The Hollywood Retorter

National Lampoon, in an effort to "rejuvenate its brand," has created a 16-page parody of The Hollywood Reporter and sent it to 4,000 industry people. The joke quoted in this wire story is particularly tired and hacky, but reporters have a sixth sense for doing that--personal experience talking--so hope springs eternal. Has anybody out there seen it?



Here's some free advice, NatLamp, on how to "rejuvenate your brand."

1) Stop saying things like "rejuvenate our brand." The public doesn't care about your strategies, and its inappropriate for a company of your history and mission to sound like AOL/TimeWarner.

2) Stop slapping the NatLamp name on crappy stuff for a quick buck. You've used up the credit "Animal House" and "Vacation" gave you. It's time to do it for real again.

3) Follow MAD's lead and reprint all the good stuff from the past, so that even if the current stuff isn't as good, you'll get reflected glory. A 12 year old doesn't know Kurtzman's dead, and he won't know that Doug Kenney is, either. (Witness Bored of the Rings' success in the UK.) Additionally, resist the urge to edit, add, and otherwise meddle with the old stuff. You won't make it any funnier, but you could make it less funny.

4) Your brand is only as strong as your material. That means that the future of your company depends on excellent comedy, and nothing else; not an IPO, not market positioning, not any of that crap. The best--the only--thing an executive can do to make this happen is hire good people, pay them decently, and give them as much freedom as possible. So go find good young comedy writers--not people lurking around the sitcom demimonde who will work for cheap--put them together in a room with plenty of coffee for a year, and see what happens.



Good luck--I'm pulling for you!