Editing National Lampoon (magazine) (section)

===Films===
{{Further|List of National Lampoon films}}
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2009}}

Considerable ambiguity exists about what actually constitutes a ''National Lampoon'' film.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, a few films were made as spin-offs from the original ''National Lampoon'' magazine, using its creative staff. The first theatrical release, and by far the most successful ''National Lampoon'' film was ''[[Animal House|National Lampoon's Animal House]]'' (1978). Starring John Belushi and written by Doug Kenney, Harold Ramis, and [[Chris Miller (writer)|Chris Miller]], it became the highest-grossing comedy film of that time.<ref name=NYT2005 /> Produced on a low budget, it was so enormously profitable that, from that point on for the next two decades, the name "National Lampoon" applied to the title of a movie was considered to be a valuable selling point in and of itself.

Numerous movies were subsequently made that had "National Lampoon" as part of the title. Many of these were unrelated projects because, by that time, the name "National Lampoon" could simply be licensed on a one-time basis, by any company, for a fee. Critics such as the ''[[Orlando Sentinel]]''{{'}}s Roger Moore and ''[[The New York Times]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki> Andrew Adam Newman<ref name=NYT2007>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/media/25lampoon.html | work=The New York Times | title=National Lampoon Stakes Revival on Making Own Films | date=June 25, 2007|first= Andrew Adam|last= Newman}}</ref> have written about the cheapening of the ''National Lampoon''{{'}}s movie imprimatur; in 2006, an [[Associated Press]] review said: "The National Lampoon, once a brand name above nearly all others in comedy, has become shorthand for pathetic frat boy humor."<ref name=NYT2007 /> (For the purpose of this article, only films made as spin-offs from the original ''National Lampoon'' magazine, using some of the magazine's creative staff to put together the outline and script, and/or were cast using actors from ''[[The National Lampoon Radio Hour]]'' and ''[[National Lampoon's Lemmings]]'' are considered.)
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MOST ONLINE SOURCES SAY THIS FILM WAS FIRST BROADCAST IN FEB. 1979, SO AFTER ''ANIMAL HOUSE'' The first of the "Intercontinental Lampoon" movies was a not-very-successful [[made-for-TV]] movie, ''[[Disco Beaver from Outer Space]]'', broadcast in 1978.
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; ''National Lampoon's Animal House''
In 1978, ''National Lampoon's [[Animal House]]'' was released. Made on a small budget, it did phenomenally well at the box office. In 2001, the United States [[Library of Congress]] considered the film "culturally significant" and preserved it in the [[National Film Registry]].

The script had its origins in a series of short stories that had been previously published in the magazine. These included Chris Miller's "Night of the Seven Fires", which dramatized a fraternity initiation and included the characters Pinto and Otter, which contained prose versions of the toga party, the "road trip", and the dead horse incident. Another source was Doug Kenney's "First Lay Comics",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/grell.shtml|title=Mike Grell interview|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430160416/http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/interviews/grell.shtml|archive-date=Apr 30, 2012|website=The Silver Age Sage|date=2009|interviewer= B.D.S.}}</ref> which included the angel and devil scene and the grocery-cart affair. According to the authors, most of these elements were based on real incidents.

The film was of great cultural significance to its time, as ''[[The New York Times]]'' describes the magazine's 1970s period as "Hedonism ... in full sway and political correctness in its infancy."<ref>{{cite news|title=Review: The Good Old Tasteless Days in 'Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead'|first=Stephen |last=Holden|date=Sep 24, 2015|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/movies/review-the-good-old-tasteless-days-in-drunk-stoned-brilliant-dead.html}}</ref> ''[[Animal House]]'', as the article describes, was a crucial film manifestation of that culture. An article from ''[[The Atlantic]]'' describes how ''Animal House'' captures the struggle between an "elitist <nowiki>[</nowiki>fraternity<nowiki>]</nowiki> who willingly aligned itself with the establishment, and the kind full of kooks who refused to be tamed."<ref>{{cite news|title=Pop Culture's War on Fraternities: Animal House and its many descendants didn't glorify the Greek system—they mocked it.|first=Ashley|last=Fetters|date=Feb 28, 2014|work=The Atlantic|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/pop-cultures-war-on-fraternities/284126/#}}</ref> That concept was a crucial element of the original ''National Lampoon'' magazine, according to a ''[[New York Times]]'' article concerning its early years and co-founder Douglas Kenney's brand of comedy as a "liberating response to a rigid and hypocritical culture."<ref name=NYT2018 />

; ''National Lampoon Goes to the Movies''

Also known as ''[[National Lampoon's Movie Madness]]'', this commercially disappointing collection of three genre parodies was made in 1981, before ''National Lampoon's Class Reunion'' but released the following year.

; ''National Lampoon's Class Reunion''
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:National Lampoons Class Reunion movie poster.jpg|thumb|125px|Movie poster of ''National Lampoon's Class Reunion'']] -->
This 1982 movie was an attempt by [[John Hughes (filmmaker)|John Hughes]] to make something similar to ''Animal House''. ''[[National Lampoon's Class Reunion]]'' was not successful.

; ''National Lampoon's Vacation''
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:Vacation1983.jpg|thumb|125px|Movie poster of ''National Lampoon's Vacation'']] -->
Released in 1983, the movie ''[[National Lampoon's Vacation]]'' was based upon John Hughes's ''National Lampoon'' story "Vacation '58".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Vacation '58|magazine=National Lampoon|date=Sep 1979|publisher=Twenty-First Century Communications|first=John|last=Hughes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Read John Hughes' Original National Lampoon Vacation Story That Started the Movie Franchise: In 1979, the magazine published the future director's fictitious tale of a family trip gone horribly awry ("If Dad hadn't shot Walt Disney in the leg, it would have been our best vacation ever"). Here, THR reprints the tale in full|author=THR STAFF|date=July 29, 2015|work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/read-john-hughes-original-national-811591/}}</ref><ref name="V58">{{cite web|last1=Hughes|first1=John|title=Vacation '58 / Foreword '08|url=http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=389|website=Zoetrope All-Story|publisher=[[American Zoetrope]]|access-date=August 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080731165748/http://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=389|archive-date=July 31, 2008|date=2008}}</ref> The movie's financial success gave rise to several follow-up films, including ''[[National Lampoon's European Vacation]]'' (1985), ''[[National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation]]'' (1989), based on John Hughes's "Christmas '59", ''[[Vegas Vacation]]'' (1997), and most recently ''[[Vacation (2015 film)|Vacation]]'' (2015), all featuring [[Chevy Chase]].

====Similar films====
The [[Robert Altman]] film ''[[O.C. and Stiggs]]'' (1987) was based on two characters who had been featured in several written pieces in ''National Lampoon'' magazine, including an issue-long story from October 1982 entitled "The Utterly Monstrous, Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. and Stiggs." Completed in 1984, the film was not released until 1987, when it was shown in a small number of theaters and without the "National Lampoon" name. It was not a success.

Following the success of ''Animal House'', ''[[mad (magazine)|MAD]]''  magazine lent its name to a 1980 comedy titled ''[[Up the Academy]]''. Although two of ''Animal House''{{'s}} co-writers were the ''Lampoon''{{'s}} Doug Kenney and Chris Miller, ''Up The Academy'' was strictly a licensing maneuver, with no creative input from ''Mad''{{'s}} staff or contributors. It was a critical and commercial failure.