minor at best. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Last Supper is a reimagining of Jesus and his frat pals getting a last meal in at a place called Jerry’s, except the employees aren't too keen on helping them very quickly. Pretty hilarious stuff. Jesus in this story, he’s, well, alright. Hilarious stuff. 5 out of 5 stars.

Things get a little forgettable in the middle of the collection. Da Vinci: The Lost Notebook and The Cult are filler.

Five Under Five is an amusing take on the increasingly silly lists of people - whether they are 40 under 40 senior aides or 60 over 60 parking attendants - that nearly every magazine and website seem to regularly feature, especially back when magazines were still a thing. 4 out of 5 stars.

The Recipe: Inside joke? I don't really get it, but just in case I someday might, I rank it "Incomplete." 

The Devil and William Gates is a sci-fi tale told from many generations in the future, in a look back at an incident in 1975 that happened to the future and now former World CEO. At that time, Gates sold his soul to the devil, but when he comes to collect 25 years later, Gates defeats the Devil with a small loophole and the world carries on. 2.5 out of 5 stars. 

Vincent and Theo on AOL proves that we were already dumb in 1998, as Van Gogh steps into a handful of chat rooms, pontificating on various intellectual matters of importance, only to be inundated with misspelled comments about Viagra, old creepy men pretending to be horny young women, and the Hanson brothers. By the end, Vincent decides to give up painting and attend DeVry. Inane but poignant. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold: A man has been planning bad things to unleash on his former classmates at his 30-year reunion. But when he arrives, most attendees are doing revengeful things and only a few are there for good-time reuniting. A strange tale that doesn’t quite work. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Adolph Hitler: The Larry King Interview is every bit as entertaining as it sounds. Another classic from this book. Hitler says he did it because he was bullied and only had one testical. He said he wanted to stop at Czechoslovakia but then Poland was right up the road and he couldn’t stop. He says he killed Eva Braun in the bunker and escaped wearing her clothes. He chalks up his killing of many of his best scientists - in his aim to perfect the races - as his own classic fear of success and sabotage of himself. Great idea for a short story and funny stuff. 5 out of 5 stars.

Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Sitcom offers an hilarious string of letters from ABC executives to comedian Lenny Bruce in 1961 as they attempt to iron out the plot of a sitcom starring the highly controversial comic. It’s as if Seinfeld were the demon while getting his show launched. Needless to say, the ideas from both camps diverge greatly, until ABC eventually rejects Bruce altogether shortly before CBS picks up the script and calls it The Dick Van Dyke Show. 4 out of 5 stars.

The book ends with Microsoft Word ‘98 Suggested Spelling and Usage, which is a bit of a relic of the early internet age. That said, think of how easy it can be to misspell or for spellcheck to mess up your words while texting, and this essay still resonates. Stewart spellchecks words he has used earlier in the book and it seems he has outsmarted the computers. 4 out of 5 stars.