“Did you say ‘over?’ ” the character played by John Belushi asked in “National Lampoon’s Animal House” in 1978. “Nothing’s over till we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no!”

It was arguably the high point for both the movie and National Lampoon itself, once a comedic standard-bearer that for most of the last two decades has run on little more than fumes, licensing its name to dozens of movies that failed spectacularly while producing few of its own. The company has not published the magazine that first made it famous in nearly 10 years, the New York Times reports.

“The National Lampoon, once a brand name above nearly all others in comedy, has become shorthand for pathetic frat boy humor,” an Associated Press review of “Van Wilder 2,” a movie made using the company’s name, said last year. Added Variety, “The four-years-in-the-making, badly recycled (not to mention awful) sequel might stain the honor of the Lampoon label if it hadn’t already produced several even worse films.”

But now, like the history-challenged Mr. Belushi rallying his fraternity brothers, National Lampoon is trying to escape its doldrums. Operating from new offices on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, the company will again make original films, including the first one it has produced in 18 years, “National Lampoon’s Bag Boy,” which will be released this year. The movie is about grocery store bagging competitions and will star Dennis Farina and Brooke Shields, among others.

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