NPR today ran (almost) the entire “Immigrants” bit from National Lampoon Radio Hour (from show #53; also appears on the Gold Turkey album). It was on their news program All Things Considered, trimmed slightly. And that’s when I woke up.

Just noticed that Yahoo! featured Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site on their What’s New page today. They describe it as “a labor of love,” which, I think, means there are no banner ads.

Update: Well, that link doesn’t work anymore. Wonder whatever became of Yahoo!?

Update #2: Luckily, I happened to make a screen snapshot of the page, which I’ve added above.

Mort Sahl, the man whom former NatLamp editor Tony Hendra credited as the progenitor of the kind of humor that reached its zenith with the National Lampoon, is now appearing every Thursday evening at 10:00 p.m. at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. I wonder if he still uses the newspaper in his act.

Roger Bumpass, who appeared in many National Lampoon stage shows and recordings in the late seventies and early eighties, does the voice of Squidward in the popular Nickelodeon cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants. Brian Doyle Murray also makes occasional appearances on the show as the voice of The Flying Dutchman. Arrr!

Update your bookmarks: Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site has moved into new digs. Forget the old address. (Like anyone could remember it anyway.) From now on, it’s www.marksverylarge.com. And no smart remarks from the back row. It’s supposed to sound funny.

If you’ve just arrived here from the old address, welcome!

Finally. For the first time in I’m not sure how many years, I’ve added more listings. The first to get them is the Books & Anthologies section, to which I’ve added National Lampoon Best of #3, National Lampoon Best of 4, National Lampoon Comics, and (drum roll, please) the National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody. Whew. More to come…

After an absence of almost three and a half years, the covers are back in the Issues, Books, and Recordings sections of Mark’s Very Large National Lampoon Site. We all have Mr. Daniel Laikin to thank for granting me permission to display them here. Mr. Laikin just recently completed his acquisition of J2 Communications, which, according to reports, will be renamed National Lampoon, Inc. Enjoy.

1. I do this site as a hobby. 2. You might get an answer from me if you use an email address that doesn’t bounce.

Looks like changes are afoot at www.nationallampoon.com.

Former NatLamp editor Tony Hendra has written a brief history of National Lampoon magazine which appears in the June 2002 issue of Harper’s. For those who have read his 1987 book Going Too Far, it covers a lot of familiar territory, focusing on the first five years of the magazine. It’s quite a bit shorter than the account in the book, but there are some new anectdotes and his take on the magazine (and P. J. O’Rourke in particular) has shifted somewhat in the intervening 15 years. Required reading for the serious NatLamp scholar.