Latest in National Lampoon

Alan Donnes, who worked as a stand-up comic before producing films, acting, doing radio, writing about sports and running National Lampoon, died July 8 of bacterial meningitis in Los Angeles. He was 57 and had been hospitalized for three weeks. His longtime friend Ken Trahan confirmed the news. A native of New…

Matty Simmons, a founder of the Diners Club credit card and Weight Watchers magazine who found his highest-profile success after co-founding National Lampoon magazine and producing film offshoots including Animal House and the Vacation franchise, died Wednesday in Los Angeles following a brief, non-coronavirus-related…

Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka is bringing her twerk-friendly funny to Quibi with the woke Japanese game show appropriately titled Let’s Go Atsuko! from National Lampoon and PalmStar Media. In the new series, Game master Okatsuka will lead two civilian contestants through the surreal universe inside her grandma's fridge. In…

National Lampoon, which turns 50 this year, has inked a series deal with Quibi for eight episodes of Let’s Go, Atsuko! A (woke) Japanese Game Show based on an eponymous live show and podcast by comedian and actress Atsuko Okatsuka. In each episode, two contestants share with host and creator Okatsuka something they…

National Lampoon has partnered with online film and TV creatives platform Stage 32 to launch the National Lampoon & Stage 32 Comedy Screenwriting Competition, with the winning script to receive a $5,000 option of 18 months by NL and the winning writer or writers placed into its mentoring program. The competition…

Things get absurdly comedic in the new trailer for Netflix’s A Futile and Stupid Gesture starring Will Forte. Directed by Wet Hot American Summer‘s David Wain, the movie is based on the story of Doug Kenney (Forte) who, along with Henry Beard (played by an unrecognizable Domnhall Gleeson), co-created the…

EXCLUSIVE: In a deal worth just under $12 million, PalmStar Media has acquired all the assets of National Lampoon. That includes the trademark, and a library of print, audio and movie content spanning nearly 50 years. Raj B. Singh and Kevin Frakes will be National Lampoon co-CEOs of behalf of their financial partners…

UPDATE, 1:55 PM: National Lampoon president Alan Donnes has informed Deadline that A+E Studios and 4th Row Films “have zero rights to make such a series nor do they have the rights to use our name in any such press release. This will most likely result in some form of litigation if the project, as described, moves…

EXCLUSIVE: The fifth-season debut of HBO's Veep is just over two weeks away, but Matt Walsh has jumped on board for some National Lampoon fun in A Futile And Stupid Gesture. The SAG Award nominee will be playing producer and publishing exec Matty Simmons in the Netflix pic directed by David Wain. A former newspaperman…

EXCLUSIVE: Domhnall Gleeson is making a deal to join Will Forte in A Futile And Stupid Gesture, the Netflix feature about the guys who founded National Lampoon and turned into a comic force that hatched John Hughes, John Belushi, and movies including Animal House and Caddyshack. Forte already was set to play Doug…