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Your Last update: January 20, 1998. Original material (excluding quoted material) © 1997 & 1998 Mark Simonson. Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated with National Lampoon or its parent company, J2 Communications. Click here for the real thing. |
Douglas C. Kenney(1946-1980) Editor-in-Chief, 1970-72 Senior Editor, 1973-74 Editor, 1975-76
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One of the founders of the National Lampoon, with Henry Beard and Rob Hoffman. Kenney had previously collaborated with Beard at the Harvard Lampoon where the pair had been at the head of the young newcomers who had infused new life into the then stagnant college humor magazine. Though he had been a social climber at Harvard, at NatLamp he seemed to identify more with the counterculture. According to Hendra (in "Going Too Far"), Kenney objected when art director Michael Gross was brought in to overhaul the magazine's unkempt design, as he felt the new look was too "establishment" for his taste. After seeing what Gross could do, he changed his mind. In the end, Kenney probably benefitted more than anyone from Gross's talent for imitating virtually any graphic style. Later, Kenney would tell people that he and Gross "invented" nostalgia. Indeed, Kenney is best known for his "nostalgia" pieces--teen anxiety in middle-class America was a common theme--culminating with the "1964 High School Yearbook Parody" in 1974 (co-edited by P. J. O'Rourke). Kenney was also responsible for "Mrs. Agnew's Diary," a regular department that lampooned the Nixon administration. Written in the breathless style of a suburban housewife's diary, it chronicles her life with "Spiggy" and the Nixons, oblivious to the shady political games being played by those around her. Beard, Kenney, and Hoffmann had a 5-year buyout clause in their contract with NatLamp's publisher, 21st Century Communications. The three excercised the option when the time came in 1974, to the tune of $7-million divided among them. Beard left as soon as the contract was settled; Hoffmann had left 1971 to finish graduate school.Kenney stayed on until 1977, when he wrote the screenplay for Animal House (with Chris Miller and Harold Ramis), the highest box-office comedy ever made. Kenney went on to write Caddyshack. Not long after, in 1980, he fell to his death after stepping onto a crumbling precipice during a vacation in Hawaii. There has been some speculation over whether it was an accident or not, but no one really knows for certain. |
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Other works by Doug Kenney: Books Bored of the Rings: A Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's
the Lord of the Rings Movies National Lampoon's Animal House Caddyshack |