National Lampoon January 1981

National Lampoon

January 1981

It's January, 1981, and the number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 is 'Starting Over', by the late John Lennon.

Looking at the latest issue of National Lampoon, the lurid cover promises more than the contents deliver. This usually was the case with these 'sexy' Lampoon covers. Deceptive enticements !

Here, at the dawn of the 1980s, the magazine noticeably is thinner as compared to the glory days of the 1970s. Far fewer record album ads, cigarette ads, liquor ads, clothing ads, etc. 

P. J. O'Rourke now is the editor, and Matty Simmons, the publisher, is off on the West Coast, working on film treatments of Lampoon properties, such as the forthcoming National Lampoon's Class Reunion (which turned out to be a dud).

The Letters page makes fun of people of Puerto Rican ethnicity:

We are alerted to the latest album from Stevie Wonder.

There is a cartoon. And an advertisement for a film, The Idolmaker, which I never saw and know nothing about.

An ad parody takes presents urban wastelands as new venues for federal parks.

John Hughes, on the cusp of fame for the movies National Lampoon's Vacation and Sixteen Candles, contributes a satire of 'The New Millionaires'.

There is quite a lot of comics content.

The Iranian Hostage crisis was ongoing early in January, and only when Ronald Reagan took office as President on January 20 did Iran release the hostages. The Lampoon imagines the crisis as a sales and marketing opportunity:

There's an ad for comedy and rock record albums from Passport records. The ad uses the 'New Wave' color scheme: pink and black, that was popular in the early 1980s. 

All of these albums are available at YouTube, and they are not that special. The best-known track on the album That's Not Funny, That's Sick is the 'Bass Player Interviewed by Mr. Rogers' bit, featuring Bill Murray.

Let's close with a 'Foto Funnies' about kids and drugs.

And that's how it was, 43 years ago..........