# What happened to the National Lampoon's brand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433 "2009-09-09T15:42:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/1 "2009-09-09T15:42:57Z")
Why have they been reduced to making shite like Van Wilder and Bag Boy? The Vacation films were among the best comedies of the '80s and Animal House is one of the best comedies of all time. Sure, those movie were sometimes raunchy as hell, but they were also smart, sophisticated, and most importanly, genuinely funny. It’s been all down hill since Christmas Vacation, though, and most of what they produce these days seems like stuff that wasn’t quite clever enough for Tom Green. So what happened? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/2 "2009-09-09T15:56:27Z")
The magazine went into decline around 1980 and finally gave up the ghost in 1998. Note that the successful films were all based on stories that originally appeared in the magazine. So that area was cut off. Ultimately, the Lampoon became an organization that didn’t develop comedy as much as it tried to make money selling the Lampoon name. In addition, the talent in the original Lampoon was amazingly good. People like Doug Kenney, Henry Beard, Chris Miller, P.J. O’Rourke, Michael O’Donoghue, John Hughes, Tony Hendra and cartoonists like M.K. Brown, Bruce McCall, and Ed Subitztky were brilliant. No one came along at that level to replace them. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/3 "2009-09-09T16:04:20Z")
I think that (the so far unreleased) [_One, Two, Many_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0882755/) (2008) is one of the best National Lampoon efforts in a long time. YMMW, of course - I think that our tastes may be quite different. My metric for how good a “National Lampoon” movie is is how well it matches the spirit of the magazine (in the late seventies and early eighties, when it didn’t suck.) The _Vacation_ movies were abominable from the start. Hell, Chevy Chase had top billing - you can’t come back from that. Anyway, _One, Two Many_ reminded me a lot of what made _National Lampoon_ great. Writer John Melendez’s script is _strikingly_ like something Chris Miller might have written back in the day. (The protagonist, in particular, reminds me of “Bernie Boom Boom” from the classic short stories.) The script is not nearly as shallow as you might expect from its premise, and manages to surprise. It’s everything a _National Lampoon_ movie ought to be. I went in with very low expectations, and was surprised. It was, in fact, approximately the experience that I was hoping for in 1985, when I queued up for Robert Altman’s interpretation of _O.C. and Stiggs_. (The less said about that, the better.) ---
**Author:** ![Erasmus\_Darwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@Erasmus\_Darwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erasmus_Darwin)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/4 "2009-09-09T17:27:54Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Why have they been reduced to making shite like Van Wilder and Bag Boy? It’s still a step up from their movies in the 90’s. Using the ultra-pseudoscientific process of cherrypicking random National Lampoon movies on IMDB and looking at their ratings, I’ve come up with the following: Van Wilder (2002) - 6.1/10 Bag Boy (2007) - 4.5/10 Senior Trip (1995) - 4.5 / 10 Last Resort (1994) - 2.1 / 10 Even if we give Last Resort an extra bonus point for starring the two Coreys (thus allowing it to conjure up a bit of 80’s nostalgia), we can see that the 90’s movies still fall short, and that I should never, ever be allowed to do any kind of real scientific research whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/5 "2009-09-09T17:38:08Z")
I watched that exact same question when I watched a few minutes of “Bag Boy” on Comedy Central (is this what inspired your question as well?). Seriously, it’s embarrassing that such horrible movies are given the greenlight. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/6 "2009-09-09T18:34:49Z")
Apparently, at one point the National Lampoon brand name was [used by anyone willing to pay for it](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lampoon,_Inc.): > [@Wikipedia](#): > > After its purchase by J2 Communications in 1991, the National Lampoon franchise became predominately a name licensing company, in which the company was paid for use of its brand on titles such as National Lampoon’s Senior Trip, Dorm Daze, Blackball, and Barely Legal. Although this enterprise salvaged the company from bankruptcy, some believe it damaged the reputation of National Lampoon as a source of respected comedy. When the company was purchased from J2 Communications, this practice was eventually discontinued in 2007, with the last “licensed” film being TV: The Movie starring Steve-O. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-national-lampoons-brand/509433/7 "2009-09-09T23:41:35Z")
Well, that’s heartening. (Unless too much damage has already been done to the brand.) It would be nice if more “true to the roots” pictures got made. If I make a wish like that, we’ll end up with _Letters From the Editors: The IMAX Experience_.