Animal House

I never go too long without watching this movie because I love it. It started a new style of comedy movies although the copies never measured up to the guys at the Delta Tau Chi fraternity.

This was an ensemble movie but make no mistake…it was built around the force of nature that was John Belushi. Lorne Michaels has said that Belushi lived 3 different lives a day with 3 eight hour shifts. A set of different friends for each shift. Belushi hung out with rock stars, authors, and actors constantly.  Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Kreutzmann, Robin Williams, Robert de Niro, Akyroyd, and also with Hunter S. Thompson. The rock equivalent would probably be Keith Moon.

The movie changed college life forever. My dad took me to a Tennessee Vol game in the early eighties, around 2-3 years after this movie. I walked around campus and out of two different dorms I heard Louie Louie blasting and yes a party going on at 10am.

Movies…some that were inspired by this movie were the American Pie films, Old School, and The Hangover. The movie also opened the door to music comedies. The playing of classic rock and R&B songs in the movie. Like the Blues Brothers that came the following year…they shined the light on some early classic songs. It also spawned some terrible knockoff movies but it’s not its fault.

I love watching the adventures of Bluto, D-Day, Pinto, Otter, Flounder, Hoover, Stork, and the list goes on. Some great scenes in this movie are The Cafeteria scene with Bluto (See if you can guess, what I am now), the initiation, the bar scene, and so on…the ending is great.

This is on many lists of movies that have been deemed “Politically Incorrect”…that makes me want to watch it even more.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

34 thoughts on “Animal House”

  1. I don’t believe I watched “Animal House” but it does look like fun. I primarily know John Belushi from the “Blues Brothers”, one of my favorite music comedies. Unfortunately, Belushi not only knew many rock stars, he also partied like one, and it’s probably a miracle he lived until age 33!

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  7. This movie dissuaded me from ever joining a fraternity as I bought in seriously to the academic scene then. But the protest music of that era I loved

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  8. Max, I remember where I saw this the first time and who I was with. We were so stoned it was instantly the funniest movie we’d ever seen. I’ve seen it MANY times, lost it when I moved in 2011 as I gave all my VHS movies to my kids, but a few years ago I saw it cheap at a thrift store and now have it back. Some of my favorite scenes are the cafeteria scene (“That boy is a P-I-G pig!”) Belushi crossing the lawn at the girls house, then climbing the ladder, the bar scene, (“We wanna dance wif yo dates.”), the guy on the stairs playing his guitar, Belushi in pirate gear at the parade and coming down the banner to grab one of those hoity toities, Otter in the supermarket with Dean Wormer’s wife, Pinto with the underaged girl with his angel on one shoulder and devil on the other, when the golf ball hit Niedermeir’s horse, when Otter’s friend (forgot his name) showed up at Katy’s house and her prof (Donald Sutherland) was there and showed a bun shot lol. Can you tell I love this movie? Harold Ramis wrote a LOT of funny scripts, many or more than Mel Blanc did. He was a comic genius.

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    1. YES!!!! Oh I love this movie and I watched it again last night. I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve seen it. All of the things you have said are great! Just the dialog in the scenes are great as well. Kevin Bacon….I forgot he was in this movie also. The ending….was great. I love the blurb on D-Day (Whereabouts Unknown) and the rest…it was a great comedy movie that still works.

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      1. I need to watch it again soon. Last night I watched the mix DVD that came with the George Harrison Apple Years. I could have sworn there was more on it than there is but maybe saw some of it on youtube or the Scorcese doc, which I also want to watch again. I did notice that Olivia is in the Ding Dong Ding Dong video.

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      4. It very well could have been. I always wonder if she and George did see each other at some point but she won’t say because of Patii. I could be completely wrong…I hope I am.

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      6. Yea and ended up killing his mother… he is still in jail.
        She really had a hard time after the Stones.

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      7. I saw that. He died in March 2023 (per wiki) and somehow that gives me a sense of relief. Someone that can do that to their own mother is capable of just about anything. The way he snapped out of it when he was chasing her with the knife tells me he knew what he was doing.

        I’m reading a chapter or two a day and enjoying it. I looked at her youtube channel but not much there 😦

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      8. I didn’t know that he died…yea he was out of control…he could have killed Rita Coolidge alo. No she stopped on her youtube channel but she does tell some good stories.

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  11. Classic. They don’t make them like this. I would sneak around and watch this one whenever I could as my parents didn’t let me watch R rated movies (I think this was R or should’ve been). And yes, I am sure this would never get made today. Hell, most of the movies and shows we watched back then would never get made today.

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    1. You are right…most of them would not be made. That probably is the reason I watch older movies more. I didn’t see this until I was in high school…it was worth it. But all of those teenage movies that came out in the early eighties I believe were influenced by this like Porkys

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  12. Watching this movie, you’re rooting for the Deltas. But I’ve also felt that if I actually went to college with them they would be intolerable assholes.

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