"The Lampoon tends to make repeated oblations to the humor deities of past generations," says Theodore P. Friend '85.

Former President O'Brien also doesn't see the trend among graduates to be an entirely positive one.

"Because writing comedy is now a viable career, and there's need for people to write funny stuff there's a danger of the Lampoon becoming a prevent processional kind of place."

But William L. Cakley '38, a Lampy newcomer, argues that me magazine does not seem paraprofessional adding that the worship of Hollywood reflects the success of a few graduates more than the true ambitions of most undergraduates.

O'Brien says that the trend among graduates away from straight prose writing and toward work in visual communications reflects a necessity as much as a choice.

"There aren't as many places people can go to support themselves as prose writers, magazines aren't doing so well," says O' Brien. "The National Lampoon used to be an alternative, but now it's an obscene farce. The demand now is for people who can write a funny script or fill a half an hour of TV."

O'Brien adds, "Many of us, recent grads too, would love to continue writing prose comedy, but there's no market for it. The Lampoon is giving us the opportunity to do something we might not be able to do later."

No one knows exactly where the magazine is going next. Writers and artists seem dissatisfied with the old forms of expression though they have yet to develop new ones, MeCormack says.

"Undergraduates here convince themselves that everything they do is new while graduates believe that everything has been done before," he adds.

"I think they're unsure of where to go and are groping like primates for a new tomorrow," he says.

Camille M. Caesar contributed to the reporting of this article.