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"Animal House" - not that funny??

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by WaylonJennings, Jul 6, 2008.

  1. I watched the Bravo countdown of the 100 funniest movies the other day, and "Animal House," as I anticipated, was No. 1. Unbelievably, I had never seen it all the way through.

    So I rented it and watched it last night and ... don't know if I laughed more than one or two times.

    Am I nuts? It just seemed like a series of unclever, over-the-top hijinks - Belushi smashing a guitar, peeping in a window, smashing a beer bottle against his head and on and on and on. I imagine the scene with the white guys in the all-black bar was hilarious in 1978, but it seems like I've seen that done so many times at this point that it's lost its effect.

    Were my expectations just too high? Or is it honored more for its impact and influence than the number of laughs?
     
  2. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    HERESY.
     
  3. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    It set a standard, so yes. it was honored for impact and influence, but you also have no sense of humor.
     
  4. Kato

    Kato Well-Known Member

    Animal House is definitely one of my favorite comedies. I laugh all the way through every time. Waylon, I don't know how old you are, but I have noticed that a younger generation doesn't view it the same way others do (I'm 36). We've had arguments with stringers, most of whom are college students, at work about Animal House vs. Old School, for example. For me, it's not even close. But perhaps "kids these days" can't appreciate a movie made in the 70s that took place in 1962.
     
  5. 31

    I think part of it is that so many of the gags are so ingrained in the culture - I heard "double secret probation" referenced every other day in college, and every chubby, semi-dorky pledge in a rival fraternity was nicknamed "Flounder," just to cite two examples - that it felt more like a highlight reel of iconic images and gags than a cohesive comedy.
     
  6. beardpuller

    beardpuller Active Member

    Waylon: the real problem is that "Animal House" became a blueprint for about two dozen movies that you've probably seen, which really makes it impossible to look at it now the way people looked at it when it came out.
     
  7. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    Seven years of college down the drain.
     
  8. PopeDirkBenedict

    PopeDirkBenedict Active Member

    Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
     
  9. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    I too did not find the movie that funny when I first saw it, but I chaulked it up to the 'I'm too young to appreciate it's influence' camp. That being said, Porky's, to me, was hilarious and that came out before 'my time' so what do I know?
     
  10. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    So many of the lines are iconic.

    What can I say? If AH had never been made, OS never comes into existence.
     
  11. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    Hell no! Ain't it ain't over now.
     
  12. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    I was in my late 20's when it came out. Still as funny now as it was back then.

    Even my 20 year old boys, who don't normally like anything made before 1995 love it.

    Good father/son bonding film. :)
     
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