A friend reminds me that my frequent urgings to readers that they go to a link and "check it out," evokes memories of Joe Bob Briggs. Briggs is the pseudonym of John Bloom, onetime writer for one of the Dallas papers. Many years ago he was fired for writing a parody of Michael Jackson's "We are the World." It's funny to think that at one time making fun of Michael Jackson was a "no-no." Now it's practically mandatory. Actually, the offense wasn't the attack on Jackson, but the syrupy sentiments embodied in the song. Joe Bob was seen as making cruel fun of the starving people of the world. He wasn't, but thin skinned readers weren't smart enough to figure that out. Back then at the height of the PC hysteria their outrage was enough to get him bounced. Dallas was the worse for it.
Since then Briggs has bounced around the entertainment world, maintaining a presence in print [writing occasionally for some reputable magazines] on TV -- hosting horror films on TNT -- getting minor parts in several films, and of course he is on the web. Here's his sorta official pseudo-biography. And here's his official website. For some time some of my friends and I used Joe Bobisms in our correspondence [if you know what I mean, and I think you do.] He's one of the good guys, a movie fan's guilty pleasure, and America's reigning top expert on "B" movies, and if he doesn't mind my saying so: "Check him out!"
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