More Funny Organs

A while ago I posted an entry about, among other things, the Onion (the entry was “Anarchists Adopt Robert's Rules of Order After Melee”). As part of my court-mandated public service, I would like to direct your attention to several other funny organs (insert your own joke here).

When the magazine The National Lampoon first came out it was the funniest thing ever published. Prior to TNL, that distinction probably fell to Mad Magazine (remember Cracked, a competitor?). The first year of the Lampoon had a couple classic things in it that I still remember. One was a full-page picture of a girl’s bicycle with a scratch-and-sniff sticker on the seat. Another was a letter to the editor that ran something like this:

“Dear National Lampoon,

“The world’s longest palindrome has heretofore been “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.” I would like to announce that I have created a longer palindrome: “A foof, a man, a plan, a canal, Panama foofa!” Would whoever is in charge of this sort of thing please send me a check to the enclosed address.”

If you should ever go to a palindrome web site, the above “longer palindrome” often appears without being attributed to TNL. Now you know better.

The magazine also ran a column on Canadian stuff so that they could get a cheaper postal rate for delivery in Canada. This might have been joking on their part, but I believe it to be true. I also believe that this column eventually evolved into the SNL skit “The Great White North,” which in turn spawned the movie “Strange Brew.”

Another funny organ that is now defunct was “The Citizen Harold”, a free newspaper that was published right here in the Twin Cities. I miss this rag a lot. It was very similar to the Onion in content. One headline that I still cherish is:

Special Export Not Really Exported

Not Very Special Either, Study Finds

I love that. They also did a very funny short article about Gary Zukav and Deepak Chopra getting into a bar brawl (“I’ll stuff your soul so far up your ass you can taste it!”).

There. I’ve completed this segment of my public service so I can show it to my probation officer. Now I can go back to writing about vaginas.

- Hulles