Christmas Vacation 2 / The Death of National Lampoon

January 17, 2025

I just discovered this three-year-old video, which is something of a post-mortem of the National Lampoon brand, and it’s pretty good. It looks at the history of National Lampoon‘s foray into movies, pegging Christmas Vacation 2 (2003) as the best example to illustrate what went wrong.

I’ve never seen this movie—or any of the “National Lampoon” movies beyond European Vacation (1985)—so it was like looking under a rock I’ve been avoiding for decades. And, well, it’s kind of disgusting. But this guy’s analysis is sound.

I will add one thing he doesn’t mention. Henry Beard, NatLamp‘s first managing editor, was against doing movies. Ironically, it was his departure in 1975 (along with co-founders Doug Kenney and Rob Hoffman), taking a $7-million buy-out clause, that left the magazine strapped for cash, which in turn led them to start making movies in order to make money to keep the magazine afloat.

This YouTube video tells the sad story of how that ultimately worked out.

Comments

Did Beard anywhere mention why he was against doing films?

I'd certainly recommend Christmas Vacation, which I grew up with, along with the first Vacation film (the first Vacation is one of my favorite films, along with Animal House). I've thought about checking out the latter Lampoom films, but just looking at the covers for the direct to DVDs makes me reconsider since they look so horrible. Someday I'll check out Robert Altman's O.C. and Stiggs adaptation since it's such a bizzare choice for Atlman (and this is the man who directed Popeye with Robin Williams!).

I love the website, Mark. It's been a huge help since I've been collecting past issues of the Lamp, buying collected editions of the comics that ran in the magazine, and listening to the Radio Show. I own Bode's Cheech Wizard, the two Charles Rodrigues books, Gahan Wilson's Nuts, Ed Subitzy's Poor Helpless Comics, and I got the B.T. Taylor book this past Christmas. I'll probably pick up the M.K. Brown and Jeffrey Catherine Jones's Idyll + I'm Age books next. I can't find an affordable copy of the Trots and Bonnie collection.😅

—Michael

January 11, 2026 12:28 am

As far as I can recall, and I think this was in Tony Hendra's book, Going Too Far, Beard objected to anything "show business," almost from the point of view of taste or class. His heroes were writers—people like S.J. Perlman and Robert Benchley—and he considered the Lampoon to be primarily a literary endeavor.

Glad to hear you are enjoying the website and finding it useful!

—Mark

January 11, 2026 9:51 am

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