by Ray Garton as Joseph Locke
1997 Pocket Books
Keenan and Kel were a teen comedy duo on Nickelodeon, and Good Burger was a film based on a recurring sketch on the show All That. I never saw the movie, but I remember at the time a reviewer raving that this was the return of the comedy duo and that Keenan and Kel were the new Abbott and Costello and would be the driving force of film comedy for decades to come. That didn't happen.
The story has basic comedy film bones - two lovable losers work at Good Burger against the efforts of evil corporate Mondo Burger's efforts to shut them down. I read this as a goof but it was surprisingly entertaining. I say surprising because comedy almost never works for me in fiction. It worked here because the gags and jokes come fast, while most comedy fiction telegraphs the jokes with long setups. Here I can pace the timing to suit my own tastes, and I'm curious how the well the movie would do, though probably not curious enough to watch it.
The writing is geared towards young adults and has little more than dialogue and blocking, which works for the material. I wouldn't think a lot of interior monologues and back stories would improve the pace.
You can check out the book for free at archive.org, and give Ray Garton some love at his kindle store - I promise I'll review a book he's proud of some day.
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