''Joe Bob Goes to the Drive In'' is the first book by John Bloom under the pen name

Joe Bob Briggs John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is an American syndicated film critic, writer, actor, and comic performer. He is known for having hosted ''Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater'' on The Movie Channel fro ...

. 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

Oldsmobile Toronado The Oldsmobile Toronado is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors from 1966 to 1992 over four generations. The Toronado was noted for its transaxle version of GM's Turbo-Hydramatic transmission ...

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

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

, 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 Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

during the duration of both this book and its sequel, ''

Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive In The sequel to '' Joe Bob Goes to the Drive In'', ''Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive In'' is the continuation of the gonzo movie critic's adventures with drive-in films. Summary Joe Bob, now writing for different papers after apparently being fired f ...

''. 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'.

References

1987 books Books about film Books of film criticism Delacorte Press books {{Film-book-stub