Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf

Henry Beard founded the National Lampoon along with Doug Kenney and Rob Hoffmann. Prior to National Lampoon, Beard collaborated with Kenney at the Harvard Lampoon during the late 1960s, producing nationally distributed parodies of Life and Time magazines and a book-length parody of The Lord of the Rings called Bored of the Rings. Since leaving National Lampoon, Beard has authored and co-authored over 30 humor books. Christopher Cerf is an author, record and TV producer, composer-lyricist, semi-bestselling humorist, and co-founder and president of the educational media production company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., where he co-created and served as Co-Executive Producer of the multiple award-winning children's literacy show, "Between the Lions," which recently completed its 10th season on PBS. Cerf has won three Emmys and two Grammys for his musical contributions to "Sesame Street" (for which he has written over 300 songs since the show's debut in 1970); was a senior editor at Random House, where he worked with such diverse authors as George Plimpton, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, and Dr. Seuss; and was a charter contributing editor of National Lampoon. He has also won two Emmys for outstanding writing in children's television. In 2010, Cerf was awarded the Harold W. McGraw Prize for his contributions to American education.