"Tell the truth, 30 or 40 years ago did you ever have any concept that you would lay eyes on a book such as this, or that the Third Reich would be a casually approached topic for weird humor fiction ( forget "The Flesh Eaters", "Shock Waves", and "The Frozen Dead")? In those days, Lampoon's "Hitler in Paradise" seemed so riskay!"
No. No, I didn't. A little less than forty years ago I thought I'd reached the height of decadence by using a fake i.d.* to see A Clockwork Orange (rated "X" in 1971). Nowadays I think nothing of reading Razor Wire Pubic Hair at work.
It's 2010 and all the sacred cows have been slain.
"Hey, you kids! Get offa my lawn!"
JSam is referring to the March 1972 issue of National Lampoon, which featured a photo essay entitled "Stranger in Paradise" (description here), and being 16 I thought this was the Funniest. Thing. Ever! Historical note: this was the very first issue of National Lampoon I'd ever seen and 75 cents (plus tax) later my entire concept of humor was forever changed (see Going Too Far by Tony Hendra).
*Actually, even though I had a fake i.d.--a friend's draft card--no one asked to see it. The ticket seller in Charlottesville obviously assumed we were just a couple of dirty hippies from U. VA and didn't bother to check. This gave me a certain cachet-of-cool in high school... for about twenty minutes.
1 comment:
I, too, used a fake ID to see A Clockwork Orange. Barb and I were visiting Becky at Radford, and a couple of her friends at the dorm gave us their driver's licenses to use. Pictures looked absolutely nothing like us. As I recall, Barb didn't get carded but I did (curse of being short, I guess), but the box office person just glanced at it and handed it back. The person in the photo was blond. LOL! Good times.
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