Animal House is the film that put the satirical college newspaper National Lampoon on the map and launched them as a production company. While the filmmakers struggled to find a studio that was willing to greenlight such a raunchy and irreverent company, the success of Animal House proved to producers that the work of National Lampoon had a large and rapt audience.
National Lampoon started in 1970 and existed until 1998. Initially, it was a magazine spinoff of the Harvard Lampoon. The magazine often featured satirical stories, characters, and cartoons. Many of the characters and plot points in Animal House were taken directly from stories written for the magazine. After Animal House, the magazine-turned-production company released other raunchy comedies such as National Lampoon's Vacation, National Lampoon's European Vacation, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, National Lampoon's Senior Trip, and National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Some of these films were released by the production company after the magazine had already folded.
An article about the magazine for NPR states, "Meyerowitz says that by the time the magazine was nearing its end in 1990, it was mainly nudity -- but he wanted to remember it for its beginnings as a smart magazine that left its mark on both American culture and its contributors." More recently the brand, continued through the production company, has struggled to maintain its revered reputation in the comedy world, and started greenlighting worse and worse projects, strapped financially and creatively. Dan Laikin, the company's chief executive officer, went to jail for stock inflation. In an article for Vanity Fair, Benjamin Wallace writes, "Having had plenty of time in prison to analyze his Lampoon experience, Laikin said he now regrets not focusing more on content earlier. He acknowledges that he was a deal junkie, but to this day he maintains that the company had turned a corner, and that had he not been indicted, the story would be a very different one to tell. He still thinks National Lampoon has potential waiting to be unlocked."
