Bob Odenkirk is a story in the comedy-writing world,winning Emmys and acclaim for his work on Saturday Night Live, Mr. Show with Bob and David,and many other seminal television shows. This book, his first, is aspleen-bruisingly funny omnibus that ranges from absurdist monologues (“MartinLuther King Jr.’s Most severe Talk Ever”) to intentionally poor theater (“HitlerDinner Party: A Play”), from avant-garde fiction (“Obit for the Inventor ofMadlibs”) to free-verse poetry that’s funnier and stronger than the workof Calvin Trillin, Jewel, and Robert Louis Stevenson mixed.

Odenkirk’s debut resembles nothing at all so much as a hilariousnew sketch humor present that’s exclusively available like a streaming video foryour brain. As Odenkirk himself writes in “THE NEXT Interacting with of Jesus andLazarus,” it really is a book “to be read out loud to yourself in the tone of voice of BobNewhart.”