“That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick” wasn’t that much of either, oddly.

That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick by Ellin Stein

 I don’t know if it’s ever a good idea to name a non-fiction book after an album. Think about it: have you ever read a history on The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” that didn’t make you want to throw down the book, put on the album and just chill? That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick (in case you’re wondering, named after the fifth comedy album produced by the National Lampoon Crew) definitely falls into that trap – the book doesn’t completely satisfy.

            Stein starts way back before it was technically National Lampoon, when it was just called Harvard Lampoon and didn’t circulate too far from school. She hits on highlights throughout the mag’s growing years, from Radio Hours (basically comedy tapes), to movies such as Animal House (which, even if you’ve seen, may not have realized was connected to a Lampoon-styled Yearbook spoof) as well as the way the magazine made shows such as Saturday Night Live a possibility.

One problem here: I wish Stein would have specified more about the time she’s going after with the book. She basically quits the story after editor of the National mag Doug Kenney’s death in the early ‘80s, saying essentially, this was when the magazine was Finished. Except, it kept printing until 1998 and still has movies coming out under the heading “National Lampoon’s Such-and-Such” TODAY, as in August 2013. Seriously: did you know “National Lampoon Presents: Beach Party,” starring Matthew Lillard, has just completed production and is being released soon? NEITHER DID ANYONE EVER.

Also, Stein throws in a lot of stuff that has small connection to the Lampoon at all. There’s a chapter dedicated, and more surrounding those pages, just about Saturday Night Live (including John Belushi’s true feelings about the first season’s feature of Muppets and Bee costumes, for those four guys out there who were wondering), yet the connection between the mag and the show seems like they shared some actors/ senses of humor. Maybe there was more of a connection, but it wasn’t super clear.

As a ‘90s kid, I’ve never seen a single issue of the National Lampoon magazine. Really, the only context I had of ‘National Lampoon’ before reading this book was watching the Christmas Vacation movie like, twice and a vague memory of the connection to Ryan Reynold’s Van Wilder character.  That said, some of the references didn’t quite click with me. Stein goes in-depth about jokes coming out of certain sections of the mag, yet fails to make those sections clear enough to someone who has never seen the thing in print. Same goes for long biographical details about the editors/contributors. While I was right there when she talked about Chevy Chase, Lorne Michaels, etc., I had no footing as she talked about this Doug Kenney guy who was a big part of the mag (and her book).

Either way, a lot of the jokes still stuck, even without the best of context. Stein picked out issues and jokes to retell as examples of humor, which really is the best part of the book. My dark favorite: her excerpt from something horrible called the Vietnamese Baby Book which was released during the conflicts which featured a section on “Baby’s Progress” (“Four weeks old: able to whimper; Six months old: first nightmares; Two years old: knows bombing raids without being warned”).

I’d have to say this is a book best left for the already fans of the National Lampoon – it’s definitely not an intro-course. There’s probably a lot of really cool, little-known facts in here that went way over my head that true fans would find fascinating. But for me, it only made me crave to see and read the original, not Stein’s anthology of it.