A Futile and Stupid Gesture

How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever

By: Josh Karp

Narrated by: Chris Lutkin

This ultimate biography of National Lampoon and its cofounder Doug Kenney offers the first complete history of the immensely popular magazine and its brilliant and eccentric characters. Relying on wonderful stories about the comedy scene in New York City in the 1970s and National Lampoon's place at the center of it, author Josh Karp chronicles how the magazine spawned a popular radio show and two long-running theatrical productions that helped launch the careers of John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner and that went on to inspire Saturday Night Live.

That history along with interviews conducted with more than 130 people connected to Kenney and the magazine - including Chevy Chase, John Hughes, P. J. O'Rourke, Tony Hendra, Sean Kelly, Chris Miller, and Bruce McCall - and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Animal House and Caddyshack help to capture the nostalgia, humor, and popular culture that National Lampoon still inspires.

©2006 Josh Karp (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Movie was better

I bought this book because I loved the movie. Unfortunately the movie was better. The author of the book is obsessed with getting all the details right about the politics at National Lampoon. I did not find it very interesting. It is more of a history of doug and National Lampoon than an entertaining story. I recommend you see the movie and skip the book.

Great book despite the mispronounciations

The narrorator pronounces "parody" like "parroty" and calls Caddyshack's Judge Smails "judge Smalls," but his pronunciation aside this was an amazing book and a wonderful tribute to both Doug Kenney and National Lampoon. It's the basis for the Netflix movie of the same name which is also good.

wasnt for me

Hard to finish i beleave trying to understand the language or something made this book a slow read for myself. This book might be a better read for others I just find it to be slow and hard to keep an interest.

Very Detailed, Well Paced. Insightful and Engaging

Thomas Gorham

Comprehensive view into the minds behind National Lampoon. Laughs in abundance. Great listen.

Good but not great

A Futile and Stupid Gesture is the history of the National Lampoon magazine as well as the films that spun out of it, Animal House and Caddy Shack. It chronicles the creator of National Lampoon, Doug Kenny, who was a wizard of comedy and way ahead of his time, being one of the biggest comedy writers in a pre SNL world. All of that sounds exciting, and it is, but the book is a slog at times, going over various issues in a sluggish pace. This had a lot more potential. Enjoy!

Forever Young, Brilliant, and Tragic

I love Doug Kenney. I never met him, but this book and subsequent movie makes me admire and venerate him. I’ve gone from this book looking to learn and read more about National Lampoon, and hope to see more of this brilliant young man that I just read about here. A great look back on Kenney’s life and I recommend it to anyone.

Rich wonderful book

I loved listening to this. The story is great, Karp fills in lots of wide-ranging details about the many characters who made up National Lampoon and how humor and history moved through the strange times of the 60s and 70s. I found myself with tears in my eyes at the end dealing with Doug's death. The Netflix special piqued my interest but the story is much more vast and we get that all here. A word about the narrator - I had seen the other reviews talking about his pronunciation of "parody" as "parity" and I couldn't believe it. How right they are though, and since that word comes up many times in the book, someone really should have corrected Lutkin about this. He says ending 'd's as if they were 't's, we get this with "Kennedy" too.

Futile and stupid would have been a better title

I actually fell asleep while listening to this book. Unfortunally I was driving at the time.