From the early 1970s to the late 90s, National Lampoon magazine was one of the biggest successes of satirical parody literature. By being a magazine where nearly everyone behind it could push the boundaries without caring about going too far, it has earned its place amongst some of the most innovative shock content out there. So naturally, its long lasting impact on comedy and humour were necessary for the subject of a documentary, entitled Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead. Released in 2015, on the 70th birth year of co-founder Henry Beard, the film is quite the revelation of the rise and fall of such an iconic magazine.
The film itself details new interviews with National Lampoon staff members and other famous people who were fans of the magazine itself. On top of these interviews detailing a lot of context into how founders and Harvard alumni Douglas Kenney, Henry Beard and Robert Hoffman approached producer Matty Simmons to make their own inspired rendition off of the Harvard Lampoon, there are also never-before seen archival material from former late players including John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Michael O'Donoghue. As a magazine done to comment on society and the world in the mosto outlandish ways, the documentary breathes so much life into the material through the photos, animated recreations of already existing Lampoon work and even some transitional parodies from their radio show. At its core, National Lampoon was about saying what no one else had the guts to talk about, and while they were the subject of possible racism and sexism, anyone who understood raw comedy and anger through laughter kept the magazine afloat for so long.
However, like most documentaries, it is also a chronicle of the biggest downfalls in the magazine's history, specifically related to Doug Kenney himself. Known for being as manic as he was brilliant, Kenney was known for unannounced AWOLs and frequent substance abuse which turned off some of his closest collaborators, not at all helped by his other experiments such as book and script writing being hit or miss. There are also talks of creative differences and bad behavior mentioned by Tony Hendra, Anne Beatts and Michael Gross. In spite of those, the main focus of the documentary is chronicling how a lot of the magazine took a downward spiral following Kenney's sudden death and newcomers being forced to go in directions that negatively affected the humor. Where National Lampoon was meant to say something absurd and shocking about a subject, its later years made it all shock without the substance. From numerous crazy additions, to film spin offs to different voices being heard, it's no wonder the magazine would stumble as much as it would triumph.
Through a lot of dedication to the most far out magazine of its time and arguably today, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead might be the best retelling of the National Lampoon the world will ever get. Despite the creative shortcomings the magazine would face later on, its impact on parody and satire will forever remain a staple of pop culture for years to come. If you're curious to check out the documentary, by all means give it a go, for you don't even need to be all that familiar with the original source material to get invested. As far as documentaries on controversial comedy go, this one is up there among the greats.
