Netflix made an interesting biography flick about the first decade of National Lampoon and its co-founder Douglas Kenney. How they executed it was most impressive because it was filled with surprises: namely the casting, the story flow and it readily admitted to taking poetic license (somebody did a screenshot with all the corrections they quickly scrolled).
It all begins with Martin Mull as Kenney today. He introduces the audience to his early days at Harvard in the mid-to-late Sixties. There Kenney (now played by Will Forte) meets Henry Beard. They hit it off and become two very successful writers for The Harvard Lampoon which we all now is the precursor to National, The Onion, Spy, SNL and The Daily Show. The primary reason why they founded the humor magazine was keep having the good time they had in college. Things start rough because major publishers see the point in producing a humor magazine aimed at Boomers too old for MAD yet middle-aged enough for The New Yorker. Of all the publishers willing to gamble, it’s Weight Watchers who takes the chance. Then they recruit an oddball ensemble to churn out something shocking, hilarious, satirical and boundary-pushing.
It isn’t always smooth. They don’t find their voice immediately and have to heed the advice of older, more experienced art directors to make the satire work. Plus National kicked off during the Age of Aquarius so drugs, drugs and more drugs fuel the staff’s creativity. Also being Boomers, they weren’t concerned about their sexism and promiscuity. Eventually National becomes a hit as you see all the famous covers (buy this or we shoot this dog), fake ads (Sen. Kennedy for VW), articles (dark humor regarding children killed in Vietnam), the high school yearbook and radio show catapulting many first generation SNL alumni who didn’t OD.
I’ll stop there to maintain the continuous surprises which happened to Kenney during his journey as a comedy writer and the people who helped make bigger stars as actors or writers.
What really impressed me was the cast. It’s an incredible list of who’s who with today’s current comedic actors: Joel McHale, Thomas Lennon, Natasha Lyonne, Seth Green, etc. playing Chevy Chase (made more likable than he is in real life), Michael O’Donoghue, Anne Beatts, Christopher Guest, etc. No small feat for Netflix which doesn’t have a Hollywood Studio budget. There are also fourth-wall moments and special effects to help move the plot along; probably to symbolize how the magazine and its writers never took themselves seriously.
It’s definitely worth watching as a movie, not just as some “inside baseball” stuff as it was for me, a fan and student of modern comedy. How did this lead to the painfully, not always funny SNL, Animal House and eventually Caddyshack. Oddly, there’s no time given to Vacation or American Werewolf in London.
Here’s what made me sad though. Humor isn’t immortal. As you may or may not know, National Lampoon ceased publishing in 1998. Many would probably say, “Oh the Internet did them in.” Too early and The Onion made its appearance on the Internet in 1996 while the Web we know today was still learning to walk and pages were crude looking by today’s standards. The truth is, tastes change, business strategies change, audiences get older and aren’t necessarily replaced by a younger generation. Throw in how even by the Nineties, publishing was beginning to experience the trouble of the masses demanding everything for free. Anyway, given who currently owns The Onion and how they’re driving it into the toilet with their greed, National‘s demise tells Gen X’s humorous is living on borrowed time and that Millennials and Gen Z may like something entirely different.
In closing though, I do want to say something else. I’ve never liked National Lampoon. It’s humor was more often shock for the sake of it. When I was a kid, their posters were funny but now I’m an adult and although I understand the context, the one on attractive women is rather hurtful. The Onion and Spy were better (sometimes suck.com) because they’re stronger on satire without bordering on porn. Lastly, other than the Daily Show, none of my generation’s satirical sources produced a Libertarian sinkhole like PJ O’Rourke, a former editor-in-chief at National. He’s a typical Reason-type of Boomer Libertarian, a hippie who got rich and then realized now he was the one who’d be paying the “outrageous” taxes his generation wanted.
Check it out. The way Kenney is portrayed is very funny and the captured the tragedy of how his never being serious and addictions got to him. Lastly, I never knew he had small roles in Animal House and Caddyshack.
