High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Irving Bloom (born January 27, 1953), who uses the pseudonym Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer and comic performer. Bloom was born in Dallas, Texas, the son of Thelma Louise (née Berry) and Rudolph Lewis Bloom. He was raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attended Vanderbilt University on a sports-writing scholarship. He began his writing career at Texas Monthly and Dallas Times Herald. While a movie reviewer at the Times Herald, he created the humorous persona of "Joe Bob Briggs" to review "exploitation" movies.