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Title: A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Subtitle: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever
Author: Josh Karp
Narrator: Chris Lutkin
Format: Unabridged
Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
Language: English
Release date: 10-30-17
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Comedy, Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:
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.

Members Reviews:
Funny
A good read, funny and an great introduction into the world of Belushi and SNL. Not to forget Animal House, Caddyshack and the whole world of national lampoon and the people who made millions writing the jokes we laugh at today.

excellent biography of a man and a magazine
Ever since Esquire published their cover story on Doug Kenney, "Life and Death of a Comic Genius," many years ago, I've been hoping for a book like this to appear. Mention the name Doug Kenney to your co-workers and see what sort of reaction you get until you start talking about National Lampoon and Animal House.
As a comic novelist who was deeply inspired by the take-no-prisoners attitude of the Lampoon, I feel indebted to Kenney (as many other writers and comedians should) and hope this book brings wider attention to his comic genius and important contributions to the history of modern comedy.
Josh Karp does a wonderful job of weaving the interesting life of a magazine, with the interesting and tragic life of Kenney. This could have easily been an on-the-fly trash bio, but Karp approaches his subjects with intelligence and obviously did a lot of homework, interviewing key people related to Kenney and the Lampoon.
I have some misgiving about the cover. I understand the choice, given that Rick Meyerowitz was a key artist in the development of National Lampoon, but it makes the book seem just a bit slighter than what it is, which is a really thoughtful, intelligent biography. That said, I hope I'm wrong and the book get all the attention it deserves.

insightful read for early NL fans
I enjoyed the book thoroughly, Well written and thoughtful. But I was an early subscriber of the magazine from its early days. Younger readers may not realize how big a change the NL represented in humor, and therefore not appreciate the book as much. For fans of NL from the beginning I would give it a full 5 stars.

Only Because I Paid for It.
I more or less forced myself to read the entire book because there were some great anecdotes and also several nodes of connectivity where someone famous first got their start working with some of the other persons mentioned in its pages.
But the factual detail and the amount of time spent on uninteresting background and financial dealings made for slow reading. I really wasn't all that interested in the various ownership deals between the principals of the story.