The Mona Gorilla Speaks!

There was a time when National Lampoon was one of my favorite publications. I'm not sure what makes one a suitable target audience for National Lampoon, but certainly one cannot be squeamish about references to sex, violence and all manner of other things which have at times been considered forces at work against the moral turpitude of the nation itself. I think one also has to have been reared on MAD and Cracked magazines, which for all their allured and outstanding craftsmanship, are sophomoric excursions into satire which nibble but rarely bite down. National Lampoon bit down.

National Lampoon was willing to "go there" so to speak. At its peak the magazine was rambunctious but still filled with a hidden zeal to make life as we know it better, though I'm sure the perpetrators of the magazine would deny. The best and most effective satire points out the often tragic failures of society and holds them up for ridicule, arguably to entertain, but also to bring about change.

Mona Gorilla is lightweight compared to much that was exposed in the periodical, but even in her skyward glance we see society's relationship to "great art" catch fire and begin to burn away. To read more about how this iconic image came to be read what the artist Rick Meyerwitz has to say here.

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