# Did the original theatre version of "Animal House" have bare breasts, bare asses & curse words?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 10, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343 "2009-10-10T21:07:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/1 "2009-10-10T21:07:40Z")

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I saw “[Animal House](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Lampoon's_Animal_House)” on DVD last might and was surprised in several scenes where bare female breasts, nipples and rear ends were displayed. I also don’t remember nearly as many four letter words being used in the theatre version as this version had.

Is my memory going wacky, I don’t remember these in the original theatre version?

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/2 "2009-10-10T21:12:08Z")

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As far as I can tell, there is no “added footage” version of the film.

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**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/3 "2009-10-10T21:18:02Z")

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If you saw it on first run at a theater, I wouldn’t be surprised if your memories of that are a little hazy. That’s 30 years ago. Maybe you’ve seen an edited version on television since then and that is the memory you have of a more sanitized version.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/4 "2009-10-10T21:18:08Z")

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> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> Which version of the film were you watching? I’m guessing it was the Double Secret Probation Edition, which does have added footage compared to the original theatrical release.

Not sure I’ll check. I was kind of surprised in the scene where a characters has an angel-devil conscience fight where his devil is telling him to “fuck her brains out” re an unconscious drunk girl. The conversation while the competing sorority girls are masturbating the bad guy in his car seemed more explicit than I remember. The whole thing seemed a lot more hardcore.

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/5 "2009-10-10T21:20:59Z")

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> [@astro](#):
>
> No sure I’ll check. I was kind surprised when one characters angel-devil conscience fight where his devil is telling him to “fuck her brains out” re an unconscious drunk girls. The conversation while the competing sorority girls are masturbating the bad guy in his car seemed more explicit than I remember.

I erred in that posting (which why I edited it).

The DSPE DVD has bonus features which are (or were at the time) unique to it.

Both of those scenes you mentioned are exactly as they were in the original theatrical release.

Here’s the tipoff: The original theatrical release was 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes) long. All VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray releases have also been 109 minutes.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/6 "2009-10-10T21:25:11Z")

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> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> I erred in that posting (which why I edited it).
> 
> The DSPE DVD has bonus features which are (or were at the time) unique to it.
> 
> Both of those scenes you mentioned are exactly as they were in the original theatrical release.
> 
> Here’s the tipoff: The original theatrical release was 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes) long. All VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray releases have also been 109 minutes.

Score 1 for Alzheimer’s.

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**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/7 "2009-10-10T22:47:28Z")

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I saw it in the theater in the original run, and it featured top quality nakedness in the scene where Bluto peeped in the sorority house window. From what I understand, the naked women were on loan from Playboy.

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/8 "2009-10-10T22:57:42Z")

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We have gone so prudish in the last few years–while yet telling ourselves we’ve gone in the opposite direction–that this isn’t really a surprise.

When I was just a wee lass I saw, in a movie theater in the heart of the Bible Belt, a movie with Henry Fonda and Glenn Ford that featured some rather surprising bare-assedness, which I remembered rather well. In fact I think it was kind of the talking point of the month among my junior-high crowd. An IMdB search reveals the movie was probably _The Rounders_. It seems to have been unrated, which most movies were, in 1965. This was the same theatre where I had to disguise myself with lipstick, sunglasses, and a scarf to get in to see _Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf_, which apparently _was_ rated…something that I was too young to see. But the bare-assedness in _The Rounders_ was just fine.

So over the years I began to think this nudity was pretty unexceptional, especially compared to things that came later.

Not too long ago we got it on Netflix as a good western and when _that scene_ came on I was kind of shocked by how explicit it was. Possibly because my 13yo son was watching–but a 13yo in the year it came out would have had no restrictions on seeing this at all.

(I should note that a lot of nudity, etc., goes right by me until I see the movie in question with my kids. _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ comes to mind. I didn’t remember anything overtly sexual about that movie at all, until I watched it with my sons, and then it ALL seemed overtly sexual.)

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/9 "2009-10-10T23:08:13Z")

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All 80s comedies have bare breasts. Quite often it’s entirely random; the main characters will be running down the hallway and bump into a woman wrapped in a towel, knocking her towel off, showing her breasts for a full four frames, and that will be all the nudity there is in the whole movie.

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**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/10 "2009-10-10T23:26:14Z")

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> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> All 80s comedies have bare breasts. Quite often it’s entirely random; the main characters will be running down the hallway and bump into a woman wrapped in a towel, knocking her towel off, showing her breasts for a full four frames, and that will be all the nudity there is in the whole movie.

[nitpick]

Animal House was released in 1978.

[/nitpick]

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**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/11 "2009-10-11T00:21:39Z")

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That’s not really a nitpick. **Sage Rat** just likes talkin’ about boobs. He’s well known for posting in a thread just for the chance to bring up where you can find some boobage in a movie.

You should see what he posted in the Obama/Peace Prize thread.

😃

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/12 "2009-10-11T00:22:27Z")

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“Greg…honey…is it supposed to be this soft?”

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/13 "2009-10-11T00:40:56Z")

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> [@gaffa](#):
>
> I saw it in the theater in the original run, and it featured top quality nakedness in the scene where Bluto peeped in the sorority house window. From what I understand, the naked women were on loan from Playboy.

It also had Donald Sutherland’s bare butt :eek:

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/14 "2009-10-11T01:15:23Z")

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As somebody who saw _Animal House_ in a theatre in 1978 I can assure you that there were bare breasts in the original. That’s the kind of thing a seventeen year old remembers.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/15 "2009-10-11T02:30:11Z")

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There were different edits for different theaters. I saw _Animal House_ in two different theaters in two different cities. In one, there were boobs, Donald Sutherland’s bare ass, and the end of the “Greg…honey…is it supposed to be this soft?” featured Babs ripping off a pair of rubber gloves. All of those were edited in the second version. I’m pretty sure there were some other edits, as well.

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**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/16 "2009-10-11T03:08:23Z")

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> [@astro](#):
>
> Not sure I’ll check. I was kind of surprised in the scene where a characters has an angel-devil conscience fight where his devil is telling him to “fuck her brains out” re an unconscious drunk girl. The conversation while the competing sorority girls are masturbating the bad guy in his car seemed more explicit than I remember. The whole thing seemed a lot more hardcore.

I first saw the film on a BBC or ITV broadcast after the watershed, probably around 1983 or 1984. The “fuck her brains out, squeeze her tits” scene was in there. Belushi seeing titties up on the ladder at the sorority house was in there. And yes, the “Greg, is it supposed to be this soft?” line was in it as well.

As was Donald Sutherland’s bare ass. So I think those were all part of the original release.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/17 "2009-10-11T03:39:35Z")

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> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#):
>
> Belushi seeing titties up on the ladder at the sorority house was in there.

Of course, if you cut this scene, it makes the following scene (where the ladder falls away from the window) much less funny…

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/18 "2009-10-11T05:15:18Z")

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> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> [nitpick]
> 
> Animal House was released in 1978.
> 
> [/nitpick]

I’d still call it an 80s comedy. Styles of movies don’t necessarily begin and end at decade markers. I remember watching The Long Kiss Goodnight in 1996 and thinking to myself that the main reason it failed was because it was an 80s action flick and people didn’t want that any more.

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**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/19 "2009-10-11T07:47:44Z")

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> [@astro](#):
>
> I was kind of surprised in the scene where a characters has an angel-devil conscience fight where his devil is telling him to “fuck her brains out” re an unconscious drunk girl.

I think this scene got cut from some later versions, as it is revealked that the character is ‘only 13’, and some distributors were worried about child porn charges being brought up

> [@](#):
>
> _from the trivia section of the IMDb Animal House entry:_
> 
> By the time home video became widespread, some American obscenity laws forbade showing minors nude in sexual situations - actual or “depicted”. The latter was meant for illicit composite images, but could be construed to mean acting also. The actress was 18 at the time of filming, but when her character announced her age as thirteen, a legally-problematic situation arose. Her bare chest is absent from nearly all home-use copies of the film.

I note that the DSPE DVD has her nudity restored.

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**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-original-theatre-version-of-animal-house-have-bare-breasts-bare-asses-curse-words/513343/20 "2009-10-11T09:38:26Z")

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> [@astro](#):
>
> The conversation while the competing sorority girls are masturbating the bad guy in his car seemed more explicit than I remember. The whole thing seemed a lot more hardcore.

I only recall one sorority girl in that scene. Is there a version floating around where there are two?

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