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The ''Harvard Lampoon'' is an Undergraduate humor organization and publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge , Massachusetts . The quarterly or monthly Magazine , ''The Harvard Lampoon'', was originally modelled on the former British Satirical periodical '' Punch '', and has outlived it to become the world's longest-running Humor Magazine still in publication. The organization also produces occasional humor books (the best known being the 1969 J.R.R. Tolkien parody '' Bored Of The Rings '') and parodies of national magazines. Much of the organization's capital is provided by the licensing of the "Lampoon" name to '' National Lampoon '', begun by ''Harvard Lampoon'' graduates in 1970 . Notable ''Harvard Lampoon'' alumni include William Randolph Hearst , George Santayana , John Reed , Douglas Kenney , Robert Benchley , William Gaddis , George Plimpton , Fred Gwynne , John Updike , Cass Sunstein , Andy Borowitz , Conan O'Brien , and innumerable writers and producers for '' The Simpsons '', '' Futurama '', '' Late Night With David Letterman '', '' Saturday Night Live '', '' News Radio '', '' Seinfeld '' and dozens of other television comedies. The ''Lampoon'' sensibility can be said to have influenced all American Comedy since the mid-1960's, ever since ''Lampoon'' editors Douglas Kenney and Henry Beard wrote the Tolkien parody '' Bored Of The Rings ''. The success of this book and the attention it brought its authors led directly to the creation of the '' National Lampoon '', which spun off a live show '' Lemmings '', then a radio show in the early 70's, introducing such performers as Christopher Guest , Harry Shearer and Chevy Chase . ''Lampoon'' writers from these shows were hired directly to help create '' Saturday Night Live ''. The organization is housed a few blocks from Harvard Square in a small mock- Flemish castle with a Copper Statue of an Ibis on the roof. The ''Lampoon'' is known for their bacchanalian parties, in which property is destroyed and staff members get into altercations with Cambridge locals and police. The ''Lampoon'' selects new members each semester, and initiates them with a week of secret rituals known as Phool's Week. The initiates, called Phools, are led through the streets of Harvard Square in colorful costumes and made to perform peculiar or humiliating Pranks . This has led to altercations with Cambridge locals and police. RIVALRY WITH ''THE HARVARD CRIMSON'' The Lampoon has a long-standing rivalry with Harvard's student newspaper, '' The Harvard Crimson '', which repeatedly refers to the Lampoon in its pages as a "semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization which used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine". The Lampoon, in return, is noted for never referring to the Crimson. A noted event in the history of the Lampoon–Crimson rivalry was the Crimson's 1953 theft of the Lampoon Castle's ibis and presentation of it as a gift to the government of the Soviet Union. Lampoon staffers retaliated recently by "liberating" the Crimson president's chair and accompanying it to Reykjavik , where it was given as a ceremonial gift to the Prime Minister of Iceland. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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