# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/121 "2017-12-09T02:22:51Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > “Eric Stratton, rush chairman. Damn glad to meet ya.” Hi, that was Eric Stratton, rush chairman, and he was damn glad to meet you. ---
**Author:** ![Grumbacher\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Grumbacher\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumbacher_Red)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/122 "2017-12-09T02:30:40Z")
Animal House will always be funnier to the people who were in high school and college when it came out, of which I am one. I found it funny because I felt I was laughing at my parents’ generation, who were in college in the 60s. Just as the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton and The Little Rascals are the most funny to the people who were young when those movies were in their heyday. As others have pointed out, comedy styles go in cycles and you can sanitize it to the point that it isn’t funny anymore and then it swings back. The point of a raucous comedy is to laugh at stereotypes you know are bad, but finding humor in “isms” doesn’t make you a bad person or even complicit in it. M_A_S\*H (the movie) is horribly sexist, but damn it’s funny! In Animal House when Bluto is on the ladder spying on the girl in the dorm room and falls backwards from sheer orgasmic joy just from the sight of her, I found that (even as a woman) freaking hilarious! And that vintage-y under wear she was wearing with the garter belt and bullet bra was something none of use were wearing anymore by 1980, that was funny to me too. Plus, without Animal House “Thank you Sir, may I have another!?” and “A Pledge Pin???” would not have entered my family lexicon and that would make me very sad indeed. I am wondering if this just falls into the category of younger people thinking it is cool to put down everything pre-2000. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/123 "2017-12-09T03:49:10Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > They are going to make a sequel for the 20 teens. The Omegas are going to be recognized at last for their pluck, and failure to commit prosecutable crimes as Republicans. The arc of justice is long but curves towards being great again. White House aid, raped in prison Killed by own troops Justice has its own arc. ---
**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:** [December 9, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/124 "2017-12-09T03:57:51Z")
See if you can guess what I am now. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/125 "2017-12-09T05:11:16Z")
Fun fact. At the end of the film, we learn many of the characters’ fates. Neidermeyer was “killed in Vietnam by his own troops.” In John Landis’ segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), some soldiers are overheard expressing regret for killing Lieutenant Neidermeyer. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/126 "2017-12-09T05:15:12Z")
> [@caligulathegod](#): > > Fun fact. At the end of the film, we learn many of the characters’ fates. Neidermeyer was “killed in Vietnam by his own troops.” In John Landis’ segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), some soldiers are overheard expressing regret for killing Lieutenant Neidermeyer. What sort of an ‘army’ would take a ‘man’ like him? ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/127 "2017-12-09T05:17:47Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The smashing of that particular guitar will _always_ be funny. That, and the accidental smashing of the priceless historic Martin guitar in Hateful Eight. Yeah, I get that it’s a loss to the world. But the look of abject horror on the actress’s face as she breaks character and looks to the director when the real guitar is smashed and not the breakaway prop is magic. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/128 "2017-12-09T09:35:19Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Tim Matheson says he’s never escaped that role. When he costarred on “West Wing,” everyone still called him “Vice President Otter.” Up the Creek didn’t exactly help his cause I would think. ---
**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 9, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/129 "2017-12-09T10:36:11Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Another fun fact: Landis wanted Jack Webb to play Dean Wormer. I think he would have been hilarious had he played it Jack Webb straight and tough. I can just hear Webb saying, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son,” in that famous monotone of his. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/130 "2017-12-09T11:03:02Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The smashing of that particular guitar will _always_ be funny. Especially for those of us old enough to remember the big folk music scare of the fifities. That shit came _this_ close to catching on. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/131 "2017-12-09T11:29:41Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > I think the whole point was that it was Stephen Bishop getting hit with his guitar, for the authentic contemporaneous audiences of that long ago era. So most folks who saw it in the theater had an extra laugh because they immediately recognized him as Stephen Bishop? Can we get some confirmation here? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/132 "2017-12-09T13:08:33Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > So most folks who saw it in the theater had an extra laugh because they immediately recognized him as Stephen Bishop? Can we get some confirmation here? No, most folks who saw it in the theater had no idea who Stephen Bishop was. This movie is still funny, and an endless source of quotes. One of my favorites, which I have amended many times to suit my immediate needs, is Otter’s spectacular build up from “you are blaming us” to an outraged “you are blaming America, and we are not going to stand for it!” This is such great writing: What’s the difference? Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rounds ules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests—we did. [winks at Dean Wormer] But you can’t hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick perverted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg: isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do what you you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen! ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/133 "2017-12-09T14:08:32Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > White House aid, raped in prison > Killed by own troops > > Justice has its own arc. What’s the worst frat on campus? That’s hard to say, sir. Didja notice? Greg Marmalard _ **wanted** _ to be diplomatic and political. But he let himself get sucked into being a toady to authority. Then he gets mired in it the whole movie. His future – sucking up to Nixon and getting nothing but punished for it. Does this elevate the Deltas? To me it did. And that made the humor work. But for various reasons, YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/134 "2017-12-09T14:39:50Z")
The teenage girl actress who was also in Caddyshack quit acting after Caddyshack. The story was that she quit acting because she wanted to get rid of a drug habit. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/135 "2017-12-10T06:55:52Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The smashing of that particular guitar will _always_ be funny. Stephen Fry once said something interesting about that scene. He claimed it illustrated the difference between American and British comedy - American comedians want to play Belushi; British comedians want to play the guitar guy. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/136 "2017-12-10T08:43:08Z")
Funny is funny. If genres and generations get crossed up about it because times change much as people do…sorry. Get over it. Realize a product of it’s time for what it is, rationalize how it could never be made today…and move on. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/137 "2017-12-10T10:53:26Z")
Neidermayer was fragged in 'Nam, but rose from the dead to appear in the video for a [Republican fight song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmckWVPRaI). Talk about yer arcs… ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/138 "2017-12-10T11:22:56Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > See if you can guess what I am now. (Bluto fills his mouth full of mashed potatoes, then pounds both cheeks simultaneously, spraying the potatoes over his tablemates.) “A zit! Get it?” ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/139 "2017-12-10T12:17:37Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > So most folks who saw it in the theater had an extra laugh because they immediately recognized him as Stephen Bishop? Can we get some confirmation here? I knew who Stephen Bishop was. I didn’t learn he was the guitar player in Animal House until reading this thread. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733/140 "2017-12-10T13:09:54Z")
Yeah, he might not have been recognized, but I’d venture that most of the Animal House demographic knew Bishop’s hit songs. By 1978 - when Animal House was released - he’d placed three songs in the Top 40 in the previous year or two. Heck, he even appeared on the soundtrack and wrote the ‘Animal House’ song. Very out of genre song for him, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-watched-animal-house-and-i-didnt-like-it/803733.md?page=8)