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A Load of Hooey cover art

A Load of Hooey

By: Bob Odenkirk
Narrated by: Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Jay Johnston, Jerry Minor, Megan Amram, Paul F. Tompkins
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Summary

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 television 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 ("Obit for the Creator of Mad Libs") 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 hilariousnew sketch comedy show that's exclusively available as a streaming video for your mind. As Odenkirk himself writes in "The Second Meeting of Jesus and Lazarus," it is a book "to be read aloud to yourself in the voice of Bob Newhart".

©2014 Bob Odenkirk (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

What listeners say about A Load of Hooey

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Easy listening fun

Bob is a great guy to listen too and there is some great elements to these stories. Worth a listen if you’re fancying something a little different

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Mildly Amusing. Unfortunately Transphobic

DNF at around 70%


I don't like giving one star, especially to someone whose work I greatly appreciate (seriously, Mr. Show is ridiculously funny and weird, his performances as Saul Goodman are sublime, and Nobody is one of the best John Wick movies), and I feel very self conscious whenever a book actually talks about reviews -- with appropriate mocking of ridiculous ones and the hilarious reviews of classics.

I realised early on that this wasn't my cup of tea and nothing like the humour I was used to and expecting of Odenkirk, but persisted hoping for the hidden treasure that are so often found in so so anthologies. The quality does vary with some being better than others, awkward and problematic (I'm not being puritanical and I'll discuss this shortly) to genuinely rather wry and amusing. The audiobook definitely helped in the delivery of some of the stories, particularly the piece to be read at the character's funeral with wild emphasis read by (I think) Paul F Thompkins doing a voice was actually great.

While this was cruising to be a competent, but not for me, three, then the sheer number of vaguely and less so transphobic elements in multiple stories and the not necessarily homophobic, but certainly seemingly exotifying and fetishising someone being gay and into kink. This book was published in 2014. There's never a excuse for bigotry, even when it's being used for comedy by somone not of that intersection. I'm not trying to be a buzzkill or wokescold and absolutely not trying to make more of it than what it is and saying Odenkirk is necessarily a bigot. It just sucks to be the butt of an unfunny joke. We have a sense of humour, but 'ha ha, man-woman' just doesn't cut it.

The audiobook performances were brilliant and any time I hear the dulcet tones of Paul F. Thompkins is a joy.

Disappointing.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Fine

It was okay as part of the membership when it was effectively free, but it's poorly written and not particularly well acted. I barely laughed.

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