Editing National Lampoon (magazine) (section)

====True Facts====
"True Facts" was a section near the front of the magazine that contained true but ridiculous items from real life. Together with the [[Masthead (American publishing)|masthead]], it was one of the few parts of the magazine that was factual. As was explained in the introduction to the "True Facts" 1981 newsstand special, the "True Facts" column was started in 1972 by Henry Beard, and it was based on a feature called "True Stories" in the British publication ''[[Private Eye]]''. It was essentially a column of funny news briefs.

P. J. O'Rourke created the first "True Facts Section" in August 1977. This section included photographs of unintentionally funny signage, extracts from ludicrous newspaper reports, strange headlines, and so on.

In 1981 and for many subsequent years John Bendel was in charge of the "True Facts" section of the magazine. Bendel produced the 1981 newsstand special mentioned above. Several "True Facts" compilation books were published during the 1980s and early 90s, and several all-True-Facts issues of the magazine were published during the 1980s.

In the early 2000s, Steven Brykman edited the "True Facts" section of the National Lampoon [[website]].