National Lampoon

National Lampoon is a comedy magazine started in 1970, as a spin-off of the Harvard Lampoon, which was founded in 1876. The magazine focused on parody and surrealist humor, of a variety of lengths. Based around intelligent humor, it became perhaps better known for crass, bawdy jokes. Since the brand has been revived in 2002, this style has become the primary focus.

The magazine spun-off into books, recordings, radio (The National Lampoon Radio Hour), theatre productions, and movies like Animal House and the Vacation series. Many of the stage troupe's original actors (including John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner) went on to form the original cast of Saturday Night Live.

Muppet Mentions

• October 1970: Cover says "Abbie Visits 1600 Sesame Street," showing political activist Abbe Hiffman holding puppet versions of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. Designed by Rick Meyerowitz, similar puppets have a one page photo comic in the issue, but with no Muppet references.

• October 1971: "125th Street", photo comic by Anne Beatts and Michel Choquette with Sesame Street puppet parodies including Big Rat, Cocaine Monster, Oreo the Roach, and Ramone the Silverfish. The comic involves ghetto references, drugs, crime, and poverty.

• April 1981: "The Decline and Fall of the Muppet Empire" written by Gerald Sussman, illustrated by Randall Enos. Play-style dialogue accompanies illustrations, set in the then-future of 1990. A now elderly Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are a couple. Miss Piggy is invited back by Jim and Frank Oz to The Muppet Show, but solo. The one-eyed, diseased Kermit struggles alone, while Piggy returns to a Muppet Show which is in dire shape (Zoot calls it a cancer) and Gonzo is dead. Piggy's comeback fails, and she returns to the hospital where Kermit has died.

"The Decline and Fall of the Muppet Empire"

"The Decline and Fall of the Muppet Empire"

Connections

• Henry Beard co-founded and wrote for National Lampoon magazine
• Christopher Cerf was contributing editor from 1970 to 1978
• Sarah Durkee performed in the stage show That's Not Funny, That's Sick! (1978) and the TV special Disco Beaver from Outer Space (1978)
• Paul Jacobs was the musical director and composer for the stage shows National Lampoon Lemmings (1973, also playing guitar and piano) and The National Lampoon Show (1975)
• John Weidman wrote for National Lampoon
• Ellis Weiner was an editor for National Lampoon