Labor Day, 1969. Two recent college graduates move to New York to edit a new magazine called National Lampoon. Over the next decade, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney, along with fellow satirists Michael O'Donoghue and P.J. O'Rourke, popularized a smart, caustic, ironic brand of humor that has become the dominant voice of American comedy. Tracing its influence, Ellin Stein notes how it led to Saturday Night Live and the film Animal House, while serving as a training ground for Bill Murray, John Belushi, and Chevy Chase.