Hey Otterites (I just made that up!)
Are you a fan of gross out comedy movies? Have all of Animal House memorized? Think Caddyshack is the funniest film ever made? Then you need to know about Doug Kenney.
Kenney was one of the co-founders of National Lampoon magazine. A graduate of Harvard, he wanted to take the idea of the Harvard Lampoon and go national with it. It was a ripe moment, as the country was in turmoil and old barriers were breaking down. Kenney brought a sense of “there’s no such thing as going too far” to a humor magazine, and it worked. The magazine took shots at everyone and everything, and no target was off limits.
The magazine appealed especially to young college age readers, and soon was the most read periodical on college campuses. Suddenly they not only had a print hit on their hands, but they branched into radio programs and stage shows. A big chunk of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players from Saturday Night Live had originally been radio and stage performers for the burgeoning Lampoon empire. John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, along with Brian Doyle-Murray and Harold Ramis had all been part of Lampoon and went on to television and film work. And Doug Kenney was in the middle of it all.
Kenney, teaming with our hero PJ O’Rourke, wrote the famous National Lampoon High School Yearbook Parody, which became an early driver of Animal House. Kenney, along with writers Chris Miller and Harold Ramis, wrote the script. The studio hated everything about the project, but eventually relented, and contributed a $3 million budget. The film would eventually gross more than $140 million. Kenney would even appear in the film as Stork, the frat brother who led the band down a dead end alley.
Kenney then moved on to write and produce Caddyshack, along with Ramis who would direct, and Lampoon stars Chase and Murray would be front and center. Caddyshack, while viewed as a classic now, was not as initially successful as Animal House.
As is well known, cocaine fueled much of the craziness in both films. Depression and addiction were sadly a huge part of Kenney’s life. Several months after the release of Caddyshack, Kenney was in Hawaii decompressing. He was reported missing, and days later found at the bottom of a ravine. What actually happened is not known, but it was called a hiking accident. The joke became “while looking for a better spot from which to jump, Doug slipped and fell.”
A 2015 documentary, Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead, recounts the story of the Lampoon, and the tale of Doug Kenney features prominently. His death cut his genius short, but he delivered 2 classic comedy films that continue to influence movie making to this day. I strongly recommend catching the documentary if you can, and it includes tons of interviews with writing and business partners of Kenney.
I’m thinking a pop culture episode on Kenney may be in the offing. He’s just too monumental to let slip away. All those great lines from Chase, Belushi, Matheson, Kenney probably wrote them. Worthy of being remembered. For now though, how about a link to our PJ O’Rourke episode? If I ever get to meet my hero PJ, I want to ask him what Kenney was really like.
