# Why was Vinz Clortho \[Ghostbusters\] such a dork? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998 "2003-09-21T17:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/21 "2003-09-23T12:24:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HPL \* > \*\*Yeah, I’ve watched it. Though I have to wonder if Dana doesn’t have another neighbor on the other side who would be just as close. Also, wasn’t Louis having a party when the dog came after him? Nice array of people right there. \*\* Dana doesn’t have a neighbour on the other side. She lives in the corner penthouse of spook central. What’s a little puzzling is why the neighbour **across the hall** didn’t get turned into a dog, but I suspect the dog would have taken anyone. Louis was just unlucky, and since he was the first to run, the dog chased him. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/22 "2003-09-23T12:34:02Z")
Perhaps the demons chose the Gatekeep as the most breedable woman in the building, and Louis as the man most desperate _to_ breed? That would insure that when they found each other, the dimensional boot-slammin’ would happen as quickly as possible. ---
**Author:** ![80sHairMetalMaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/ed655f/32.png) [@80sHairMetalMaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/80sHairMetalMaven)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/23 "2003-09-23T13:45:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hamadryad \* > \*\*Perhaps the demons chose the Gatekeep as the most breedable woman in the building, and Louis as the man most desperate _to_ breed? That would insure that when they found each other, the dimensional boot-slammin’ would happen as quickly as possible. \*\* See I think that too, now that I’ve watched it four times this weekend.🙂 Louis’s char seemed pretty pathetic and wimpy and extrordinarily geeky, judging by his behavior (setting his VCR on fastrun to get his workout done at 5X the speed, his way of ‘writing off’ the party by inviting clients instead of friends). What **Hama** said makes a whole heckuvalotta sense. MetalMaven ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/24 "2003-09-23T14:18:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by msmith537 \* > \*\*Ok, I’m watching Ghostbusters on TNT - one of the funniest movies ever… why was Vinz Clortho possessed Rick Moranis still such a doofus - Talking to horses, knocking over stuff, drinking coffee out of the pot? I would have thought that a demon wouldn’t be such a spaz. > > Any thoughts? \*\* [quote shortened by me] Didn’t you answer your own quesiton? Funny scenes = Funny movie Hilarity ensues. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/25 "2003-09-23T15:14:51Z")
> [@](#): > > Okay. I admit it. She’s a dog. 😃 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/26 "2003-09-23T19:19:00Z")
I had always heard the name as “Vince Klortho, Keymaster of Goser”. Since that was an actual name, my thought process was always that Vince Klortho was one of Evo Shandor’s (the architect who built Dana and Louis’ building) disciples, who was chosen as the lucky/unlucky vessel when Shandor tried to summon Goser the first time. The fact that Vince was possessed of a full range of speech and the ability to interact with the rest of society (although in a tremendously skewed fashion)(“Would you like some coffee?” “Would I?” “Yes, have some.” “Yes, have some!”) kind of led me to believe he had been human at one time, and had simply become the Keymaster as a reward for serving Shandor/Goser well. I mean, he certainly has his history down pretty well-“Then, during the Rectification of the Vuldani…then, during the Third Reconciliation of the last of the McKettrick supplicants…”, exactly the kind of thing you’d expect from some whacked-out culty suck-up. But then he sniffs the popcorn jar like a dog later on in the same scene, so that kinda blows the whole theory. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/27 "2003-09-23T19:57:18Z")
Could be that Dana and Louis were chosen as the vessels of Vince and Zuul because they lived in those particular apartments. Maybe whoever was living there when the Apocalypse rolled into town was considered to be marked for sacrifice. Does raise the question of what would have happened if there’d been a woman living in Louis apartment, or a guy in Dana’s, though. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/28 "2003-09-23T22:57:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*Could be that Dana and Louis were chosen as the vessels of Vince and Zuul because they lived in those particular apartments. Maybe whoever was living there when the Apocalypse rolled into town was considered to be marked for sacrifice. > > Does raise the question of what would have happened if there’d been a woman living in Louis apartment, or a guy in Dana’s, though. \*\* Gayzer the Gayzerian would have appeared, of course. Seriously, it’s not impossible that members of Shandor’s cult owned the building and manipulated the apartment rentals/sales to ensure a man and a woman - or maybe the invocation of Zuul puts Vinz in the body of the nearest man of appropriate age. ---
**Author:** ![Made\_in\_Macau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@Made\_in\_Macau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Made_in_Macau)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/29 "2003-09-23T23:21:19Z")
Ok - my thought on this was that they wrote ‘a movie’ (ie - it’s not real) with as many gags as they could about ghosts /demons etc and used the characteristics of those cast as the gag source - Moranis=nerd; Murray=wiseass; Aykroyd=technonerd etc. I thought they played to their strengths and made up the rest for comic effect. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998/30 "2003-09-24T05:02:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*Dana doesn’t have a neighbour on the other side. She lives in the corner penthouse of spook central. > > What’s a little puzzling is why the neighbour **across the hall** didn’t get turned into a dog, but I suspect the dog would have taken anyone. Louis was just unlucky, and since he was the first to run, the dog chased him. \*\* Maybe I’m thinking of the building the wrong way, but wouldn’t that still imply having two neighbors, but being, say, to the North and East of her instead of the North and South or East and West(assuming the building was laid out to correspond to the cadinal directions). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-vinz-clortho-ghostbusters-such-a-dork/202998.md?page=1)