A Load of Hooey - Hardcover

Odenkirk, Bob

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1938073886 ISBN 13: 9781938073885

Publisher: McSweeney's, 2014

Synopsis

Bob Odenkirk is a legend in the comedy-writing world, winning Emmys and acclaim for his work on Saturday Night Live, Mr. Show with Bob and David, and many other seminal TV shows. This book, his first, is a spleen-bruisingly funny omnibus that ranges from absurdist monologues ( Martin Luther King, Jr’s Worst Speech Ever”) to intentionally bad theater ( Hitler Dinner Party: A Play”); from avant-garde fiction ( Obituary for the Creator of Madlibs”) to free-verse poetry that's funnier and more powerful than the work of Calvin Trillin, Jewel, and Robert Louis Stevenson combined.

Odenkirk's debut resembles nothing so much as a hilarious new sketch comedy show that’s exclusively available as a streaming video for your mind. As Odenkirk himself writes in The Second Coming of Jesus and Lazarus,” it is a book to be read aloud to yourself in the voice of Bob Newhart.”

About this title

About the Author

Bob Odenkirk has won two Emmy Awards for comedy writing, for Saturday Night Live and The Ben Stiller Show. He co-created and starred in Mr. Show with Bob and David, which ran on HBO and has been called the American Monty Python,” which is perhaps a bit of an overstatement in his opinion. Bob has written short comic pieces for the New Yorker and had a regular page in Vice magazine - and there's not much overlap between those two publications, is there?

Bob has directed three feature films: Melvin Goes To Dinner, Let’s Go To Prison, and The Brothers Solomon, all of which underwhelmed, admittedly, but Melvin is worth watching, for sure.

Bob has had many other memorable roles on TV, most notably The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, How I Met Your Mother (CBS), and The Office (NBC). He is most proud of his appearances in James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska.

He is currently Executive Producing, writing, and co-starring in The Birthday Boys, a sketch comedy show for IFC to premiere in October, 2013.

Review

"Bob Odenkirk is wrong. He’s wrong about Jesus hosting a comedy show and he’s wrong that his book is just, 'a load of hooey.' It’s a load of funny and thoughtful is what it is. And why would one title a book that way? It gives the wrong impression to folks. It’s a terrible marketing plan. It should be called, 'The Best Book in the World This Year', or, 'This is Totally Worth It!' or something along those lines. It’s certainly not a load of hooey. Oh! And I looked up the definition of hooey” as per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It does NOT say that! He’s wrong about that too!!!! Wrong, wrong, wrong!" David Cross

Whip-smart and laugh-out-loud funny.” Publishers Weekly

The king of alt comedy expands his reign with this absurd collection of tirades, rhyming verse, and tips on how to avoid getting an embarrassing tattoo.” O, Oprah Magazine

Odenkirk shows his cerebral side in his first collection of humor writing.” Maxim

"Delightfully absurd" The Weekly Alibi

"A deft blend of silliness and ridicule, mirth and rage: salt augmenting sweetness." Barnes & Noble Review

"Delivered with a combination of thoughtfulness and absurdity that Odenkirk has honed over the course of his career." A.V. Club

'A Load of Hooey' is a load of laughs." New York Post

"A toolkit for anyone with a stake in making a 'creative wage' out of our digital culture... [Cory Doctorow's] arguments are entertainingly presented, forcefully made, and easy to follow." Quill & Quire

"Very funny and immensely silly." Portland Mercury

"A Load of Hooey finds the comedy legend doing what he does best: lampooning pretension." Chicago Reader

"Spoiler alert it’s FUNNY!" Local IQ

"Is it fair that [Odenkirk] is not only a funny, successful actor but also a funny, successful writer? Absolutely not, but fairness has even less to do with comedy than love and war." The New York Times Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: McSweeney's
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1938073886
• ISBN 13: 9781938073885
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 112