Roy Blount Jr.

Roy Blount Jr. built a career as a humorist, essayist, and performer whose writing often follows the comic possibilities of speech, popular culture, sport, and Southern life. After working as a reporter and magazine writer, he developed a wide-ranging bibliography that includes memoir, criticism, wordplay, and profiles. Hail, Hail, Euphoria! focuses on the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup and carries the fuller subtitle Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, the Greatest War Movie Ever Made. The 2010 HarperCollins edition approaches the 1933 comedy scene by scene, combining production history with attention to Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo as performers. His familiarity with radio and live comedy helps explain the book’s ear for timing, interruption, and verbal rhythm. He has also appeared regularly on NPR’s Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me! and served as president of the Authors Guild. The book shows his criticism at its most characteristic: informed by research, but organized around jokes, voices, and close observation.