Thats Not Funny, Thats Sick, Ellin Stein
Thats Not Funny, Thats Sick, Ellin Stein
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That's Not Funny, That's Sick
The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream

Author: Ellin Stein

Narrator: Jim Meskimen

Unabridged: 15 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/24/2013

Categories: Nonfiction, Humor


Synopsis

The untold story behind a revolution in American comedy Labor Day, 1969. Two recent college graduates move to New York to edit a new magazine called theNational Lampoon. Over the next decade, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney, along with a loose amalgamation of fellow satirists such as Michael ODonoghue and P. J. ORourke, popularized a smart, caustic, ironic brand of humor that has become the dominant voice of American comedy. Ranging from sophisticated political satire to broad raunchy jokes, theNational Lampoonintroduced iconoclasm to the mainstream, selling millions of copies to an audience both large and devoted. Its excursions into live shows, records, and radio helped shape the anarchic earthiness of John Belushi, the suave slapstick of Chevy Chase, and the deadpan wit of Bill Murray and brought them together with other talents such as Harold Ramis, Christopher Guest, and Gilda Radner. A new generation of humorists emerged from the crucible of theLampoonto help createSaturday Night Liveand the influential filmAnimal House, among many other notable comedy landmarks. Journalist Ellin Stein, an observer of the scene since the early 1970s, draws on a wealth of revealing firsthand interviews with the architects and impresarios of this comedy explosion to offer crucial insight into a raucous cultural transformation that still echoes today. Brimming with insider stories and set against the roiling political and cultural landscape of the 1970s,Thats Not Funny, Thats Sickgoes behind the jokes to witness the fights, the parties, the collaborationsand the competitionamong this fraternity of the self-consciously disenchanted. Decades later, their brand of subversive humor that provokes, offends, and often illuminates is as relevant and necessary as ever.

About Ellin Stein

Ellin Stein has
contributed arts features and criticism to such publications as London’s Times,
Guardian, and Telegraph, as well as the New York Times and Variety. She lives in
London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Stewart on December 19, 2018

The book's title is pretty self-explanatory. The National Lampoon was one of the linchpins of 70's humor, and its influence stretched far beyond that decade. Ellin Stein has a formidable command of her subject, and traces all the relevant players from the early Harvard days to Saturday Night Live to......more

Goodreads review by Carol on September 24, 2018

Favorite chapter: "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Dildo Please!" Great history of National Lampoon from the early days of inspired lunacy, leftist politics and anti-war satire to the shameful Reagan years and the proto-Trumpian pandering of creeps like P.J. O'Rourke. The decline and fall of a whole ge......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on September 10, 2013

I was interested to read this book as I love satire and reading a bunch of National Lampoons I got through a friend were a pretty big influence on me when I was 16.These lead me to get involved in the school newspaper and attempting - I realise in retrospect - to emulate the Lampoon. This was in ear......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on August 30, 2024

In this book, journalist Ellin Stein provides a history of the iconoclastic 'National Lampoon' magazine, and the movies, television shows, publications, etc. it spawned or inspired. Stein did extensive research and conducted myriad interviews, and her coverage of the topic - and all the people invol......more

Goodreads review by Mike on July 12, 2013

I have read a half-dozen or so books regarding the genesis of National Lampoon, and Ellin Stein's is the best (Denis Perrin's MR. MIKE, by far, the worst). TNFTS provides a terrific overview, great interview material, tremendously valuable focus on the more below-the-radar players (Bluestone, McCall......more