Mass Historia: 365 Days of Historical Facts and (Mostly) Fictions

Mass Historia Rewrites History with Hilarious Results

Question 1: Who are you and what's the book about?

I am Chris Regan, and I am a comedy writer who primarily works in late night television, on such shows as Frank TV and Talkshow with Spike Feresten. I also wrote on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for seven seasons and have a few Emmy awards. While I was at the latter job, I also contributed to America (The Book), and decided I wanted to write my very own book.

Mass Historia is a "This Day in History" comedy book, which travels through the 365 days on the calendar, marks the historical events that occurred on each day, and makes fun of them, while being entirely disrespectful to accuracy and facts.

Question 2: What's so funny about history?

Well, there aren't a lot of funny events, per se, but there's a lot to make fun of. In the two or three million years that Man has been making history, he has also been providing comedy writers with a wealth of material. It's also good to look at some of the fearsome people and events throughout time and take the sting out of them by poking fun at them, especially since many of the fearsome people are now dead and won't kill me for writing this book. I'm looking at you, Dead Hitler!

Question 3: What inspired you to write the book?

When I left The Daily Show after seven years, I wanted to keep writing every day, but didn't want to write about the miserable state of our current world anymore. I found all these "This Day in History" sites on the Web and discovered that any given day of the calendar year is pretty much an anniversary of something important, so I set up my own Web site and took a slightly less reverent look at the events of the day. I was able to employ my same satiric voice, but instead of focusing on Bush and Cheney, I could focus my efforts on old–timey power mongers like Napoleon, or Nero, or Chester Alan Arthur. Arthur wasn't a power monger, but he had funny facial hair, and is thusly funny.

Question 4: Were some days better than others?

Absolutely. April 14th, for example, saw not only the sinking of the Titanic, but also the assassination of Lincoln, the Turkish invasion of Armenia, and Edison's first demonstration of the kinetoscope. Lots of stuff there. Whereas February 18th marks the anniversary of the first time a cow ever flew in an airplane. We need to step up our history—making efforts this February 18th.

Question 5: Who will the book appeal to?

Comedy fans, and history fans. Fans of jokes about Chester Alan Arthur's facial hair, and people who want to know every detail of a cow who flew in a plane on February 18th, 1930. I'm hoping it sits on people's coffee tables and when they are bored, they can discover that this day in history is usually anything but boring, and that it can also be good for a laugh.

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Contact: Kathy Hilliard, (800) 851-8923, ext. 7497, khilliard@amuniversal.com

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Mass Historia: 365 Days of Historical Facts and (Mostly) Fictions

By: Chris Regan
ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-6869-9
ISBN-10: 0-7407-6869-7
Format: Unjacketed hardcover, 8-1/2 x 10-3/8, Full color with photographs and art throughout, 256 pages
Price: $22.99 ($24.99 Canada)