DISQUS

Though not without interest as a first-hand account of how life was lived at the Lampoon "on the ground," Hendra's _Going Too Far_ does just that -- unfortunately, too far in the direction of self-importance, settlings scores with P. J. O'Rourke and a wholesale abuse of what might have been a useful term in "Boomer Humor," but for its wholesale abuse in this tome. At its peak, National Lampoon was probably the single greatest, and surely funniest, instance of satire this nation has ever seen. Little wonder they kvetched over NatLamp-lite as practiced by the fledgling SNL, which poached Michael O'Donoghue, Belushi, etc. from NatLamp's ranks. The definitive tale of its rise and the spectacular fall not all the Tim Mathesons and Gilbert Gottfrieds (!!) in the world could halt remains untold.