Your
Unauthorized Guide
to the Golden Age of National Lampoon
Magazine (1970-1975)

Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated with National Lampoon or National Lampoon Inc. Click here for the real thing.

October 2009 Archive

October 24, 2009

182. Did the Lampoon ever parody Erica "Fear of Flying" Jong, either briefly or at length? Seems like something Ellis Weiner, in particular, would have done a good job with.

According to Carol, in the Comments link: "Ellis Weiner wrote 'How to Rave About Your Own Life', a short parody of Erica Jong for 'A Fourth of July Garland of Parodies' in the Lampoon's '100th Anniversary' issue of July '78. NatLamp graduate Anne Beatts wrote a longer parody called 'Fear of Fucking' in "Titters", a book of humor by women she edited in '76." (Thanks again, Carol!)

Posted October 24, 2009, 06:13 PM in Answers. | Comments (2)

October 21, 2009

181. I think this appeared about 1973-74. Looking for the "12 Days of Christmas" where Aristotle Onassis bought Jackie Onassis... the world. No one remembers this. Some lyrics I remember: "On the 1st day of Christmas Onassis bought for me the Statue of Liberty. On the 2nd day of Christmas Onassis bought for me..."

According to Mary: "That wasn't a NatLamp piece at all. It appeared in the 1970 MAD paperback "Sing Along With MAD". (in later editions it's replaced with a parody of 'O Come All Ye Faithful'). It was perpetrated by Frank Jacobs, with drawings by Al Jaffee." Thanks, Mary! I didn't think it sounded like something that NatLamp would run.

Posted October 21, 2009, 01:18 PM in Answers. | Comments (1)

180. Probably an odd request, but I've tried to find a piece of art from a mid-'70s issue. It was a saucer-style spaceship, and as I remember it was a two-page (or at least a page and a half) drawing, primarily silver and gray but with random sections of vivid color. I've had this notion for fifteen years that it needs to cover one of my garage walls. I have no idea what the story was.

In the Comments, Brenda suggests that this actually appeared in Heavy Metal magazine (a National Lampoon sister publication). I think she is probably right, so I'm marking this question "answered".

Posted October 21, 2009, 01:13 PM in Answers. | Comments (1)

October 20, 2009

179. I have long wanted to find 2 items I remember from NL. One was a parody of the Poem, "I am the Infantry, Follow me!", and the other was a pictoral history about the American Indians with hilarious issues like the buffalo being the mortal enemy of the Indian, sneaking up on them at night with Indian skins on their backs, etc.

Veranda Porch got it: "It was in the 'Defeat' section of the November '72 Decadence issue." Thanks, Veranda!

Posted October 20, 2009, 02:16 PM in Answers. | Comments (4)

October 7, 2009

Amazon has dropped the price of the National Lampoon Complete DVD-ROM, which contains PDF scans of all the regular issues of the magazine (1970-1998). The reader who alerted me to this wondered if it was because a new and better edition is forthcoming. Unfortunately, I think it's more likely that it's because it's not selling as quickly as they'd like.

Admittedly, the quality leaves a lot to be desired, and there are occasional unexplained omissions (perhaps the issues they scanned were not completely intact), but it is a very handy reference if you are a collector or simply want to read the back issues without spending a lot on the real thing, which tend to go for at least $5 for a single issue. If you've been sitting on the fence because of the price, seems like a good time to make your move.

Posted October 7, 2009, 04:30 PM in News.