National Lampoon, who has specialized in goofy sophomoric humor since back in the time when I was a goofy sophomore today announced it has formed an online video comedy network. The announcement, which came in the form of a very top-down, unfunny business-to-business oriented press release.
It is clear the media company is focusing first on distribution. It has a bevy of deals in that direction, including Joost, GoFish, AOL Video and Brightcove. But the web site is pretty traditional and it lacks any social media features.
The National Lampoon is an aging one and by attempting to modernize with a foray into online video, it needs to realize that the words " Ze Frank" has considerably more value these days than do the words "Animal House."