The ultimate biography ofNational Lampoonand 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 andNational Lampoon'splace 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 inspireSaturdayNightLive. 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-scene stories about the making of bothAnimal HouseandCaddyshackhelp to capture the nostalgia, humor, and popular culture thatNational Lampooninspires.
Fun, fast, and furious. —Library Journal
Jammed with personalities and capsule histories. —The New York Times
Josh Karp has informed us well about one of the funniest and innovative humorists of the last century. Doug Kenny was a great friend of mine and it is a good read. —Chevy Chase, actor,Caddyshack
Josh Karp achieves the unthinkable—he's written an essential American excavation of comedy that is, of itself, very, very, very, very, very, very funny. Doug Kenney would be extremely proud and humbled, if he weren't dead. —Bill Zehme, author,Lost in the Funhouse: The Life and Mind of Andy Kaufman
The definitive profile of Kenney's brilliant comic mind and his too-short life. —Richard Roeper, film critic,Chicago Sun-TilS&
![A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/7/9/8/2_6842399.jpg "A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever [Paperback]")