Tuesday
Aug262008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 5:05PM National Lampoon Taking on Gladiator Movies is a 'Maximus' Mistake
Supposing you go back 35 years or so, you'll find some
great subversive comedy from The National Lampoon. It was The Onion of its day,
an offshoot of The Harvard Lampoon, and it led to a series of highly successful
and influential comedy albums, which featured the likes of pre-fame Bill Murray,
Christopher Guest, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and others. In fact, the original Saturday Night Live cast would be pretty slim without those Lampoon records.
Its first film was a little something called
Animal
House, and while the Vacation movies had some big laughs, let's face it: It was
all downhill after Animal House.
It's almost shocking to see what has happened to the
National Lampoon banner over the years, although it ceased resembling its
original glory decades ago. But these days the company is busy suing Paris
Hilton for failing to promote
Pledge This! and churning out something like
National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus, a none-too-timely gladiator
spoof.
It's as if Lampoon watched Meet the Spartans and said,
"But they missed so much" or "I'm sure our gladiator spoof could actually
attract an audience."
So yes, seeking inspiration from Gladiator, 300, and
Troy, Awesomest Maximus will feature the talents of
Ian Ziering,
Rip Torn, and
Kirstanna Loken, according to
The Hollywood Reporter.
"We're excited to embark on another National Lampoon
original production, especially with a cast of this caliber," stated National
Lampoon Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Laikin, clearly unaware that Ian
Ziering was part of the ensemble. I don't see how that's possible though,
since he's playing a character named Testiclees.Continued the CEO, "National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus is a hilarious spoof of some of the classic films of our generation, and is sure to please National Lampoon fans worldwide."
That statement implies it still has fans. You know, maybe they haven't completely lost their sense of humor yet over at Lampoon; that line is the funniest thing they've come up with in years.
Reader Comments (5)
National Lampoonn is currently about as relevant as Star Wars...
A relic of the 1970's.
Clark Griswold is dead.
Long Live Clark Griswold!
Rawrrrreeeeerrrrarrrrr!
Hey Chewie Chewbacca! Didn't I see you in a freezer last week?
???Evidence???
Haha! Even these comments (except mine)
are funnier than National Lampoon these days.
Stone the CEO, stone him I say!