Is it just me, or do you also tend to smirk and think “serves ’em right” when some hotshot executive-turned-racketeer is finally sentenced to prison?
Yeah, if they do the crime, they gotta do the time, even if it is in a minimal-security facility with gyms, digital libraries and dark chocolate cappuccino machines in every cell.
But this week, I did a literal double take upon reading that the millionaire ex-CEO of National Lampoon was given 45 months in prison for conspiring to manipulate stock prices of the media company.
Say it ain’t so, boys! Are you telling me that the man in charge of the cinema comedy classics Animal House and Vacation was on the take? Now that’s funny.
And it’s not like the guy was scrounging for dough to pay his beloved aunt’s nursing home bill or anything. The scuttlebutt had it that this man was already rolling in royalties. In fact – you’ll love this – his Los Angeles mansion was once used to shoot “The Bachelor,” a TV show that oozes opulence and overkill. (Come on, the women dress in evening gowns that only Miss America contestants and Dynasty devotees would be caught dead in.)
Basically, the CEO is a disgrace to his company’s comedic heritage. As you may know, the late monthly magazine National Lampoon sprung from the horny, Ivy League loins of the college humor publication Harvard Lampoon. Besides producing hysterical movies, National Lampoon infiltrated other media, including radio and books, with titles such as “The National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor,” National Lampoon’s Gentleman’s Bathroom Companion,” and “This Side of Parodies.”
Nothing better to parody than an Animal House exec in the Big House. Have a nice Vacation, sucker, and while you’re sitting in the prison’s rec room, listening to yet another white-collar criminal pitching you his “hilarious” movie script, just relax and think of it as a stint in the worst fraternity on “campus”…
BonesBlog 