The Harvard Lampoon

The Harvard Lampoon The Harvard Lampoon is a collegiate humor magazine founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It has influenced American satire through ties to publications, writers, and performers associated with The New Yorker, Mad (magazine), National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, and The Onion. The organization has produced alumni who later contributed to The New York Times, Time (magazine), The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Esquire (magazine), and film and television industries.

History

Founded in 1876 by undergraduate students at Harvard University, the Lampoon emerged amid late 19th-century campus literary societies and publications such as The Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Advocate. Early members responded to periodicals like Punch (magazine) and writers including Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lewis Carroll by crafting satire oriented toward campus life and national culture. Through the 20th century the Lampoon intersected with generational shifts marked by events such as World War I, World War II, the Roaring Twenties, and the Civil Rights Movement, while alumni entered institutions like Time (magazine), Life (magazine), Esquire (magazine), The New Yorker, National Lampoon, and Mad (magazine). Ties to Hollywood grew as lampoonists worked on projects tied to studios such as Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures and with figures who later collaborated with directors like Woody Allen, Billy Wilder, and Mel Brooks.

Organization and Membership

Membership historically drew from student leaders within Harvard University residential houses and academic clubs including the Harvard Glee Club and debating societies; selection often occurred through private processes similar to other collegiate secret societies like Skull and Bones and final clubs tied to Harvard Square. The Lampoon operates as an independent student organization with officers, editorial boards, and committees; alumni networks maintain connections to entities such as Satruday Night Live cast and writing staffs, production companies like Lorne Michaels’s Broadway Video, and publishing houses such as Random House and Penguin Books. Many members have gone on to careers at outlets including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic (magazine), and GQ.

Publications and Parodies

The Lampoon publishes a flagship magazine featuring satire, cartoons, and parody essays; historically this output paralleled satirical works from Punch (magazine), Punch and Judy, and American humorists like Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker. Notable parody projects targeted major national titles and cultural artifacts, producing spoofs reminiscent of Time (magazine), TV Guide, Sports Illustrated, Vogue (magazine), and The New Yorker. The Lampoon’s parody books and special issues connected with comedians and writers who later contributed to National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and late-night franchises associated with David Letterman and Jon Stewart. Parody issues have drawn attention from publishers such as HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Houghton Mifflin.

Notable Alumni

Alumni include writers, editors, comedians, and filmmakers who worked with organizations and projects such as The New Yorker, Mad (magazine), National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, 30 Rock, The Office (U.S. TV series), Seinfeld, and studios like Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. Individual alumni have been associated with figures and institutions including John Updike, Conan O'Brien, B.J. Novak, Colin Jost, Andy Borowitz, Robert Benchley, George Plimpton, William S. Burroughs, Franklin Pierce Adams, Alan Jay Lerner, Doug Kenney, P.J. O'Rourke, Michael O'Donoghue, Henry Beard, E.B. White, John Ashbery, Roger Angell, Christopher Buckley, A. Whitney Brown, David Rakoff, Rex Reed, Harlan Ellison, Seth Meyers, Bobby Moynihan, Simon Rich, Nat Hentoff, Garrett Graff, Kaitlyn Tiffany, Ben Bradley, Fred Gwynne, Noël Coward, Ben Hecht, Tom Lehrer, Christopher Guest, Mary McCarthy, Paul Rudnick, Thomas Meehan, John Lithgow, and Bret Stephens.

Lampoon House and Traditions

The Lampoon House, an architecturally distinctive building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been described in relation to local sites such as Harvard Square and neighboring Harvard facilities including Memorial Hall and Widener Library. The house functions as clubhouse, archive, and social center for lampoonists and hosts emblematic traditions—private ceremonies, intercollegiate events, touring alumni gatherings connected to cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and fundraising linked to publishing initiatives with partners such as Random House and HarperCollins. Architectural and artistic features invite comparison to other storied clubhouses like Bohemian Grove lodges and New England college society houses.

Category:Harvard University