One Fell Soup

1982, 1984 Penguin edition
Roy Blount, Jr.
One Fell Soup, or, I'm Just a Bug on the Windshield of Life
Original price $5.95, purchase price $2.50
Worn paperback
B

I can't remember if I first encountered Blount as a writer, likely of this eye-catchingly titled collection, or as a "news" correspondent on Comedy Central.  (Or it could've been his introduction to one of my Nancy collections, more on that later.)  Both his spoken and his written voice are unique, both goofy and wry.  In the introduction here, one of the funniest I've read, he tries to explain what this book is a collection of.  With copyright dates going back to 1967, there's poetry and sports writing and "spoofery" and various unclassifiable things that he sees as "juice-swapping" like Huck Finn's food in a barrel.  I've tried to select enough tags to cover the bases.

It's hard to pick out a favorite.  Usually, there's at least one line in everything, even the sports articles, that catches my fancy, makes me chuckle.  His poetry is a bit Ogden-Nash-like, and even when a poem is called a song, it looks impossible to sing, which is OK, because he claims to be singing-impaired.  I'm finding it hard not to slip into a Blountesque style, so I'll just conclude with this here quote:

"I once heard Blaze Starr ask an audience whether they would like her to uncover her (larger than life) breasts.  When the audience cried out yes, yes, ma'am, they certainly would, she froze; rolled her eyes; replied, with great, pungent reserve, 'I reckon you would like some friiiied chicken."