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Bob Odenkirk's A Load of Hooey (McSweeney's, 112 pages, $20) begins with a warning from one of its many satirical characters, a charm-school marm: Don't read this book while you poop. Written by Megan Amram of Parks and Recreation, it's surely part of the satire, as the book is exactly the kind of thing you should read while you're doing something else, like waiting for the doctor, riding the bus or, well, you know.
Best known as Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad, and its upcoming spinoff, Better Call Saul, Odenkirk's had a hand in everything weird and funny on TV for the past 20 years. He's worked on every Tim and Eric project, written for Saturday Night Live and Conan O'Brien, and was the "Bob" half of Mr. Show with David Cross. Since 2010, Odenkirk's short, sometimes satirical but always comedic essays have regularly appeared in Vice, a few crossing both generation gaps and the East River for the pages of The New Yorker.
That said, A Load of Hooey better resembles the online content of the book's publisher, McSweeney's. Both are full of short, self-aware shtick. Hooey's comes in a number of formats: speeches, poems, Amazon reviews, lists, fake quotes. What separates Hooey from McSweeney's online offerings is the specificity of each scenario, and Odenkirk's trademark tone—bizarre, folksy and, at times, understated. "With more than two hundred thousand visitors tramping through each year, the Louvre has wisely chosen hardwood floors over carpet," he cracks in "Louvre Audio Tour Guide for Homeowners."
For so many pieces in this style, the funniest joke is the title itself. Not so with Hooey. I am not ruining the humor of "Baseball Players' Poems About Sportswriters and Sportswriting" or "The Phil Spector I Knew" by writing out their titles. There's enough wit and energy in them to carry readers to the end, laughing all the way.
Hooey hosts a
few duds, a few of which fall on the wrong side of the line between dark
humor and bad taste. No comedian lands all of their jokes. What's
really missing from Hooey is some uniting framework. The book
veers haphazardly between bits, ending when Odenkirk hits his page
count. As such, that's how it's best enjoyed: in bits. Reading the book
cover to cover offers no real reward. There would be no reason to get
bent out of shape about that—the book's funny—had not Odenkirk shown
with Mr. Show his ability to take a bunch of small bits and weave them into something larger. With restructuring, A Load of Hooey could be just as entertaining and iconic. Instead, it'll amuse visitors to bathrooms and hip dentists.
GO: Bob Odenkirk reads from A Load of Hooey at Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 12:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 25. Free.
WWeek 2015