A Futile and Stupid Gesture

How Doug Kenney and <I>National Lampoon</I> Changed Comedy Forever

By Karp, Josh

Publishers Summary:
The ultimate biography of National Lampoon and its cofounder Doug Kenney, this book offers the first complete history of the immensely popular magazine and its brilliant and eccentric characters. With wonderful stories of the comedy scene in New York City in the 1970s and National Lampoon’s place at the center of it, this chronicle shares how the magazine spawned a popular radio show and two long-running theatrical productions that helped launch the careers of John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner and went on to inspire Saturday Night Live. More than 130 interviews were conducted with people connected to Kenney and the magazine, including Chevy Chase, John Hughes, P. J. O’Rourke, Tony Hendra, Sean Kelly, Chris Miller, and Bruce McCall. These interviews and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of both Animal House and Caddyshack help to capture the nostalgia, humor, and popular culture that National Lampoon inspires.

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ISBN
978-1-55652-602-2
Publisher
Chicago Review Press


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on August 15, 2006

For the multitude of baby boomers coming into full adolescent bloom in the 1970s, the National Lampoon was the cat�s ass. With comedic masterpieces like the 1964 Kefauver High School Yearbook parody and the transcendent January 1973 cover of the buy-this-magazine-or-we�ll-shoot-this-dog issue, the Lampoon imprinted American popular culture forever. The Harvard-educ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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