Animal House: Doing College the "Right" Way

In 1978, National Lampoon released "Animal House," a comedy about what really goes on in fraternities on college campuses. The film follows the story of college freshmen Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman who want to join a fraternity at fictional Faber College. They end up joining Delta Tau Chi, in part, because no one else would take them.

Now Faber isn't exactly Harvard; to get an idea of the academic caliber of Faber, consider their motto: "Knowledge is good." Similarly, the fraternity they end up choosing, Delta Tau Chi House, is not exactly an elite academic secret society. Instead it's a fraternity struggling to maintain its presence on the campus; Delta Tau Chi is already on probation for campus conduct violations and for its members' appalling academics.

Dean Wormer: Here are your grade point avarages. Mr. Kroger: two C's, two D's and an F. That's a 1.2. Congratulations, Kroger. You're at the top of the Delta pledge class. Mr. Dorfman?

Flounder: [drunk] Hello!

Dean Vernon Wormer: 0.2... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. Mr. Hoover, president of Delta house? 1.6; four C's and an F. A fine example you set! Daniel Simpson Day... HAS no grade point average. All courses incomplete. Mr. Blu...

[sees Bluto with a pair of pencils in his nostrils]

Dean Vernon Wormer: Mr. Blutarsky... zero... point... zero.

[Bluto shrugs]

Naturally, Dean Wormer is not very pleased. Throughout the movie he tries to find a way "to kick these punks off campus, permanently." And that's where the fun begins. An all-out war erupts between the two sides resulting in the Deltas being expelled. But, they don't give up easily, launching a counter-attack after Bluto motivates him to action with his compelling, if not historically accurate speech:

Bluto: Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? [N]o! And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough...

[thinks hard of something to say]

The tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!

While Animal House is not exactly the most educational film, it still had a huge impact on American culture. Throughout the film, the authors reference political events like the Kent State shootings and President Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also touched on the Vietnam War (the Deltas are of age to be drafted - as Dean Wormer gleefully points out).

Culturally, it introduced the idea of "gross-out films," movies meant to shock the audience with controversial material. It also inspired a number of comedies that used the same subversive humor and created a new market for low-budget, stupid-humor films.

There are definitely critics out there who point to Animal House and see no value in its occasionally grotesque humor. But, it captures the sentiment at the time: the antiestablishment feelings that college students were having in the 60s and 70s. And the best part about it is that you don't have to be from that time to understand it. It is a truly timeless film - not just about college dropouts, but about underdogs who fight authority in their youth and still turn out okay 20 years down the road.