I finally finished scanning in some articles, comic book parodies, and comic pieces in comic form from my collection of old National Lampoons and I've begun a photo set of them on Flickr. A word of warning if you go, since all the pieces are satire and parody they are not "politically correct" and a good deal of them are not safe for work. Since the scans are big files I can only put up a few at a time but in this batch I put up this great piece by Tony Hendra, Irish Sex Tales, a Bewitched parody, and a comic book style piece on the Go Go's (that was for you Dr. Zaius, I know how much you love the Go Go's).As I was going through the collection of old National Lampoons I could see how fast the magazine declined after they left the then would be Republican party court jester PJ O'Rourke write for and edit the magazine. When he took it over it became more racist, misogynist, homophobic, and just plain bad. It was so sad seeing how much it had declined under him after the magazine had featured such great humorists as Michael O'Donahue, Ellis Weiner, Tony Hendra, Doug Kenney, Chris Miller, and so many more. When they went to a bi monthly format in '86 the quality went way down hill so much so that I finally stopped reading it. It's a shame that today the National Lampoon name is slapped on shitty straight to DVD movies that feature people like Paris Hilton and other Z list celebs.
Oh well, at least some of the golden age stuff will be on Flickr forever. I'll post more of the scans I did at the first of the month when I get a new ration of Flickr storage space.
7 comments:
Whoa, you weren't kidding about them not being safe for work! (Is that the pitter patter of the thought police I hear heading for my cubicle?)
Did you ever see the claptrap written by Hendra a couple of years back? It is when he had his big ol' "I'm Catholic again" moment? And he decried his depraved youth and all that. Oh please.
I always thought he was funny but I read that and it just pissed me off.
He was funny but he became a dick.
Which is not quite the same as having one.
Mad-Watch out!
Fran-Yeah I saw that shit. He was funny back then, today, not so much.
Nicely done, man!
It's a lovely service you're providing.
I was little young to catch Nat'l Lampoon in its prime, though I do recall ogling some of those Foto Funnies at some point.
I did a post about NatLamp a while back and browsed some of the pages devoted to the magazine. The general consensus is that it went downhill. The most serious fans think the high water mark is issue #50, though some think the decline starts a little after that.
Let me be fair to P.J. O'Rourke. He wrote for NatLamp from the beginning, so he was in on some of the glory days as well. That said, he was never as funny as Michael O'Donoghue or Doug Kenney, and under his direction, the magazine was complete shit.
See? I'm fair and balanced, and O'Rourke is still an asshole.
You're so cool, Monkey.
Splotchy-I loved Foto Funnies.
Matty-Point taken.
Dguz-Aww shucks thanks.
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