National Lampoon's Lampoons

National Lampoon's Lampoons

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about "National Lampoon"?

For many Americans, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989) has become a family holiday tradition. Others may think of the magazine that ran from 1970 to 1998, or one of the other dozens of films under the label.

The name and the magazine started as a spinoff of "The Harvard Lampoon," a humor publication out of Harvard University, but soon spread to other outlets. First there was an off-Broadway show "National Lampoon: Lemmings" in 1973 followed by "The National Lampoon Radio Hour" that same year. Performers that came out of these productions included John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and many other familiar names. It was kind of a proto-SNL.

It wasn't until "Animal House" (1978) that National Lampoon jumped into Hollywood with six more films between 1982 and 1989. But wait, you may say, I know for a fact that there were a bunch more National Lampoon movies than that! Well, you're right! 

The brand name was sold to J2 Communications where they used it to market a handful of comedies including "Loaded Weapon 1," "Senior Trip," and "Van Wilder." They later sold the name to what would be called "National Lampoon, Inc." who continued to slap the name on a couple dozen films, made-for-TV movies, and straight to video releases such as "RoboDoc Dissected: The Making of RoboDoc (2009)" and "Dracula's Daughters vs. the Space Brains" (2010).

It can be difficult to say what makes a "National Lampoon" movie. Technically, any movie that starts with "National Lampoon's...' is a National Lampoon movie, but there is a big difference between creating a film starring and written by comedic geniuses, and just putting the label before a film's title in a licensing deal. 

The original successes of National Lampoon came out of real experiences. "Animal House" came from Chris Miller, Harold Ramis, and Ivan Reitman and their personal college experiences. John Hughes wrote two stories in the magazine which were based on stories from his youth that would later become "Vacation" and "Christmas Vacation." A later success, "Van Wilder," was based on an article in "Rolling Stone" written by Bert Kreischer.

Perhaps the real successes of National Lampoon stemmed from people who had a story to tell. Real stories that connect with the viewers. Stories that resonate with us because many of us know what it's like to be crammed into a house with family at Christmas or crammed into a car on a road trip. Even the word "lampoon" means to satirically ridicule a person or institution, and lampooning parts of our lives, parts that many of us identify with, forms a connection that deepens the jokes. A nationally shared lampoon, if you will.

On the other hand, National Lampoon's "Repli-Kate" (2002) is about a guy named Max who accidently clones his crush, Kate, and has to deal with his evil boss Dr. Jonas. Jonas to steal the cloning technology from Max while a Repli-Jonas is created and, in the end, Repli-Jonas becomes President. This film bombed, and I don't think any of us have ever accidently cloned someone or had a clone of our boss hold public office. 

Which is why I'll reiterate: what exactly is a "National Lampoon" film and what comes to mind when you think about a film under that heading?

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