Reddit User May Have Solved A ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas’ Mystery

A Reddit user may have finally figured out how much Clark Griswold was expecting in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Clark’s holiday plans get thrown out the window after a series of unanticipated and unfortunate events, but he looks forward to a bonus check as his silver lining.

Unfortunately, the bonus came in way less than Clark expected, and instead of the money he intended to build a backyard pool with, his boss Frank Shirley— played by Brian Doyle-Murray signed him up for some Jelly of the Month club.

Back-to-back bummers

To Clark’s displeasure, his cousin Catherine and her family, which includes her wild husband, Eddie, show up unexpectedly. This is followed by mishaps like the festive turkey getting ruined, the cat getting electrocuted, a squirrel in the huge tree which eventually caught fire, and worse; their Christmas lights causing a city-wide power outage.

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The consecutive issues get capped by the disappointing report Clark receives from his boss, who adds him to some membership. Fans were curious to know how high the bonus could have been for Clark to build a pool with and even joked about flying people down to try it out “if there’s enough left over.”

How much was the bonus?

According to Althart, installing a fiberglass below-ground pool in 1989 was about $20,000, and the cost of flying people to Chicago was about $4,000. It is likely that Clark looked forward to $24,000, which was 20%-25% of the annual salary of a chemical engineer in the late ’80s.

The Reddit user speculated that since Clark had direct interaction with the company’s CEO, he was a senior manager or director earning up to $80,000 hence his bonus can be deemed realistic. On the contrary, the membership worth $249.99 today was only $100 at the time; however, it goes to show why Clark was so devastated about it.