Nearly eighty years after its release, the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup remains one of the most influential pieces of political satire in history. In Hail, Hail, Euphoria!, bestselling author Roy Blount Jr. tells the history and making of Duck Soup, examining the comedic genius of the Marx Brothers in their finest hour and nine minutes.In Duck Soup, a slim, agile, quick-witted, self-assured young man is summoned to save a nation from financial ru...

"As if ripped on Old Crow fortified with Adderall, Blount chases letters, words and phrases to their origins, and when stumped he hypothesizes." — The New York TimesDid you know that both mammal and matter derive from baby talk? Have you noticed how wince makes you wince? Ever wonder why so many h-words have to do with breath?Roy Blount Jr. certainly has, and after forty years of making a living using wor...

Now celebrating its fortieth anniversary, Roy Blount Jr.'s classic account of the 1973 Pittsburgh Steelers—a team on the cusp of once-in-a-generation greatnessThe Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s are mentioned in any conversation about the greatest dynasties in NFL history. A year before Pittsburgh's first Super Bowl victory launched a decade of domination, Roy Blount Jr. spent a season traveling with the team, recording the ups and downs, both large and small, in ...

A hilarious exploration of male-female communication and other momentous topicsMen don't tell women things for various reasons.1. The things in question may not be true.2. It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a pig than to open it and oink.3. There is a certain pleasure in holding certain considerations close to the chest.4. When there is a t...

A collection of short pieces about everything from genius and God to socks and lentils, from one of America's most beloved humor writersOne Fell Soup brings together the reviews, diatribes, investigations, meditations, and poetry of Roy Blount Jr., a writer as insightful as he is funny. Culled from his many columns and magazine writings, this volume offers an unparalleled look at the varied interests of a writer the New York Times has compared to M...

The first collection of the beloved humorist's sly, dry, hilarious essays in more than a decade focuses on a perennially popular topic: the South vs. the North."When [Northerners] ask me to explain grits, I look at them like an Irishman who's been asked to explain potatoes.""When I was a boy in Georgia, college sports was Bobby Dodd versus Bear Bryant immemorial. Compared to that the Harvard-Yale game is a panel discussion.""Anybody who claims . . . not to have 'a r...

A funny and incisive collection of essays on oddities of life in the 1980s, from one of America's most cherished humoristsFirst published in 1985, Not Exactly What I Had In Mind is Roy Blount Jr.'s smart and witty examination of the era's most glaring absurdities—from the ever-growing deficit under then-president Reagan to the Game Theory–like levels of strategy required to pack for a vacation. In "Testimonial, Head-on," Blount offers a loving ode to the vi...

An eclectic collection from Roy Blount Jr., master of American humor writing*I'll tell you what kind of book I believe in: one that makes people say, at first sight, what the first person who ever saw a camel must have said: "*What in the world is that? " And then, after a while, "Yet it seems to fit together some way."In this laugh-a-minute assortment of essays, travel writing, poems, and even the occasional crossword puzzle, Roy Blount Jr. covers ...

A funny novel of the first "First Husband," from an author who "writes in the grand tradition of such American humorists as Mark Twain and Will Rogers" ( Library Journal).Guy Fox first encountered Clementine on the campus of Dingler College. She was running, stark naked, away from an on-campus protest and the police who were pursuing her. Guy and Clementine's romance wound through turbulent social movements of the '60s and '70s, all the way to Clementine's ...

Laugh-out-loud observations from "America's foremost humorist" ( Chicago Tribune).What Men Don't Tell Women: Well, that's just for starters. Roy Blount Jr. realized that nearly all of his writing involved things people don't tell people: what Southerners don't tell Northerners, what the sick don't want to hear from the well, what no one would ever tell their mother, and what authors rarely admit to their readers. That all changes in this ...

An indispensible guide to southernness from revered humorist and unapologetic curmudgeon Roy Blount Jr.When a simple-talking, peanut-warehousing, grit-eating Southern Baptist Cracker got himself nominated for president of the United States in 1976, it set Roy Blount Jr. to thinking—about the South, about southerners, and about southernness. The result is a collection of savagely funny and insightful takes on redneck heaven, whiskey, blood, possums, and a great numbe...

"It's my belief that sanity lies in realizing that reality is not exactly what we had in mind," says Roy Blount, Jr. in this witty collection of essays. With humor that is wry, dry, and warm, he delights and provokes us by confronting the reality of American life compared to the way we thought it would be. With his characteristic drawl—or "oral resonance," as he calls it—he reflects on John Wayne, the federal deficit, women's underwear, and more.