One of the pitfalls of the biopic genre is the lack of potential for a surprise ending. When cursory knowledge of a film’s subject doesn’t betray their ultimate fate, it will often be telegraphed by their story being told in flashback. Kudo’s then to the makers of this biopic who, in keeping with Doug Kenney’s brand of humour, have cleverly upended such preconceptions.

Though modern-day Kenney concedes at the start of this biopic that we have probably never heard of him, he nevertheless guides us through this look back at his major accomplishments. Starting at Harvard “because that's where the fun stuff was”, Kenney teams up with Henry Beard on the university’s publication Harvard Lampoon. After graduation, Kenney convinces Beard to start their own magazine, National Lampoon, with the promise that they will walk away when they stop having fun. That point in time happens to coincide with a decline in the film’s fun quotient as well.

Which is surprising, for we haven’t even got to Animal House (1978) and Caddyshack (1980). Yet the humour found in offending parents and publishers inexplicably doesn’t translate to making of these films. Perhaps it’s because that, by then, Kenney’s life has spiralled so much out of control that his endearing aimlessness has lost its appeal.

Regardless, the biopic’s trajectory too closely mirrors that of its subject - starts off strong, has occasional flashes of brilliance, and then just sort of peters out.