National Lampoon's Doon - Comedic Style

Comedic Style

The story uses a style typical to many parodies and spoofs of the genre, most notably Bored of the Rings, encompassing not only high and sometimes abstruse humor but middle and low as well, through punning references and plays on words designed to either make light of the original characters' names or referencing pop-culture touchpoints.

For example, the galactic development combine CHOAM in the original Dune story becomes NOAMCHOMSKI, an acronym which expands to the name Neutralis Organizational Abba Mercantile Condominium Havatampa Orthonovum Minnehaha Shostakovich Kategorial Imperative – a name whose style mocks that of the equally-impenetrable Combine Honnete Ober Advancer Mercantiles – and is mentioned and expanded on by some characters to the point of compulsion. The Bene Gesserit litany against fear becomes the litany against fun: I must not have fun. Fun is the time-killer.

Another example is the repeated use of the name Jonzun Fillup, the acclaimed architect whose designs the Baron Hardchargin cribs liberally from to create the Shadvlad. This is a reference to Philip Johnson, the influential 20th Century American architect whose controversial postmodern design for the then-AT&T Building (latterly, the Sony Building in New York) included a top reminiscent of a Chippendale bookcase. This too is transferred to the story, as Baron Hardchargin lavishly praises Fillup's Gothic entabulature at the north pole of the Antares Teleport and Telepath's headquarters planet.

Other references, such as the word Mahn-t'vani (a play on the easy-listening music composer Mantovani) and the name Serutan (with reference to its famous "Natures spelled backwards" tagline) may seem a bit dated, but there are references to such things as the hokey-pokey and Tito Puente which still hold currency in modern culture.

Overall, the arc of the story is respected and held closely to throughout. In the style of the original, quotes from the Princess Serutan's works (amongst them, The Portable Mauve'Bib, In My Father's House, In His Room, And Especially Rummaging Through His Junk Drawer, and No More Princess Nice Guy: The Princess Serutan Diaries) lead off each chapter. Dune was a story about spice power; Doon is a story about beer power. Most notable is the successful transition of Herbert's style into comedy, as can be referenced by Pall Agamemnides as he surveys his situation prior to the relocation:

This realization focused within him in a sudden sparkflash computation, and in the clear brilliance of that illumination, the boy Pall understood a profoundness. His life, hitherto a child's plaything, devoid of direction–seemingly! Or had there in fact always been a plan–a plan within a plan within a plan (whatever that meant (whatever that meant (whatever that meant)))?–was now encompassed by a terrible purpose. He knew the meaning of the word terrible, and he knew the meaning of the world purpose. And therefore he understood deeply the meaning of "terrible purpose" Unless he, in the solitude of his deeply brain-filled mind, misunderstood this revelation, and was in fact confronted with a "terrible papoose." What could that mean?

The native population of Doon, the Freedmenmen, are characterized as intense, somewhat overweight beer addicts, steeped in tradition, mysticism, and ritual, with a language of their own–Varietese, a direct play on the famous signature style of the entertainment-industry newspaper (The famously-misquoted headline, Sticks Nix Hick Pix, is rendered as an expression of resignation, along the lines of "What can one do?"). The stillsuit of the original story becomes the Freedmenmen sweatsuit, meant to induce sweating to reduce the accumulation of excess body weight brought on by constant beer consumption. The sandworms (also known as Maker and Shai-Hulud in the original) become giant pretzels, also known by the natives as Brewer and Schmai-gunug, a term the glossary claims is rendered from a Yiddish phrase meaning "to browse and fiddle around and window-shop enough".

An advertisement in the back of the book promised conceptual sequels, including Doon Meshugganah; Men, Women, Children, Pets of Doon; Lord God Help Us, Another Sequel to Doon; The Doon Reference Book, Atlas, and Rhyming Dictionary; and The Doon Catalogue of Quality Menswear for Dad 'n' Lad..