This Friday, all of us will be reminded "what it means to be American." Now, for me (and I think a lot of other Americans), this rhetoric initially seems kind of absurd. It implies that there is a certain set of traits that make up an entire cultural identity, that these traits are knowable, and that they are somehow connected to festive touchstones like "The 1812 Overture," a piece the Boston Pops plays every Fourth of July.

Then again, maybe that's not as ridiculous as it sounds. Maybe Americanness does have something to do with a Russian orchestral piece celebrating a French loss in Borodino. Maybe the Boston Pops Orchestra has been covertly promoting internationalism for years by celebrating the Napoleonic Wars, wars we didn't fight in, wars that we, in fact, probably ignored because we were more concerned about "free trade and sailors' rights." But while asserting the truth of this statement is relatively easy, getting people to believe it is a bit more difficult, especially if those people use expressions like "what it means to be American" in a cavalier sort of way.

Luckily, I don't have to deal with it this week. That's why CBS hired Craig Ferguson. Born in Scotland, Mr. Ferguson became a United States citizen on February 1, 2008 (which might have gotten him impressed into the Royal Navy in 1812). Since his assumption of the American burden, he's scored a ratings victory over primary competitor Conan O'Brien and entertained at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Most notably, he will host the Boston Pops Concert for a second time tomorrow night.

This might have been a more relevant point last year when Ferguson was not yet a citizen, but it's still interesting to consider how his brand of humor makes him appropriate for events that celebrate American institutions. He isn't an outsider, exactly (he's long been involved in the entertainment industry), but he isn't the awkward stateside everyman, either.

A lot of his jokes play on European representations that could be considered vaguely stereotypical but seem to have a pretty accurate personal basis, too. Ferguson drummed in a Glaswegian punk band, drank a lot before sobering up and generally appears to have led a wild life in the Old World. This is, of course, every American college student's dream.

More than that, he puts a stranger's spin on that which is no longer strange. One episode in late April revolved almost entirely around Mr. Ferguson discovering the phrase "break me off a piece of that!" And if you think about it, the best part of talking to someone inexperienced with American vernacular is getting to hear stupid catchphrases made even stupider through a lack of familiarity. It makes both the person and the idiom more compelling, which is how Mr. Ferguson and his work reawaken our interest in what it actually means to be American.

Ferguson often remarks that "you can take the boy out of Europe, but you can't take Europe out of the boy." His acknowledgement of cultural mixture is at the base of American identity and precisely why he should preside over the Boston Pops Concert this year, why "The 1812 Overture" is just as important as the fireworks that follow. The United States is made up of people with roots all over the world; we are a nation of Craig Fergusons and, politically independent though we may be, you can't take Europe out of the U.S., either.