"Evelyn Woodhead Speed Reading Course" is a parody skit of the numerous speed reading courses available in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s written by Cheech and Chong that first appeared on the 1973 album Los Cochinos. The title refers to the Evelyn Wood course.
Voiced by Tommy Chong, the piece begins with the words delivered phonetically:
| “ | Ever since I took the Evelyn Woodhead sped ridin course, my ridin has im-PRO-v'd won-der-FULL-y. I ricommend these Evelyn Woodhed Speed Riddin Course to all my frens out there and you tell 'em that you heard it here first... on Roller Derby | ” |
The short spoken word testimonial style skit was an effective parody of commercials that were prevalent on television and radio stations in that era.
Famous quotes containing the words speed and/or reading:
“It was undoubtedly the feeling of exile—that sensation of a void within which never left us, that irrational longing to hark back to the past or else to speed up the march of time, and those keen shafts of memory that stung like fire.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“The logical English train a scholar as they train an engineer. Oxford is Greek factory, as Wilton mills weave carpet, and Sheffield grinds steel. They know the use of a tutor, as they know the use of a horse; and they draw the greatest amount of benefit from both. The reading men are kept by hard walking, hard riding, and measured eating and drinking, at the top of their condition, and two days before the examination, do not work but lounge, ride, or run, to be fresh on the college doomsday.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)