# I just watched Animal House and I didn't like it. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 6, 2017, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733 "2017-12-06T19:21:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/21 "2017-12-06T21:50:41Z")
I imagine that a lot depends on the circumstances wherein you first viewed it. Rent it and watch it at home by yourself? Yeah, it’s going to be a flop in that case. But if the first time you saw it was surrounded by a bunch of your college friends, then of course you’re going to enjoy it, no matter how good or bad it was, and that first viewing is going to color your subsequent impression of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/22 "2017-12-06T21:57:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I imagine that a lot depends on the circumstances wherein you first viewed it. Rent it and watch it at home by yourself? Yeah, it’s going to be a flop in that case. But if the first time you saw it was surrounded by a bunch of your college friends, then of course you’re going to enjoy it, no matter how good or bad it was, and that first viewing is going to color your subsequent impression of it. Depends on your college friends. If you’re a typical clueless extraverted over-hormoned American college male surrounded by others of the same ilk, probably yes. If you’re an introverted intellectual college woman surrounded by same, probably no. Males are actually only half the demographic of filmgoers, even if they are the dominant voices on the Dope, and this is a juvenile male-oriented film. So much depends on your point of view. None of it was amusing to me. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/23 "2017-12-06T22:02:11Z")
Well, what were you expecting OP? An orgy? Because, I believe they specifically said: “It’s not going to be an orgy”. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/24 "2017-12-06T22:13:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Loved it then, still like it today. A product of its time, but so are we all. Plus, I remember the stories the movie was based on when they came out in National Lampoon. Stop writing thoughts I was planning to write, dammit! This is like the 6,458th time you did that. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/25 "2017-12-06T22:15:01Z")
“Every spring…the toilets…explode.” It came out the summer I left for college, so it hit me at precisely the right time. I enjoyed it in 1978, but haven’t seen it again in over 30 years. I also had read most of the jokes in issues of the ‘Poon and the Yearbook. It got old pretty fast with all the “Senator Blukarsky” posters for sale, and the marketers for the film company actually hosted a toga party on the Yale campus. A friend and I wore Indian wall hangings instead of sheets, and clown makeup. Pride of place, though, went to the guys who came in coats and ties, chanting “Coat and Tie! Coat and Tie!” when they wanted the kids to chant “Toga!” It was a fine opportunity for the “fuck you and your corporate horseshit” student contingent to meet and mingle. (We DID appreciate the free liquor, though) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/26 "2017-12-06T22:16:16Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I think ones attitude towards frat house culture modifies your viewing of it. > > At the time the movie came out frats were dying off. The writers really hated frats and wanted to put the final nail in the coffin. > > So it’s a dumping on frats movie. Chris Miller, the writer of the original stories and someone who loved every minute of his frat experience (read his memoir, The Real Animal House: The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie), was one of the writers of the screenplay as well. I don’t believe frats were dying out in 1978 either. They suffered a downturn a decade earlier but bounced back after counterculture attitudes faded in the early 1970s. Look at the _National Lampoon_. By 1978 it had lost all its early intelligence and became a frat culture mag. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/27 "2017-12-06T22:20:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The writers really hated frats and wanted to put the final nail in the coffin. Where did you read this? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/28 "2017-12-06T22:39:59Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Chris Miller, the writer of the original stories and someone who loved every minute of his frat experience (read his memoir, The Real Animal House: The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie), was one of the writers of the screenplay as well. > > I don’t believe frats were dying out in 1978 either. They suffered a downturn a decade earlier but bounced back after counterculture attitudes faded in the early 1970s. Look at the _National Lampoon_. By 1978 it had lost all its early intelligence and became a frat culture mag. When Animal House came out there were toga parties on campuses. It fit in with changes in rock music at the time too. The guitar smashing was emblematic. It was a punk movie in a way, but we don’t have chronology anymore. It was definitely a way to mainstream some punk statements for second adopters. I recomend those who can get a copy of the 1964 High School Yearbook parody, which was the inspiration for it. I still have my original. It was from the heyday of the poon. It’s the densest concentration of smart jokes I have ever seen. PJ o’rourke appears in drag. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/29 "2017-12-06T22:46:12Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > … > I still love the movie, but mostly for it’s nostalgia. It was _ **so** _ groundbreaking at the time - now it just seems tame. > But, yeah - both the Delts and the Alphas were assholes, in their own way. Well, sort of. But the Delta house was very inclusive. They took in the misfits, the nerds, the losers, even a guy who appeared to be disabled. They had fun and were loving toward each other. The Alphas were scary… like Masonic Illuminati or something. > [@Leo\_Krupe](#): > > I agree it’s not aged well. I must’ve seen it 30-40 times between its initial release and 1985, but as I think about it now, I can’t see the humor. But in those days, it was great. And it still has great lines, particularly from Wormer (“Who dumped a truckload of Fizzies in the swim meet?”/ “It’s time someone put their foot down, and that foot is me!”, etc.) > … > [@silenus](#): > > Loved it then, still like it today. A product of its time, but so are we all. Plus, I remember the stories the movie was based on when they came out in National Lampoon. Ditto to all of these. I’ve seen the movie at least a dozen times, and, frankly I love it. I’m able to put myself back in its time and not critique it by today’s better taste and standards. I went to a Catholic women’s college, so no fraternities, and no sororities either. This movie was pure fantasy in my world. When I’m trying to describe a situation when a project is screwed up, broken down, and going nowhere, I still often refer to that [scene](https://youtu.be/Q1v0jB3OswM)at the end where the bogus drum major leads the band down a dead-end street and they just start crashing into each other, trombone slides bending, drums getting holes poked in them–but they just keep on marching, no matter what. It never occurs to anyone to stop… How many projects have I worked on like that…? I love so many scenes in this movie. I’m glad I was once naive and non-judgmental enough to find it hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/30 "2017-12-06T22:46:35Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I don’t like ‘Blazing Saddles’ either. Both that and ‘Animal House’ were considered groundbreaking, comedically. To me they’re just slapstick and cheap shots. But hey, to each his own. Blazing Saddles is maybe Mel Brooks best movie. I never heard those two movies in the same conversation. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/31 "2017-12-06T22:46:45Z")
I was in my mid teens when it came out and I thought it was hilarious. I doubt that it would hold up for me and I have no intention of finding out. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/32 "2017-12-06T22:54:32Z")
In some closet, I still have my fraternity jacket with the name “Son of Flounder” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/33 "2017-12-06T22:59:48Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > The movie has not aged well. Attitudes have changed towards just about everything in it. I suppose in 30-40 years, one of two things will happen. Either today’s humor will be seen as terribly offensive or else we’ll have circled back around and humor from ~2020 will be seen as corny and tame like 1950s Hays Code era. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/34 "2017-12-06T23:01:06Z")
Great then. Great now. Great forever. Same with _Blazing Saddles_, _The Blues Brothers_ and _Young Frankenstein._ Fuck all this retroactive offense. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/35 "2017-12-06T23:06:27Z")
Yeah, the guys who wrote Animal House did not “hate frats.” They hated the old-money, pretentious, uptight WASP frats. You know, the kind depicted as the villains in the movie. And maybe at the time that movie was set, those were the dominant kind of fraternities on campuses. Maybe it was more about business networking and hobnobbing with a moneyed elite, country-club set. Or maybe it was just a bunch of drunken debauchery behind a facade of upper-class Ivy League WASP manners. But in any case, it’s those manners that the irreverent writers of Animal House hated, not the concept of frats itself. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/36 "2017-12-06T23:07:33Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Blazing Saddles is maybe Mel Brooks best movie. I never heard those two movies in the same conversation. I thought \*Blazing Saddles \*was juvenile crap. On the other hand, I thought (and still think) \*Young Frankenstein \*might be the funniest move every made. To each their own. Oh, and I thought, and still think, \*Animal House \*is pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/37 "2017-12-06T23:24:09Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > So [is this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V_hCqO6UQs) IMHO. All the more so when I learned Stephen Bishop( the guitar player )had no idea what was about to happen. _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ paid tribute to this scene with Geordi and Worf. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vnlKo_tmG40/hqdefault.jpg "THE funniest star trek scene, EVER!!!!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnlKo_tmG40) ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/38 "2017-12-06T23:26:55Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Depends on your college friends. If you’re a typical clueless extraverted over-hormoned American college male surrounded by others of the same ilk, probably yes. If you’re an introverted intellectual college woman surrounded by same, probably no. > > Males are actually only half the demographic of filmgoers, even if they are the dominant voices on the Dope, and this is a juvenile male-oriented film. So much depends on your point of view. None of it was amusing to me. When this movie came out, I was an introverted, intellectual college woman doing grad research in Finland. I saw it with a couple other Americans studying in Finland, a mix of men and women. We all laughed. None of the Finns in the audience laughed at anything, which somehow made it even funnier to us, and we laughed even harder. Yes, we knew it was sexist, racist, stupid humor, but we did not see it as approving sexism, racism, or stupidity. More as a critique of them. We applauded the spoof of frats, as none of us liked them or belonged to them, and the silliness. We really needed a dose of silliness then. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/39 "2017-12-06T23:34:46Z")
Most of _Blazing Saddles_ was great, but the ending where they broke the fourth wall just didn’t work for me. _Young Frankenstein_, on the other hand, was great from start to finish. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/40 "2017-12-06T23:38:56Z")
> [@Tapiotar](#): > > …Yes, we knew it was sexist, racist, stupid humor, but we did not see it as approving sexism, racism, or stupidity. More as a critique of them. We applauded the spoof of frats, as none of us liked them or belonged to them, and the silliness. We really needed a dose of silliness then. And now. The movie was GOOFY. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733.md?page=3)