The New! Improved! Bob & Ray Book

by Bob Elliott

Book Overview

Bob and Ray's whimsically ridiculous dialogues and subtly satirical glances at the world have regaled audiences for fifty years -- on local and network radio and television, in movies and commercials,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070193290
• ISBN13: 9780070193291
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Last Laughs

In a broadcast studio, a man in the audience introduces himself as "one of the very few people in America with a name that is completely unpronounceable", spelled W-W-Q-L-C-W. "I'd like to say hello to my brother on your program, but I don't know how to pronounce his name, either." Consumer affairs expert Hoyt Netley recommends a child's tricycle from Denmark on account of its rounded edges, plus the gunpowder-fueled rocket engine that eliminates the need for dangerous pedals. "The child just lights a fuse when he's ready to ride." Bob and Ray. How I miss those guys. This 1985 collection of sketches was their last published work before Ray's death in 1990, and catches them just about wrapping up their comedy career. Even though it is a half-step below their earlier two books in terms of consistent excellence, there's enough good moments in here to sustain many of today's comics over an entire career. There's another episode of "Tippy The Wonder Dog" and a new visit to "The Hobby Hut", where host Neil Clummer meets a man who collects numbers held by people who wait in line. Two doctors exchange rote platitudes about patient confidentiality until they repeat each other's lines. The accent on newer material is a drawback. By 1985, Bob & Ray were reworking old concepts rather than trotting out new ones with the boldness they displayed in the 1960s and 1970s. As sharp and witty as they were, there was also a structural element to Bob & Ray's best comedy, Monty Pythonish logic-stretching, which simply doesn't come off as well in a series of sketches of a man being interviewed, which is what you have here. The newer ideas they did use, like the soap opera "Garish Summit" (a couple of episodes from which appear here) annoyed some older fans who remembered the goofier antics of "Mary Backstayge, Noble Wife". "Garish Summit" was funny, though, and so is regular sports announcer Biff Burns' interview with champion low-jumper Big Steve Wurbler, who explains why standing atop a cliff and jumping should be an Olympic sport. "In high jumping, you can strain a muscle or hurt yourself on the way up," Big Steve explains. "But in low jumping, you only have to worry about what happens to you on the way down." One thing "New! Improved!" has over the earlier B & R collections is the audio version that came out the following year, which shows the two men in fine form giving even the weaker material in this collection a fresh life. Bob & Ray had a habit of surprising you just when you thought you had them figured out; their like won't be seen again for a long while.

Delightfully absurd

A work of off-kilter genius from Bob and Ray, surreal comedy pioneers. From "small village endocrinologist Engelbretzen" to the seedy soap opera Garish Summit, it's one loopy deadpan laugh riot. The cheesy, mock-melodramatic music adds to the fun. Hilarious running gags, idiotic talk show guests, crackpot pseudo-experts, bizarre mini-dramas, pathetic losers we can simultaneously sympathize with and deride--the "New! Improved! Bob and Ray Book" is first-class lunacy.How often do you find humor so insanely funny that you can't resist smirking and chuckling in public places as you remember your favorite lines? This is that funny. A great gift idea for anybody who likes warped humor that's both sophisticated and moronic at the same time.

New! Improved! Bob and Ray - as funny as ever.

Here are Bob and Ray on tape again, late in their career but still the funniest duo on, and off, radio. Here they're reading (with sound effects) from their book - which is more like a collection of radio scripts; it's a good introduction to their work, and longtime listeners will find their material as fresh and funny as always. And while some hardcore fans may miss the unique "live radio" quality that Bob and Ray had, they're every bit as funny as in any of their earlier work. The running gag about walnut pickers is reason enough to buy this, as is the grammar lesson. It's also fun to read along while listening to the tape, so get the book as well. Bob and Ray are a reminder that enduring comedy needn't be offensive.

Bob and Ray in print - almost as funny as hearing them.

Approach this small book as a collection of comedy routines written for a Bob and Ray broadcast; while reading it, longtime fans will probably hear in their minds the duo's voices and inflections. And this book is even more fun when reading along with the recording of Bob and Ray themselves reading the routines. But whatever the circumstances, this is a good, and funny, introduction to Bob and Ray's work. And knowing that this was one of their last works together makes one realize how remarkable their comedy was.