Tuesday, July 22, 2014

The Heydays Of The Lampoon Magazine

By Sharron Cantu


The start of the national lampoon can be traced back to 1970.The business ran for twenty eight years and officially shut down in 1998.The lampoon magazine had come to be one of Americas most humorous publication. Its heydays can be traced back to the 1970s were it significantly grew not only in popularity but also acclaim. In those days, it remained influential in chatting the trajectory of American comedy and humor. Its existence led to emergence of films, live theater, radio and various recordings. It also acted as an outlet for great media personalities who had significantly contributed to its growth.

In its works, it has employed parody in an exquisite manner. This was compounded with superb content making it number one humor publication in America. In fact its humor transcended what was deemed acceptable humor standards.

It however declined towards the end of 1980s never to recover. Minimal publication continued into the 1990s and completely stopped in 1998.Harvard graduates and Lampoon alumni are credited with its when they acquired a license to publish on a monthly basis.

It initial days were a little difficult though the it managed to pull through. Its first publications focused on virtually all matters ranging political to social. Its editors were known to have strong political views though their publications or the paper itself desisted from taking a political stand.

The paper will be remembered as a monthly publication especially with regard to its special editions. It also had other projects such as calendars, songbooks, designed T shirts and books.

Under Michal c. As director of art, the company produced some of the most humorous and acerbic articles. The Vietnam War and the leaders of the argentine revolution are some of the issues captured in these articles so humorously. The parody in these writings enriched the humor. A caption showing a terrified dog having a gun pointed at it, and an inscription the dog will be shot if one does not buy the publication, is an example of one of the greatest demonstration of creativity by this team. Coming up with such a photo, demonstrating the plight of the dog humorously and not as pathetic, was not a simple task according to the photographer.

The company was also the publisher of heavy metal magazine where peter kleinman served as a director and later left 1979 to start an ad agency but was to come back in 1984 as a creative director . His return reignited the passion in the magazine as was the case in the seventies. His return also brought back many writers and artists who had left during its heydays.

He left in 1988 to join the private sector. After this year, lampoon experienced a precipitous decline.

The monthly publication contained an editorial found in the front page. Though looking straightforward, the editorial contained a lot of parody. The editorial team was composed by staff members and guests

True facts were one few parts of the publications that contained items that were real factual information though they were ridiculously presented. Several of the true facts publications were later complied into books and published in early 1990s and late 1980s.It will be remembered as a notable outlet for great talent. Some the renowned cartoonist and photographers worked here first. Comedy stars got to public limelight through their shows in the national lampoon.The people continue to engage in other creative activities to date.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment