Funded Scholarship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Publication Title
New Review of Film and Television Studies
Abstract
This article explores how journalist, cult icon, and Shudder host Joe Bob Briggs has used visual and verbal rhetorical devices to become a fixture in genre subcultures. Created and performed by John Bloom, the Briggs persona utilizes traits of past successful horror hosts while also implementing his own astute knowledge of film history and theory to confront questions about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste in film. Even though his work has been controversial, the evolution of his use of satire and parody has sustained his position as a cultural, or a subcultural, intermediary and transmedia celebrity. This article presents a variety of critical perspectives about the importance of ‘authenticity’ within horror subcultures/fandoms and examines satire and parody as methods for attracting distinct audiences and encouraging parasocial relationships; in addition, myth and nostalgia are analyzed as contributing factors to establishing and maintaining a loyal, familial fan community who value and share subcultural capital among multiple media platforms in which Briggs, cult celebrities, and fans participate. His in-person and multi-platform presence wherein fans, known as ‘drive-in mutants’, perform tongue-in-cheek rituals, and participate in virtual and in-person traditions, demonstrate how transmedia texts such as Briggs can solidify and grow a genre-specific fan community
Recommended Citation
Ellen Williams, L. (2024). Nostalgia, satire, and subcultural capital at the drive-in: examining horror host Joe Bob Briggs as a cultural intermediary. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 22(3), 834–852. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2024.2418270
