Secrets Of The Republican Playbook Revealed

Steal this book

Andy Borowitz reveals right-wing strategies
to be far funnier than you’d think

By Jane Borden
Time Out New York

The blogosphere hypothesized about the bulge on Bush’s back during a 2004 election debate, but prolific political satirist Andy Borowitz—who received the National Press Club’s first humor award for www.BorowitzReport.com, knows the truth. It was a copy of The Republican Playbook, a party guide that’s been passed down since Nixon’s presidency until Borowitz stole it from the Oval Office. Or, it’s his latest hilarious book (Hyperion). In addition to past publications, the 48-year-old writer also created the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, produced the film Pleasantville, contributes regularly to NPR and performs live comedy downtown with the CBS/NYC series. Still, he describes getting inside the mind of our Commander in Chief for this collection of guidelines—which includes a slogan generator, talking points on “gay westerns” and plenty of W’s impromptu doodles in blue ink—as particularly daunting.

Q: Did you come up with the book idea when you saw the bulge during the debates?

A: I wondered what was back there. I’ve been doing fake journalism for five years, so I thought fake investigative journalism would be a good career move. Woodward and Bernstein actually found documents; it’s the job of a fake investigative journalist to make up things that he found.

Q: It’s a new category so they’ll have to give you another award.

A: Exactly.

Q: The Republican Playbook warns that leakers will be shot on sight. Have you had death threats?

A: The Republicans have so many people they want to kill that it’ll take ages to get to me. Michael Moore is certainly higher on the list than I am. Al Franken. The Dixie Chicks—that’s three. They have to kill all three before they get to me.

Q: So you have a running start.

A: I’m actually running right now.

Q: How do you know that’s the way Bush doodles?

A: We envisioned all the graffiti as something a 14-year-old boy would do in homeroom. There aren’t many world leaders at the G-8 Summit who will sneak up behind the Chancellor of Germany and give her an impromptu back rub. I worked from the behavior I saw. So I put him at a mental age of 14.

Q: Now, talking about your past work, does America realize that the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was created by a Jewish white guy?

A: It always surprises people. I can’t think of anything stranger I might have created…maybe if people found out that I’d been a leading member of the Miami Sound Machine; or C+C Music Factory. If they’d known that I was actually Terence Trent D’Arby, that might have surprised them more. But it was easier to write dialogue for Will Smith than to get inside the head of George W. Bush. Bush is so much whiter than even I am; this was more of a reach.

Q: You’ve made a small bundle off of lambasting the conservative right wing. How does it feel to do Satan’s bidding?

A: Well, according to Hugo Chavez, George Bush is Satan. I’m breaking George Bush’s response to the “Satan” accusation on The Borowitz Report: He’s pretty sure that [Chavez] just mixed him up with Cheney. Actually, don’t you think the Republicans would love this book? It points out how easy the Democrats are to beat. They fall for this stuff every election year. People read the book and say, “For the sake of fairness, why don’t you next do The Democratic Playbook?” And I say, “Because there isn’t one.”


Andy Borowitz's New Book - $11.53 at Amazon.com