"Racism has never been funnier," reports Amanda ReCupido. "At least that's what Daily Show correspondents John Oliver, Jason Jones, and Rob Riggle wanted last night's crowd to think at Southpaw in Brooklyn, where they celebrated the release of A Practical Guide to Racism. The book is penned by one C. H. Dalton, who, shockingly, has never been seen in the same room as Emmy Award-winning Daily Show writer Sam Means.

Dalton, the son of wealthy robber barons from New Haven, aims to perfectly categorize all humankind according to their genetic predispositions, and his book specifically lays out the habits of all races, including merpeople and women. Though Dalton himself was not present at the event, he made two appearances via video satellite (which looked surprisingly similar to a pre-recorded DVD) from his massage table and Gatsby-esque pool. In his absence, Riggle detailed at length the habits of the elderly, and made especially fascinating commentary on a McDonald's team diversity poster. Oliver, who is himself British, commented on the differences between the UK and US, and made the thought-provoking recommendation to replace the American flag with an Oreo pizza (which, he pointed out, is the true symbol of freedom). And Jones graced the stage for 'the first time in 20 years,' as Riggle introduced him (has the strike really been going on THAT long?), wearing a pair of jeans and telling jokes that were probably just as old. When I caught up with Jones later, he had little to say about the strike, despite all the slack Jon Stewart had gotten for catering the entire first episode back on-air to the issue: 'Its a lot of stuff right now,' he said. At least in the meantime, they can support one of their writers' books. Er, I mean Professor C. H. Dalton's book, who has no relation whatsoever to Sam Means."

Speaking of The Daily Show, if you haven't seen Claire Kirch's PW article about authors debating whether to cross the picket line, it's worth a look. As one unnamed university press publicist tells Kirch: "They don't want to be seen as strikebreakers... After all, they're professional writers, too. But, then, it's every writer's dream to appear on Colbert or The Daily Show. People aren't sure what to do."

And here's a bonus picture of Sam Means with two members of his Gotham Books promotional team, publicist Andrea Bussell and marketer Sarah Bergren.