K-School Lampoon Debuts

When students at the Kennedy School of Government picked up their copy of Agenda, the school's listings calendar, a notice for a speech by Union Carbide officials on population control in Third World countries tipped off the bureaucrats-to-be that it wasn't the real McCoy.

No, this wasn't another boffo prank by that laugh riot of a magazine, the Harvard Lampoon. The fake calendar was the work of the newest group of pranksters to hit Harvard with a punch line, the K-School Lampoon.

Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Bleich, a fourth year Kennedy student, said the magazine is the product of "a harmless bunch of people who think that it is about time Harvard had a humor magazine."

According to Bleich, the magazine will come out two or three times a year, but will be supplemented by additional publications. The Agenda parody was the first of these extra publications.

The fake calendar began with relatively straight-forward listings, which according to Bleich, some students mistook for actual listings. One entry announcing a party at Dean Graham T. Allison's '62 house had some students ordering food a week in advance.

Those students who read to the end of the Agenda, however, found the announcements becoming less and less credible. One listing proclaimed that Merrill-Lynch would be conducting interviews for unattainable positions.

The Agenda was only released in the Kennedy School area, Bleich explained, because it contained many in-jokes. Also, its main purpose was not to amuse or confuse, but to convince the Kennedy School student government that the magazine staff was serious in its intentions.

Bleich said the group lost $133 on the Agenda parody. But he added that the publication served its purpose as the student government has agreed to fund all future Lampoon works.

When asked whether the new magazine would be aimed at the Harvard Lampoon audience, Bleich answered, "No, both of those guys graduated last year."

Ned B. Hodgman '86 of the Harvard Lampoon claimed no knowledge of the alternate Lampoon. "I'm sure they're a fun bunch of guys," he said. He then showed that famous dry Lampoon wit by adding, "We'll be fire-bombing their office soon."

He also noted that the K-School punsters may be infringing upon the Lampoon copyright. The Kennedy students, however, remained unconcerned. "Our magazine is going to be funny," said one K-School Lampoon staffmember. "It'll be totally different."

The first issue of the KSG Lampoon will be out in November, but Bleich promises other parodies of Harvard publications before then