I just watched the Netflix movie “A Futile and Stupid Gesture”, telling the story of Doug Kenney. I’m not a huge fan of Will Forte, but I really enjoyed the recounting of how National Lampoon got its start.
I was a teen during the 1970’s, so after outgrowing Mad Magazine I was surprised and pleased (and titillated) when I bought a National Lampoon magazine from the shelf. I remember buying the January 1976 issue at a local drugstore (small town in Minnesota); the pharmacist, my confirmation teacher, gave me a raised eyebrow when I bought it.
There have been many discussions of National Lampoon here before, but this movie has the story how lots of the best bits got created. It was fun to see so many comedians playing other comedians, as during the “Animal House” and “Caddyshack” scenes.
I’ve not quite pushed the button yet, but have hovered over it a lot. I know enough about the story and where there are some dark turns and such - I am not sure I want that pathos in my funny.
Saw it last week; very well done. Martin Mull is the stand-out for me. I watched, “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead,” a couple days later and it was somewhat inferior to “…Gesture,” but would make a good double feature.
I was a National Lampoon kiddo back in the 70’s too. They really set the foundation for the whole US counterculture comedy universe that flourished for a while.
I watched it when it came out! I was wildly intrigued by the cast list when I first heard about it so I was sure to check it out.
Somehow I completely missed the memo that Doug Kenny was from Chagrin Falls, Ohio which is a town very close to me and in fact the town where my brother works. My brother’s quite “in the know” about many things and he didn’t even know. It really tickled me how often he says “from Chagrin Falls, Ohio” in the movie. It’s like 3 times in just the first 5 minutes!
I really enjoyed the movie and didn’t think it was a bummer at all. The people depicted are constantly “on” and there’s just a ton of one liners and snappy comebacks.
There’s also a bit somewhere in the middle of the movie where they say something like “this isn’t exactly what happened. In fact we took a lot of liberties with the story” and then they scroll a very long list of inaccuracies that you can read if you pause while it scrolls. I love how self-aware it is!
I was a big fan of classic humor by the time I entered college. I knew that Robert Benchley was on the board of the Harvard Lampoon, and S. J. Perelman was president of the Brown Jug and Corey Ford was the editor of the Columbia Jester. And I learned about a new generation of Poonies. I found in the university library Christopher Cerf’s The World’s Largest Cheese (a must read for absurdist humor) and everybody had Doug Kenney and Henry Beard’s Bored of the Rings. (Cerf also wrote the Bond parody Alligator, but I found that later.) So I bought the first issue of National Lampoon when it came out. I think I still have it. (And the CD-ROM of every issue.)
I really want to see this movie, having read the book. I’ve been resisting Netflix but I may have to give in.
Those were great years for NatLamp. I remember feeling absolutely perverted buying those issues in the local drug store. I’ve still got the issue that the OP links to.
I think we’re all Nat Lamp fans on this bus, so do any of you remember the National Lampoon Radio Hour? I think I still have a number of them on RTR tape in my basement. There may be some select issues of the magazine down there, too.
Did any of you see Nat Lamp’s off-Broadway show, Lemmings? I drove up from Maryland with a few high school friends and saw John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Chris Guest live, years before Saturday Night Live. I was about 18 at the time. I have only vague recollections (the Wiki entry helped spur a few), but I do remember thinking it was hysterical.
I may watch the Netflix film, but if it’s the downer you all seem to say it is, I may pass, for the same reason as WordMan. Like Exapno, I was a huge fan of Benchley and Perelman from my teenage years (thanks, Dad!), so some years ago I read a biography of Perelman. As it happened, one of my college professors was Perelman’s son-in-law, so that added to my interest.
Big mistake. Despite being one of the most brilliant and erudite humorists ever, in real life Perelman was a miserable bastard and treated his family horribly. It was very disheartening to learn that this man I had idolized for decades had been a terrible human being. I would much rather have gone on loving his work, without knowing about his personal life.
Benchley was known as the nicest man in his generation. Everybody loved him. Nobody had a bad word to say, ever. His family worshipped him.
He spent so little time at home in Connecticut that he maintained an apartment in New York, seldom saw any of his kids, went to Irene Adler’s whorehouse almost nightly and had a room set aside for him there so he could get some writing done after midnight, and after being a lifelong teetotaler took a drink during Prohibition and became an alcoholic until the day he died - from cirrhosis of the liver.
How should we rate him today?
You have to assume that everybody has feet of clay. Everybody. Just sigh and keep on going.
Pity about Perelman. The fictional letter-exchange between him and his dry cleaner may have been the single funniest piece The New Yorker ever published.
Incidentally, the National Lampoon’s Radio Dinner album is available on Spotify.
Thanks for the heads-up – I’m going to make a point of seeing this. I, too, was a National Lampoon fan during their golden age in the 70s. I still remember the cover of one of their spring (presumably March) issues. The seasonal theme was “in like a lion”, and the cover art featured a lion humping a very surprised-looking sheep. The expression on the sheep’s face was a work of art in itself!
It’s disappointing to hear about Perelman. I felt like I’d gotten to know him through his writings, and I would never have thought of him as a jerk.
