Daniel S. Laikin, National Lampoon Chief, Charged With Conspiracy, Securities Fraud

New York Times:

The chief executive of National Lampoon, Daniel S. Laikin, was charged on Monday with conspiracy and securities fraud in what prosecutors said was an attempt to raise the value of the company's stock artificially.

The National Lampoon, a media company in Los Angeles with projects in feature films, television programming and interactive entertainment, owns interest in the movies "Animal House" and the "Vacation" series.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[getoffthecross]

11:06 AM on 12/16/2008

The fact that they don't have anything more current attached to their name recognition besides Animal House and the Vacation movies means that people should have been skeptical of their solvency for years.

The cover is clever with the caption. Without it, I'd rather someone had the barrel to Van Wilder's temple.

[naturallight]

11:04 AM on 12/16/2008

The real crime here is that National Lampoon was listed on the NYSE. Are you F'n kidding me?

"I will trade you 50 shares of Cracked Magazine for 20 shares of Alfred E. Neuman and National Lampoon."

I think Bill Mauer is correct when he called it the United Stupid of America

[NJmikeV]

09:18 AM on 12/16/2008

Here's another cover for dog lovers.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/national-lampoon/2#i82

[LindaLeigh]

07:09 AM on 12/16/2008

What a horrible cover. Even though its probably years old, he deserves to go to jail for that alone.

[NJmikeV]

08:21 AM on 12/16/2008

That's the classic "Buy This Magazine or We'll Shoot This Dog" cover from back in the days when they were funny.

Why should anyone go to jail for that ? Time to lighten up.

[BlueKansas]

10:22 AM on 12/16/2008

LOLOLOL -- I haven't seen that cover for decades!! What a terrific 'blast' from the past. NatLampoon used to be hilariously funny. Back when I was in art school in the early 70s, one of us would bring it in and we'd read it out loud to each other and the teachers knew we'd never get anything done that day. Our hands down favorite section was "True Facts". Anyone remember that?

[HeevenSteven]

07:06 AM on 12/16/2008

What's this country coming to? Now we can't even trust our comedians.. lol.

[rektruax]

06:40 AM on 12/16/2008

Tony Hendra said in all the previous shots, the dog was just sitting there bored looking, so they decided one last try for the cover. He put the barrel to the dogs head, but this time he pulled the trigger and it's the "click" that evoked the perfect reaction we have today.

The cover really offended a lot of people. I thought it was brilliantly confrontational. It doesn't surprise me that HuffPo omitted the punchline.

[NChooseK]

05:41 AM on 12/16/2008

Nice of HuffPo to ruin the gag from 35 years ago by cropping out the punch line.

But on the positive side, it is a cover from that brief, shining era when National Lampoon was the funniest periodical in the English language.

[NotMcCain]

02:41 AM on 12/16/2008

Hate. Cover.

I don't care the reason for it.

[HeevenSteven]

07:03 AM on 12/16/2008

Very old cover. Classic.

[Ramirez]

02:00 AM on 12/16/2008

Brings back memories. That was one of the most famouse NatLamp covers of all time. January 1973. The caption was "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll K.ill This Dog."

I bought it.

[shockmagog]

02:20 AM on 12/16/2008

So did I.

[NJmikeV]

08:47 AM on 12/16/2008

Me too.

Back in the day it was a funny, edgy, magazine.

It's sad to see that all the humorless people on this site are upset with the cover.

Maybe HuffPo should have included the punch line.

[rabiddog6708]

01:15 AM on 12/16/2008

National Lampoon's Prison Vacation.......Holiday road to the Slammer.

[ILikeH00ters]

12:53 AM on 12/16/2008

That dog on the photo is cute.

[entropy2]

12:38 AM on 12/16/2008

That's not funny, that's sick!

[shockmagog]

02:21 AM on 12/16/2008

http://www.cduniverse.com/images.asp?pid=6261555&cart=816285017&style=music&image=front&title=National+Lampoon+-+That%27s+Not+Funny%2C+That%27s+Sick+CD

[Ramirez]

02:26 AM on 12/16/2008

heh

[wndrwrthg]

11:59 PM on 12/15/2008

Another episode of "True Facts".