A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever
Written by Josh Karp
Narrated by Chris Lutkin
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
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.
Josh Karp
Josh Karp is an adjunct lecturer in journalism at Northwestern University and a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in numerous print and digital publications, including Salon, The Atlantic, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Magazine, and the Huffington Post. He is the author of A Stupid and Futile Gesture, which was named the Best Biography of 2006 at the Independent Publisher Book Awards and the Midwest Book Awards.
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Reviews for A Futile and Stupid Gesture
6 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very good biography of both Doug Kenney and National Lampoon. Although the prose is workmanlike, Kenney's brilliance and fascinating personality hold our attention. Recommended.