It Would Be Futile and Stupid Not to Watch the Trailer for Netflix’s A Futile and Stupid Gesture

Will Forte will play National Lampoon founder Doug Kenney in Netflix’s forthcoming biopic, A Futile and Stupid Gesture, and now you can get your first look at his performance.

Directed by David Wain, and produced by Peter Principato and Jonathan Stern, the film will chronicle the rise of one of the biggest names in American satire. It also stars Domhnall Gleeson, Joel McHale, Matt Walsh and many more prominent figures in comedy. Martin Mull will play the narrator of the film, who appears to be an older version of Kenney that never existed. Wain was quoted by EW as saying, on the impact of Kenney on the modern comedy landscape: “You could argue that Doug was the spark plug of [the ’70s comedy revolution]. He was a real inventor of something that has had deep and wide lasting value for anybody who enjoys or makes comedy.”

It certainly looks like the film will also take a hard look at the excesses of Kenney’s life, specifically at the substance abuse that may have contributed to his death in 1980. He was known for his heavy cocaine usage and for joking about committing suicide, by the end. You can see Mull saying that a lot of his comedy career was really just an excuse to party in the trailer, which you can watch above.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture premieres on Netflix on Jan. 26, 2018. See what else is headed to the streamer in January right here.