A Futile and Stupid Gesture is a 2018 American biographical comedy drama film based on Josh Karp's book of the same title, directed by David Wain, and written by Michael Colton and John Aboud.

[2] The film's timeline stretches from 1964 to 1980 and opens with Douglas Kenney and his classmate Henry Beard celebrating the release of their book, Bored of the Rings, with the Harvard Lampoon staff.

National Lampoon expands to an hour radio show attracting more great comedians like Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner.

In 1980, at age 33, Kenney's body is found at the bottom of a Hawai‘i cliff (with his glasses and shoes neatly stacked at the top edge).

The movie ends with Beard starting a food fight at the wake (just like at the Harvard Lampoon years ago).

The site's consensus reads, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture entertainingly recreates the birth of an influential comedic movement, even if it struggles to cover its creative ground.

[9] Writing for TheWrap, Todd Gilchrist opined, "Even if the casting choices in portraying some of iconic talents in Kenney's orbit are occasionally questionable – a detail the film gleefully acknowledges – there's something delightful about watching actors known for comedy now try to capture the sound or energy of the performers who inspired them.

"[10] Ellin Stein of Slate stated, "There's a sense that the filmmakers have bitten off more than they can chew by trying to cram both the biography and the panoramic overview into one feature.