"Animal House" - not that funny??

AH was a happy accident, created by a collection of legitimate Ivy League smartasses
who had spent most of their young lives literally building up to the moment,.

It was also blessed by the presence and inspired lunacy of Belushi, who made the most of the opportunity.

Imagine how much greater it would have been had Chevy Chase (the GOOD Chevy Chase, from the first season of SNL and Fletch, not the "Vacation" dolt) had played Otter, and Dan Ackroyd had played D-Day. Obviously, the roles were created with those guys in mind.

Yeah, some of the jokes are cliches, now, because such a vein of humor never made it to the screen before these guys got it done.

I give Ferrell more credit than many of my age do. He's got legitimate talent. But it's not his fault he ain't Belushi, and he's never been handed a script one-third as good as this one. Old School is at best, a pale carbon copy; at worst, an imitative embarassment.

How high does AH rank? It's easily the best live-action comedy of the past thirty years.
Most recently, the only one that can be mentioned in the same breath (again, because of a very, very clever script) was Wedding Crashers . . . and after the opening half-hour, WC doesn't come close.

Not. Close.

RIP, John. For what Belushi was best at, and for what he was capable of, we are unlikely to see his like, again.

 

You just explained why it's No. 1.

 

I would say "There's Something About Mary," "Meet the Parents" and "American Pie" are up there in the pantheon, where the 1990s-2000s are concerned.

 

I might agree with American Pie; the other two not at all. No matter what the surrounding cast, I can't stand Ben Stiller. Over rated, over hyped, under funny.

 

See, I love him.

 

I'd put "Airplane" up among any comedies from the past 30 years.

 

Well, I'm in my early 40s and I never thought Animal House was the hysterically funny, best comedy of all time.

The Blues Brothers however? One of the best ever.

 

I laughed at moments in MTP, but knew I was being manipulated, and didn't like it. It was a mechanical comedy, professionally written by guys who knew what they were doing.

Too close to TV sitcom land, for me.

AH was INSPIRED. Big difference.

 

"Blues Brothers" is the far superior comedy.

And I forgot about a movie that doesn't get the attention it deserves: "Friday." Obviously, I'm sure there is some racial component to that.

Oh, almost forgot "Office Space."

I laughed out loud during "Office Space" probably 20 times as many times as I did in "Animal House."

I'm just not big on sight gags and the "Animal House" brand of humor. It's manic humor - I don't like Jim Carrey, either, who I would venture to guess was enormously influenced by the Bluto Blutarskey character?

 

Surely you can't be serious.

 

I love Animal House but I thought Blues Brothers was just way over the top. Too many car wrecks.....

 

We can agree to disagree on superiority, but BB was another quality piece of work, with
a GREAT idea . . . a love letter to the blues, and to the city of Chicago.