--- title: Daily Show Writer Critiques 'Fahrenheit 451' Permission Slip description: Daily Show head writer Daniel Radosh offered a scathing response after being served a permission slip for Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'. canonical: https://time.com/4547992/daniel-radosh-fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-response/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-27T18:49:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:07.079Z og:title: This Response to 'Fahrenheit 451' Permission Slip Is Perfect og:description: "What a wonderful way to introduce students to the theme of Fahrenheit 451" og:url: https://time.com/4547992/daniel-radosh-fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-response/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0676d43c9c1f1d84/6988abd3a988ca67756b9eaf/fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-daniel-radosh.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: This photo illustration shows a man read og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Response to 'Fahrenheit 451' Permission Slip Is Perfect twitter:description: "What a wonderful way to introduce students to the theme of Fahrenheit 451" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0676d43c9c1f1d84/6988abd3a988ca67756b9eaf/fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-daniel-radosh.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Daily Show_ Writer Dad's Response to a 'Fahrenheit 451' Permission Slip Is Perfect  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 27, 2016 6:49 PM UTC  This photo illustration shows a man reading Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" on June 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Michael THURSTON/AFP/GettyImages) This photo illustration shows a man reading Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" on June 6, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Michael THURSTON/AFP/GettyImages)AFP—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 27, 2016 6:49 PM UTC [_Fahrenheit 451_](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/06/ray-bradbury-on-film-the-best-of-the-sci-fi-masters-movies-and-tv-shows/), Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian tale of censorship has attracted controversy since it was first published in 1953, thanks to its fearless political commentary, born out of [McCarthy-era paranoia](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/27/time-turns-90-all-you-need-to-know-about-modern-history-in-90-cover-stories/slide/1954-sen-joseph-mccarthy/). Now, more than fifty years later, it appears that the themes in the book are still uncomfortably close to home. Case in point: a situation that _Daily Show_ writer Daniel Radosh recently experienced. Radosh’s son Milo brought home a permission slip from a school book club which asks for parental permission to read the iconic novel since there are passages where the Bible is burned and there’s a frequent use of profanity, elements that have historically placed this book on [banned book lists](http://time.com/3418361/banned-books-week/) or [prompted redacting and censorship](http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica). The school of thought behind the permission slip, however, ironically parallels the very mindset that fueled book burning in _Fahrenheit 451_, which Radosh wrote a scathing response to along with his signature, and posted it on his Twitter account Monday. Part of the note he sent reads: “I love this letter! What a wonderful way to introduce students to the theme of Fahrenheit 451 that books are so dangerous that the institutions of society — schools and parents — might be willing to team up against children to prevent them from reading one. It’s easy enough to read the book and say, ‘This is crazy. It could never really happen,’ but pretending to present students at the start with what seems like a totally reasonable ‘first step’ is a really immersive way to teach them how insidious censorship can be.” See Radosh’s response and the permission slip below. > [](https://twitter.com/danielradosh/status/790568116023615488) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4547992/daniel-radosh-fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-response/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4547992/daniel-radosh-fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-response/"},"headline":"Daily Show Writer Dad's Response to a 'Fahrenheit 451' Permission Slip Is Perfect","datePublished":"2016-10-27T18:49:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:07.079Z","description":"\"What a wonderful way to introduce students to the theme of Fahrenheit 451\"","url":"https://time.com/4547992/daniel-radosh-fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-response/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Education","Culture","Daily Show"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0676d43c9c1f1d84/6988abd3a988ca67756b9eaf/fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-daniel-radosh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0676d43c9c1f1d84/6988abd3a988ca67756b9eaf/fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-daniel-radosh.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"This photo illustration shows a man read","caption":"This photo illustration shows a man read","creditText":"AFP—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4547992/daniel-radosh-fahrenheit-451-permission-slip-response/","name":"Daily Show Writer Dad's Response to a 'Fahrenheit 451' Permission Slip Is Perfect"}}]}] ```