Those are their Delta names of course.
A trivia note on Animal House names. In the movie, the characters went to see a band Otis Day and the Knights. The lead singer, Otis Day, was played by DeWayne Jessie. Jessie didn’t actually sing in the movie; Lloyd Williams sang the songs and Jessie lip-synched.
Despite this, the success of the movie kickstarted Jessie on a singing career. To capitalize on his association with the movie, he bought the rights to the name Otis Day and toured under that name.
I’ve been watching the reboot of Animaniacs on Hulu. The reboot’s theme song includes the lines:
Gender-balanced, pronoun-neutral, and ethnically diverse
The trolls will say we’re so passé, but we did meta first
When they say “gender balanced” the image on the screen is a balance scale with Yakko and Wakko on one side and Dot on the other. It took me until some time in season 2 before I realized the scale is clearly not balanced. They’re presumably poking fun at Hollywood producers who add a single token female or minority character to a show and think that makes it balanced.
It took me about as long to get “we did meta first”. The whole concept of Animaniacs is what the kids would call “meta” now: Warner Brothers animated characters who acknowledge that they are Warner Brothers characters, and the show takes place at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, CA.
Johnny Carson- “I did not know that.”
And in the movie band the guitar player was Robert Cray.
Correction: Robert Cray was the bass player in Otis’s band.
To be fair, there were other Delta frat brothers who were NOT named after animals, including Hoov, D-Day, and Bluto. It’s not surprising there are animal names when one picks out the animal names only.
Bluto, D-Day, Hoov, and Stork all have their Delta names based on their character names. Boon and Hardbar have non-animal names, unless you consider “Boon” to be based on baboon. Is that mentioned in the movie?
Incidently, Hardbar is played by Chris Miller, one of the writers. He based the story on his experiences at college, where his frat name was Pinto.
What was Stork’s character’s name? I only remember him being called Stork.
Also, Stork was played by Doug Kenney, another co-writer of the movie and long-time National Lampoon contributor.
These posts amuse me.
The book they sold along with the release of the movie (actually a worthwhile thing, unlike many tie-ins – it gives more background) gives his last name as Stark. His name was something like John Charles Stark, and the “Stark” obviously influenced his nickname “Stork”. He had a “quasi girlfriend” code-named “Flamingo”, although she didn’t appear or was even named in the film.
“D-Day” was really Dennis Day.
The Animal names fit in with the “Animal House” tttle of the film. I’ve been told that raunchy frats used to be called things like “The Zoo” So “Animal House” fits.
When I was an undergrad our floor liked to pretend it was a frat, and our floor members had nicknames/floor names like Old Man, Wino, Dead Bear, Toad, etc. Some were derived from their actual names, others from some feature or action or predeliction. This was before Animal House came out. When I did see the film, the names and other features caried a nostalgic buzz that appealed to me, so I overlook the films many problems.
Although Animal House was shot in 1977 and released in 1978, it was set in 1962, so for it to be realistic about the events in the movie, it would have to be similar to what had happened at a university in 1962.
And retrofuturactively, it pretty much defined the university experience for a lot of Gen X in the 80s. We all did toga parties, and danced to “Shout” and stuff like that.
Nitpick: Daniel Simpson Day.
I know. My point was simply that our floor’s practice wasn’t done in imitation of the movie, but was characteristic of the times.
On the other hand, I never heard of a “Toga Party” before Animal House came out.
Dwayne “Stork” Storkman - not very imaginative
Miller was in the Alpha Delta Phi frat at Dartmouth (class of 1962, the year the movie is set) and a lot of the movie is based on those experiences. Toga parties were a thing in the 1950s and 60s, but faded out until the movie repopularized them.
Dammit I wanted to nitpick.
John Landis is on the record as saying it’s set in 1963. The Homecoming parade is 22 November. He called it the last day of innocence.
They storyboarded but never filmed a scene where a parade float shaped like JFK’s head explodes reminiscent of a bullet exit wound.
Somewhere in the 1952-4 archives of the Wisconsin State Journal is a photo of my mom attending one.