One of the biggest influences in my life as far as writing and humor goes was the National Lampoon magazine. The writers and editors for National Lampoon ushered in a new wave of comedy in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s that influenced other magazines, TV shows and movies. They made fun of and skewered everything and I seriously doubt that you could pull that off in today’s politically correct culture and climate. Luckily, National Lampoon lives on in the internet and below are six links I found while surfing around yesterday. And then you can read about what’s coming up here on MBIP next week, so there!
Sunday Links
Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site
This site has everything a National Lampoon junkie could want! I’ve spent countless hours here and now you can too!
National Lampoon Covers: 1970-1998
The magazine covers were classic pieces of art and here’s every single one of them!
Doug Kenney—A Futile And Stupid Gesture
Doug Kenney was a founding editor of The National Lampoon and co-wrote the movies, Animal House and Caddyshack. He died in 1980 after either jumping or falling off of a cliff in Hawaii. Harold Ramis gave the best quote about his death saying that Kenney "probably fell while he was looking for a place to jump.” John Karp wrote a biography of Kenney called, “A Futile And Stupid Gesture”, and here’s some excerpts from the book on the NPR site.
National Lampoon’s Albums
In addition to the magazine, National Lampoon also had a radio show and produced comedy albums that featured John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and others that went on to become comedy legends. Ramsey Ess from Splitsider recently wrote a great essay on the vinyl output from National Lampoon.
The Oral History of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Through the years National Lampoon branched out from the print world of magazine to records and then to films. In addition to Animal House and Caddyshack, the movie Vacation, which was based on an article that John Hughes wrote for the magazine became a mini franchise and there were several National Lampoon Vacation movies which varied from hilarious to not so funny. Rolling Stone published the oral history of the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation movie back in 2014.
The Original Vacation Story Written by John Hughes
Here’s the original National Lampoon story that the original Vacation movie was based on. I think this story is a lot darker and funnier than the movie was.
We’ve got a special post for tomorrow, its the third annual Amber Birthday Post and this was a monumental party featuring a half dozen birthday cakes from Trefzger’s Bakery and an appearance by Peoria’s own Elvis Presley, Dave Stovall (pictured above with Amber!) Tuesday continues our year-long sandwich tour and this week features a sandwich from a legendary Peoria barbecue spot, I’m sure most of you can guess where that is, but you can find out for sure by tuning in on Tuesday. Right now I’m still kind of figuring out what to do for the rest of the week, so I better run and do that! Have a wonderful and funderful Sunday and we’ll see you all tomorrow!
Related Posts: Sunday Links: September 11th, 2016, September 4, 2016 and August 28, 2016.