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Tony Hendra (above, with an Ann Coulter look-alike) has published a parody newspaper called My Wall Street Journal. |
Comedy Notes
Where the Journal meets the Post
Writers for the Onion and "The Daily Show" could learn a thing or two from Tony Hendra. As an editor and writer with National Lampoon in the 1970s and Spy magazine in the '80s, Hendra developed a reputation as a vicious satirist in print. He did the same thing on TV in the '80s as a producer of "Spitting Image." And as an actor/comedian he is perhaps best known for sending up rock 'n' roll as blustering manager Ian Faith in "This Is Spinal Tap."
Now Hendra has returned to the newsstands with My Wall Street Journal, a tabloid paper attacking one of his old favorite targets. He first parodied the publication 26 years ago with former Journal contributor David Blum. When the pair saw media mogul Rupert Murdoch take control of the Journal, they decided it was time for another issue.
"The sort of design and comic premise is that we would show The Wall Street Journal disintegrating into the New York Post," says Hendra, "and that actually sort of happened. But we're not really parodying either of those publications, I don't think."
Hendra prefers to call his publication a "deliberate tragedy," taking satirical aim at Murdoch's media empire. And Hendra's Journal has been eerily prophetic. A short piece by Patricia Marx had Murdoch's
Most reminiscent of Hendra's pointed satire from his Lampoon days is his piece on the hot-button biofuel issue, "Poor Nations Eating U.S. To A Standstill: We Need Biofuel, They Want Dinner" (written under an unprintable pseudonym). "It suddenly became a huge issue, which, of course, it is," says Hendra. "I was quite proud of the punch line of that, actually: 'They have no bread, let them eat each other.' " Information on My Wall Street Journal can be found at wsjparody.com.
The parody's writing staff includes such familiar names as comedian Richard Belzer, columnist Joe Queenan, and Monty Python's Terry Jones, as well as former Harvard Lampoon president Andy Borowitz and Pulitzer-winning former Boston Globe cartoonist Paul Szep. It also includes some heirs to the Lampoon's satirical throne in "Daily Show" writers Steve Bodow and Jeff Kreisler, and Todd Hanson of the Onion.
The younger writers got to work with a master, but Hendra says he learned something from them as well. The headlines in My Wall Street Journal are patterned after those Hendra read in the Onion's historical survey "Our Dumb Century," which he says impressed Hendra so much he immediately contacted the paper. "I hadn't laughed that hard since the Lampoon, to be quite honest," he says.
Having written so many over the years, Hendra acknowledges that he is "parodied out," although he would like to develop a website that regularly satirizes the financial community the way the Onion does straight news. "Coming back to do this, which I hadn't done for a long time, it was just a wonderful feeling," he says. "I'm good at this. It's sort of what I do for a living."
Around town
Erin Judge hosts Mike Bent, Baratunde Thurston, and others tonight at the Comedy Studio. Internet conference ROFLcon is at MIT tonight and tomorrow with representatives from such humorous websites as Homestar Runner, Jibjab, and Chuck Norris Facts. Eddie Izzard kicks off his "Stripped" tour at the Orpheum Theatre with a three-night stand starting Monday. Air guitar champion William Ocean auditions for five spots in his air band Tuesday at Church. Aaron Karo is at the Comedy Connection Thursday. Kathy Griffin plays the Lowell Memorial Auditorium Thursday. Showcase Cinemas kicks off a new comedy series Thursday at the Revere, Randolph, Woburn, and Millbury locations.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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