Big Think

Question: Why has the Lampoon created so many great writers?

Josh Lieb: The Lampoon . . . You know I . . . I don’t . . . I think that obviously goes in ways . . . The writers it’s creating right now, I think they’re all good. It’s . . . it’s just a . . . Look you’re at Harvard, so, you know, you’ve got sort of a pretty good pool to choose from. And it’s got this nice building and a sort of sweet setup, so it becomes very attractive. And then it’s got this history. So you know it became very easy to attract sort of talented writers. And then you know when you’re there, you sort of wanna live up to the people that have been there before. I mean that said actually putting out the magazine are not really always that funny. But the . . . there is a competitive nature with the, you know, people on the magazine itself where you’re always sort of trying to better each other and one-up each other. So you know it’s all those rams butting their heads eventually makes you stronger.