230. “Fred” Magazine

May 26, 2010

Q: There was a feature (in an issue that parodied niche magazines) about a magazine for people named Fred. (The nomenclature on a T-shirt ad in this piece was “Better Fred Than Dead”). Can you please tell me what issue this was in?

A: Carol does it again: “A book titled ‘The Eighties; A Look Back’ was published in 1979 by a whole lot of artists and writers, mostly associated with the ‘Poon. In the middle of this tome are several short magazine parodies, and one of them is ‘Fred’. The author’s name is Jeremy Wolff.” I knew I’d seen it somewhere, but not in National Lampoon.

Comments

A book titled "The Eighties; A Look Back" was published in 1979 by a whole lot of artists and writers, mostly associated with the 'Poon. In the middle of this tome are several short magazine parodies, and one of them is "Fred". The author's name is Jeremy Wolff. Honk If You Are Fred!

—Cartoon Carol

May 27, 2010 5:56 am

Ah, I knew I'd seen it somewhere other than National Lampoon. Thanks, Carol!

—Mark

May 27, 2010 4:19 pm

This puts me in mind of Me Magazine, from the Self-indulgence issue. I laughed uncontrollably when I read the subject of Me Magazine explaining that he liked to put a little mustard in the water when he boiled his frankfurters. It's the little things.

—Steven Strauss

October 15, 2010 6:52 pm

Hello. Funny thing is I was looking for this as well. It IS from National Lampoon in the April 1989 issue (A salute to modern mediocrity). It took me a while to find it since I thought it was called Dave, but then I did a search for the word 'theme' (since it is mentioned he hums the theme to 'Rocky' and later 'Fred'. Now if I can just find that weird comic about the cat fighting zombie animals from the 80s...

—Mister Echs

March 31, 2012 1:43 am

Echs, there was indeed an article called "Fred" in that issue, but it's not a magazine parody and not the article the questioner was looking for. Good luck with the zombies.

—Mark

March 31, 2012 11:13 am

Original material (excluding quoted material) © 1997-2024 Mark Simonson.
Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site is not affiliated with National Lampoon or National Lampoon Inc.
Click here for the real thing.