Joe Bob Briggs
Briggs in 2018
Born	John Irving Bloom (1953-01-27)January 27, 1953 (age 72) Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Education	Vanderbilt University
Occupations	Film critic writer actor
Website	joebobbriggs.com

John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), known by thestage nameJoe Bob Briggs, is an Americansyndicatedfilm critic, writer, actor, comic performer, andhorror host. He is known for having hostedJoe Bob's Drive-in Theater onThe Movie Channel from 1986 to 1996, theTNT seriesMonsterVision from 1996 to 2000, andThe Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs onShudder beginning in 2018. In 2019, he was named theRondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid of the Year,^[1] and in 2023 was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.^[2]

John Irving Bloom was born January 27, 1953, inDallas, Texas, the son of Thelma Louise (née Berry) and Rudolph Lewis Bloom.^[3]

Bloom was raised inLittle Rock, Arkansas,^[4] and by age 13 was asportswriter at what was then theArkansas Democrat.^[5] He won a Fred Russell-Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship toVanderbilt University, inNashville, Tennessee, where he majored in English and wrote for the student newspaper,The Vanderbilt Hustler. After graduating in 1975,^[5] he became a reporter for theDallas Times Herald and later wrote forTexas Monthly magazine.^[4] Taking a leave of absence from the newspaper in order to co-write (with Jim Atkinson) thetrue crime bookEvidence of Love (later adapted as theTV film,A Killing in a Small Town), he supported himself by writing movie reviews for the paper. There he created the humorous persona of "Joe Bob Briggs" to reviewexploitation films and othergenre movies.^[4]

Bloom's acting persona as "Briggs" is that of an unapologeticredneck Texan with an avowed love ofdrive-in theaters. He specializes in humorous but appreciative reviews ofB-movies andcult films, which he calls "drive-in movies" (as distinguished from "indoor bullstuff"). In addition to his usual parody of urbane, high-brow movie criticism, his columns characteristically include colorful tales of woman troubles and high-spirited brushes with the law, which inevitably conclude with his rush to catch a movie at a local drive-in, usually with female companionship. "Briggs" revealed in an interview that he intended the character to have an ambiguous sounding name and initially thought of calling himself "Bubba Rodriguez", but was told that the name Rodriguez would be perceived as racist and decided to go with: "The whitest name I could come up with."^[6]

The reviews typically end with a brief rating of the "high points" of the movie in question, including the types of action (represented by nouns naming objects used in fight scenes suffixed with "-Fu"), the number of bodies, number of femalebreasts bared, the notional number of total pints of blood spilled, and for appropriately untoward movies, a "vomit meter".^{[citation needed]}

A typical review summary might read:

"No dead bodies. One hundred seventeen breasts. Multiple aardvarking.^[a] Lap dancing. Cage dancing. Convenience-store dancing. Blindfold aardvarking. Blind-MAN aardvarking. Lesbo Fu. Pool cue-Fu. Drive-In Academy Award nominations forTané McClure. Joe Bob says check it out."^[9]

Originally, Bloom's film reviews as "Briggs" were limited to pictures shown at local drive-ins, as others at the newspaper were assigned to mainstream andgrindhouse cinema. Later, after a tongue-in-cheek "battle" with his own convictions inJoe Bob Goes Back to the Drive In, he also began reviewing films released onVHS andDVD.^{[citation needed]}

During the early 1980s, whenNew York City was in the planning stages of redeveloping its run-down42nd Street,Times Square area, which included closing many grindhouses showing B-movies on double and triple bills around the clock, as well as manyporn theaters, Briggs encouraged a "postcard-Fu" campaign encouraging genre-film fans to write to city officials and pressure them into saving "the one place in New York City you could see a decent drive-in movie".^[10]

In 1986, as a result of the stage show, "Briggs" was asked to be a guest host onDrive-in Theater, a late-night B-movie show onThe Movie Channel (TMC). This led to his hostingJoe Bob's Drive-in Theater, which ran from 1986 to 1996,^[11] It was twice nominated for the industry'sCableACE Award.^[12] After the show ended, he hosted theTNT network's similarMonsterVision for four years through July 2000.^[12]

In the late 1990s, "Briggs" spent two seasons as a commentator onComedy Central'sThe Daily Show (under his given name, John Bloom), with a recurring segment calledGod Stuff.^[13] He appears inFrank Henenlotter's documentaryHerschell Gordon Lewis – Godfather of Gore.^[14]

In 2018, the horror-themed subscriptionvideo on demand serviceShudder, owned and operated byAMC, signed Briggs for a new series,The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs, which premiered as a 13-film marathon on July 13, 2018.^[15] During the premiere, Shudder's servers crashed as a result of a large number of subscribers attempting to access the show.^[16] Shudder streamed two shorter marathons onThanksgiving andChristmas Day 2018^[17] Beginning in March 2020, the show returned to Briggs' old double-feature format. A second season consisting of 10 films premiered April 24, 2020. Season 3 began April 16, 2021.^[18]

"Briggs" was also a commentator for aFox TV news magazine for two seasons.^{[citation needed]} He also appeared in episodes of the Fox sitcomMarried... with Children in season 8 and 9 as Billy Ray Wetnap, co-owner of Pest Boys Pest Control.^[19][20] He also wrote and performed in specials for Fox andShowtime,^{[citation needed]} and collaborated with comedy writerNorman Steinberg on an unproducedNBC sitcom.^{[citation needed]}

"Briggs" has written forNewsweek,^[21]National Lampoon,^[21]Rolling Stone,^[22]Playboy,^[22]The Village Voice,^[22] andNational Review,^[23]

Bloom's two syndicated newspaper columns as "Briggs", "Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-in" and "Joe Bob's America", were picked up byThe New York Times Syndicate in the 1990s.^{[citation needed]} For one year he wrote a humorous sex advice column inPenthouse.^{[citation needed]} In 2000, he started writing the "Drive-in" column again, this time forUnited Press International,^[24] along with a second column, "The Vegas Guy", which chronicles Briggs' weekly forays into the casinos of America.^[25]

"Briggs" was president of theTrinity Foundation of Dallas, a non-denominational, non-profit public foundation that serves as a religiouswatchdog group and publishesThe Door, a Christian satire magazine, for which "Briggs" was a regular columnist.^[26][27]

Under his given name, John Bloom, he co-wrote (with Jim Atkinson) the nonfiction bookEvidence of Love: The Candy Montgomery Story (1984). The book recounts the 1980Wylie, Texas murder case in which Montgomery killed her ex-lover's wife, Betty Gore, by striking her 41 times with an axe and whose highly publicized trial ended in an unexpected acquittal.^[28][29] The book was adapted into the CBSTV film,A Killing in a Small Town, starringBarbara Hershey, and theHBO Max miniseries,Love & Death, starringElizabeth Olsen.^[30]

As "Joe Bob Briggs", Bloom has published five books of satire—Joe Bob Goes to the Drive In,A Guide to Western Civilization, or My Story,Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive In,The Cosmic Wisdom of Joe Bob Briggs, andIron Joe Bob, his homage to themen's movement and the nonfiction booksProfoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History^[31] andProfoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies that Changed History.^[32]

In 2016, again under his given name, Bloom wrote the nonfiction bookEccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story in which he traces the conception, development, and launching of theIridium satellite constellation and the race to save it from destruction.^[33]

In July 1985, Bloom's one-man showAn Evening with Joe Bob Briggs debuted inCleveland, Ohio. Later re-titledJoe Bob Dead in Concert for home release, the show evolved into a theatrical piece involving storytelling, comedy and music. The show was performed in more than 50 venues over the next two years, includingCarolines on Broadway in New York and regular engagements at Wolfgang's and theGreat American Music Hall inSan Francisco, as well as at convention centers, theaters, music clubs and other comedy clubs. In 2019, Briggs began performing a new one-man show,How Rednecks Saved Hollywood, at genre film festivals and revival movie houses.^[34][35]

"Briggs" has contributedaudio commentaries to DVDs released by Media Blasters and Elite Entertainment includingJesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter,The Double-D Avenger,Michael Findlay'sBlood Sisters,Warlock Moon,Samurai Cop,I Spit on Your Grave, and severalRay Dennis Steckler films includingThe Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies andBlood Shack.

Bloom appeared as himself in theJonathan Maberry novelBad Moon Rising (2008). Joe Bob is one of several real-world horror celebrities who are in thefictional town of Pine Deep when monsters attack.^[36][37]

In May 2020, Bloom contractedCOVID-19 but did not make his condition known to the public. Discussing the experience on the podcastGeek Tawk, Bloom stated, "Many people have had [COVID-19] and most of them were much worse off than me. [...] I wish everybody thought it was a death sentence, because then everyone would wear the fucking mask and then we would get rid of it."^[38][39]

"Briggs" appeared onKen Reid'sTV Guidance Counselor podcast on June 16, 2016,^[44] as well as the podcastsFrightday on July 11, 2018,^[45]Astonishing Legends Podcast on December 9, 2018,^[46] andThe Last Podcast on the Left on March 28, 2019.^[47]He also appeared on AEW wrestler Chris Jericho's podcast Talk is Jericho.

• Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs (1984) with Jim Atkinson,ISBN 1-5040-4952-7
• Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-in (1987),ISBN 0-385-29442-5
• A Guide to Western Civilization, or: My Story (1988),ISBN 0-385-29671-1
• Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive-in (1990),ISBN 0-385-29770-X
• The Cosmic Wisdom of Joe Bob Briggs (1990),ISBN 0-394-58890-8
• Iron Joe Bob (1992),ISBN 0-87113-488-8
• Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies that Changed History! (2003),ISBN 0-7893-0844-4
• Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies that Changed History (2005),ISBN 0-7893-1314-6
• Eccentric Orbits: The Iridium Story (2016),ISBN 0-8021-2168-3

Wikiquote has quotations related toJoe Bob Briggs.

• Official website
• Joe Bob Briggs atIMDb
• ACME Joe Bob BriggsArchived January 2, 2017, at theWayback Machine
• Interview withKittenpants.org
• Interview at The Onion AV Club

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