National Lampoon's Vacation

John Hughes penned this outrageous romp about one of the most natural family activities in the world, vacations. National Lampoon's Vacation is the title movie that spurred a whole series of vacation-esque movies including Vegas, European, and Christmas vacation sequels and prequels. But Vacation started it all. I remember watching this movie for the first time with my father and hearing Holiday Road being played in the background. I think we were in Colorado skiing or trying to ski and I had my gameboy in hand, Pokemon Red inserted of course.

Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) is a pure-hearted American father who just wants to take his family on the best vacation possible, a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Walley World amusement park. Hilarity ensues on the cross country roadtrip that brings family together and breaks them apart, and drags them back together again.

Clark reminds me of my own father. He works hard for his money and puts it into his family. I'm actually rescinding my first statement, my father does not share any similarities with Clark Griswald, my Dad is better. Clark Griswald cooks awful hamburgers, prides himself with his new puke green station wagon, steals money from Western saloons. His station wagon is bigger then most elephants and rides so low to the ground, it's bottom gets scratched when it turns.

The Griswald's get themselves mixed up in the funniest and most compromising positions. In St. Louis, they get their hubcaps stolen by vandals while Clark tries to pay off passerbys for directions. In the desert, Clark drives the car off the road and allows his son to have a few sips of beer which he soon polishes off. Clark forgets he tied a dog to his rear bumper and drives away for a few miles before a cop stops him. Finally, the Griswalds arrive at Walley World only to find the park closed and Clark on his last nerve. He buys a BB Gun and breaks into the theme park, enjoying rides with his security guard hostage (John Candy) and his family.

Clark does stupid things that make people laugh. He tries to provide for his family, despite his constant failure to produce positive results. What the audience understands, though, is his motivation. He is a family man who wants to achieve that American dream and be able to share happiness with his family. But because he constantly fails at gaining this dream, the audience laughs...because it is human nature to laugh at other people failing. Also, people like to laugh at other people getting hurt. On Barstoolsports, there is a video of protesters in Egypt getting run over by a speeding truck, which I'm assuming is there for laughs.

Anywho, I digress. Harold Ramis made a real winner with National Lampoon's Vacation. It was the starting point for so many movies of the comedic genre. NLV, I salute you and say, " Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes...or perhaps you don't want to see the second largest ball on twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away." Thank Mr. Hughes and Mr. Ramis. Thank you.