Joe Bob Goes to the Drive In is the first book by John Bloom under the pen name Joe Bob Briggs. It consists of his movie reviews written between 1982 and 1985.
Joe Bob was Bloom's satirical creation, allowing him to spoof stereotypical "redneck" Texan values while giving genuine praise to schlock films. It was not widely known until he was fired in 1985 that Briggs was not, in fact, a real person.
Joe Bob exclusively viewed movies in drive-ins, in his Toronado with any one of several girlfriends. According to his column, he has four ex-wives, and is always on the lookout for "ex-wife number five". An entire fictional cast of characters popped up over the period of the column, who would often be mentioned in the story along with the movie reviews.
The entire book is made up of columns and shorter segments called "Joe Bob's Mailbag," when Joe Bob writes back to his fans, and often his critics. The only two people who actually appear in the first person are Joe Bob and, interestingly, Stephen King, who saw several of his books made into movies during that period and actually wrote the introduction to the book when it was compiled and published in 1987.
Joe Bob/Bloom lived in Texas during the duration of both this book and its sequel, Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive In. At first his column appeared solely in The Dallas Times-Herald, but was eventually syndicated before Joe Bob was dropped completely. This event actually signals the end of the book, when Joe Bob states that he had been 'killed'.
Famous quotes containing the words joe, bob and/or drive:
“I do wish that as long as they are translating the thing, they would go right on ahead, while they’re at it, and translate Fedor Vasilyevich Protosov and Georgei Dmitrievich Abreskov and Ivan Petrovich Alexandrov into Joe and Harry and Fred.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“It was because of me. Rumors reached Inman that I had made a deal with Bob Dole whereby Dole would fill a paper sack full of doggie poo, set it on fire, put it on Inman’s porch, ring the doorbell, and then we would hide in the bushes and giggle when Inman came to stamp out the fire. I am not proud of this. But this is what we do in journalism.”
—Roger Simon, U.S. syndicated columnist. Quoted in Newsweek, p. 15 (January 31, 1990)
“Ha, ha, my ship! thou mightiest well be taken now for the sea- chariot of the sun. Ho, ho! all ye nations before my prow, I bring the sun to ye! Yoke on the further billows ... I drive the sea!”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)