Chubtoad’s Book Review ‘A Load of Hooey’ by Bob Odenkirk

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Published on Tuesday, January 06 2015 12:57

Written by Chubtoad

Written by Richard “Chubtoad” Sheldon

"A Load of Hooey’ is a study in satirical comedy from a comedian that pokes fun at many aspects of life and never takes himself or his work too seriously.  Fans of Bob Odenkirk may remember him from his days with co-creator David Cross on Mr. Show, or possible his largest reaching work on AMC’s ‘Breaking Bad’.  Odenkirk is not a standup or jokester.  He is a sketch comedy genius.  Having written for ‘Mr. Show’, ‘Saturday Night Live’ and the ‘New Yorker’, he has shown his comedic irony and satire are his strengths.

‘A Load of Hooey’ is a fun, and in my opinion, too short book of funny stories, ironic stories, ridiculous quotes and more.  Odenkirk has said in interviews that he was heavily influenced by Monte Python and early Saturday Night Live.  ‘A Load of Hooey’ reflects the influence of those sketch comedy legends.  I highly recommend listening to this on the audio book edition.  It is read by Bob Odenkirk as well as his friends and colleagues David Cross, Jay Johnston, Jerry Minor, Paul F. Tompkins and Megan Amram.  Megan Amram opens the book reading a piece written for a charm school titled “One should never read a book on the toilet” From there we have a collection of satire such as “Martin Luthor King’s worst speech ever” in which we hear Dr. King fall apart on stage because he did not prepare a speech.   There are “unabridged” quotes throughout the book where Odenkirk adds the part to a famous quote that was left off.  One example is “If you dream it, you can do it! Not you.  I mean me, I was talking to myself” – Walt Disney.