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

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 the National Lampoon. Over the next decade, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney, along with a loose amalgamation of fellow satirists such as Michael O'Donoghue and P. J. O'Rourke, 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, t...