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A lot of what made the original Vacation movie so funny was one guy- Doug Kenney.
Kenney had a brilliant comic mind, and is responsible for much of modern humor that's now common. He began in the late 60's, when he became the editor of the Harvard Lampoon, writing what was then very radical humor, full of teen angst and jokes that were totally outside the bounds of the time.
One of the most famous was "Buy this magazine or I'll kill the dog." Back then, it was both shocking and hysterically funny at the same time, and since, it has become a joke used by almost everyone about something. And that was when Kenney was just getting started.
He teamed with Henry Beard, who was just as funny, but gentler, and they went on to create the National Lampoon magazine. Which in turn went on to produce Animal House, written by Kenney, the most popular comedy of all time. Kenney played Stork in the movie.
He died in 1980, when a sea cliff he was standing on crumbled and fell into the ocean in Hawaii. By then, he was approaching burn-out, and like a lot of comedians, had suicidal tendencies, so rumors of suicide still surround him.
Once he was gone, National Lampoon was never the same again. But he changed what we all think is funny forever.
Dead Grandma on top of the car was his idea. His close friend Harold Ramis wrote Vacation, but Kenney contributed some of the funniest bits. He was a great collaborator.
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