When Lampoon made stars and sick jokes
Before “Saturday Night Live” and “Animal House,” before the “Vacation” movies and “Caddyshack” and “Spinal Tap,” there was the National Lampoon.
It was the bible of brilliant tasteless humor, and it helped launch the careers of the some of the sickest and best comedic minds of a generation.
Douglas Tirola’s “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead” is a frenetic, rough-edged, unapologetic tribute to the Lampoon, featuring some amazing archival footage, nifty bits of animation and dozens of straightforward talking-head interviews that crackle and pop because the talking heads are frank and funny as they recount the madness surrounding the magazine and its offshoots and unofficial prodigy, including a legendary weekly radio program, a stage show that was equal parts sketch comedy and musical parody, some of the most influential comedic films of the late 20th century and a certain late-night live TV show.
The film dutifully covers the early days of the magazine, from its roots as the Harvard Lampoon to the self-described “dirty magazine” of 1970, founded by Doug Kenney, Henry Beard and Robert Hoffman. Filled with nudity, raunchy short stories (you might be shocked if you read some of the contributions from a young writer named John Hughes) and fantastically offensive parody ads, the Lampoon exploded into a pop cultural phenomenon, reaching a circulation of 1 million and attracting a roster of talented writers.
An infamous cover included a gun pointed at a lovable pooch’s head, with the headline, “If you don’t buy this magazine, we’ll kill this dog.” The notorious Michael O’Donoghue (who would become the first head writer on “Saturday Night Live”) penned a parody piece titled, “Children’s Letters to the Gestapo.” A phony ad proclaimed, “If Ted Kennedy Drove a Volkswagen, He’d be President Today!”
Soon there was a radio show, an off-Broadway musical and movie projects. We see John Belushi doing his Joe Cocker for the Lampoon before he “debuted” it on “Saturday Night Live.” Christopher Guest does a stunning musical impersonation of James Taylor. There’s bittersweet moment after bittersweet moment when we see the so-veryyoung Belushi, and Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis, and Doug Kenney, among other shining lights that are no longer with us.
Chevy Chase tells a story about how Belushi stole an onstage skit from him every single night for days before he figured out what Belushi was doing. Lampoon publisher Matt Simmons wryly salutes “Saturday Night Live” for its blazing originality— spearheaded by the likes of Belushi, O’Donoghue, Radner, Bill Murray and others who launched their performing careers with the Lampoon’s stage and/ or radio productions. If you forgot Kevin Bacon was in “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” here he is to remind you and reminisce about his time on set.
Very little time is devoted to the drawn-out and painful demise of the Lampoon, from the death of the magazine to the “National Lampoon” brand first signifying edgy comedic brilliance (“Animal House,” “Vacation”) and eventually meaning less than nothing, e.g., “National Lampoon’s Barely Legal,” “Na- tional Lampoon’s Pucked,” “National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj.”
But Tirola doesn’t shy away from the Lampoon’s earlier dark moments, nearly all of them ignited by drug abuse and/or exploding egos. Belushi and Kenney, among other great comedic minds, flamed out due to wretched excess, leaving behind relatively thin works of greatness when there should have been volumes.