A Futile and Stupid Gesture

A Futile and Stupid Gesture is a 2018 comedy-drama about Doug Kenney, a writer and performer who co-founded National Lampoon and helped shape American comedy in the 1970s. The film follows Kenney from his student days, when he and classmate Henry Beard turn a campus humor magazine into a national publication that draws complaints for its satirical, taboo-breaking material, through the expansion of the National Lampoon name into film production and the comedy hits that followed. Kenney's own life moves between professional triumph and personal difficulty.

David Wain directed the film, his sixth feature after Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, Role Models, Wanderlust and They Came Together, and it precedes Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (2026). Michael Colton and John Aboud wrote the screenplay. Will Forte plays Kenney, with Domhnall Gleeson as Henry Beard, Martin Mull as an older version of Kenney, and Neil Casey, Jon Daly and Nelson Franklin appearing as figures from the era. The production had a budget of about 10 million dollars and a large credited cast and crew.

Audience response has been modest: on IMDb the film holds 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 19,000 votes, and on TMDB it has 6.5 out of 10 from 384 votes. A critics' rating of 6.3 out of 10 from 43 reviews places it close to those audience scores, suggesting a mixed but not dismissive reception.