‘Animal House’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

Summary

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The Rewatchables: ‘Animal House’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

May 26, 2026 — The Ringer Podcast Network

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Episode Overview

Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and guest Murph dive deep into Animal House (1978) for "Netflix is a Joke" month, discussing why this comedy remains indelible, how it shaped generations of college antics, and the movie's reckless, anarchic comedic energy. The trio explores the film’s huge cultural footprint, its problematic elements, and how it laid the blueprint for both “college” and “raunchy” comedies that followed.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Legacy and Influence of Animal House

• Animal House created a "crater" in pop culture, birthing the modern college comedy and the raunchy sex comedy (03:07).
• The film kickstarted or turbocharged multiple careers: John Landis (director), Harold Ramis & Ivan Reitman (writers/producers), and of course, John Belushi.
• The hosts position Animal House as a "before and after" moment for American comedy films (04:50).
  • “This comedy had as big of an influence as any comedy that has come out in the last 50 years.” – Chris Ryan [01:49]

2. National Lampoon & the Origins of the Story

• The film’s DNA is a mix of National Lampoon’s editorial sensibility, Harvard humor, and real college experiences.
• Inspiration came directly from the writers' (Miller, Ramis, Reitman, Doug Kenney) own campus escapades and inside jokes (23:15, 24:23).
  • “They picked ‘62 because they thought that was the year before JFK, the last innocent year in America.” – Chris Ryan [24:25]

3. Generational Impact & College Expectations

• Animal House shaped how entire generations imagined college, especially fraternities (06:19).
  • “This movie was like, someday I’ll go to college and I’ll be like the Animal House guys. It’s hard to explain.” – Chris Ryan [06:39]
• The expectation and emulation of debauchery, parties, and “toga life” became a rite of passage, both real and fictional (10:31, 47:37).

4. Comedy Style and Structure

• The movie feels like “putting on an old sweatshirt.” Scenes are constructed almost like magazine articles or sketches, rather than a tightly plotted story (13:07).
• Heavily influenced by SNL, Monty Python, and Kentucky Fried Movie in terms of vignette/gag construction.

5. Belushi: The Heart of Animal House (and Its Fallout)

• Belushi’s Bluto dominates: a mix of Harpo Marx, Cookie Monster, and physical comedy genius (15:14).
• The film was at the epicenter of a trifecta for Belushi in 1978: SNL, Animal House, Blues Brothers album (17:32).
  • “He becomes as white hot famous as anyone we’ve ever had. This is it.” – Chris Ryan [18:36]
• Discussion of how only Chris Farley really matches Belushi’s ability to make audiences laugh on sight, and the destructive intensity of such fame (19:52 - 21:09).

6. Enduring Lines and Quotability

• The crew runs through a dozen lines that became shorthand for generations:
  • “Toga! Toga!”
  • “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
  • “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
  • “Double secret probation” (10:31 – 12:21)
  • “Otis! My man!” and many more.
• These lines transcend the film, entering everyday vernacular—from college halls to sports events.

7. Rewatchable Scenes & Setpieces

(Timestamps in MM:SS format)

• Best Bluto Entrances: [30:25]
  • Bluto, Otter, and D-Day introductions set the tone.
• The Pledge Recruit Sequence: [30:43]
• Louie, Louie Party & Flounder Kills a Horse: [31:14]
• The Cafeteria Food Fight (Belushi takeover): [31:17–32:07]
  • “Just a home run... might be my most rewatchable.” – Chris Ryan [32:09]
• Ladder Scene (Voyeurism): [32:19] (Acknowledged as problematic now)
• Toga Party with “Shout!” Needle Drop: [33:53–34:16]
  • Identified as the single most rewatchable scene.
• Otis Day & the Knights performance: [33:53], [34:23]
• Parade Finale & Setpiece Chaos: [34:44]
• Closing Credits Innovation (character fate freeze-frames): [35:49]

8. 1970s Nostalgia, Problematic Content & What’s Aged Poorly

• The movie purposefully plays 1962 as an idyllic, “innocent” era, using nostalgia that itself was ripe in the late 1970s (07:25, 09:13).
• Major issues flagged by all three hosts:
  • The 13-year-old reveal (36:49–38:21)
  • Voyeurism (ladder scene), certain jokes, racist/dated content (60:38–60:45)
  • “Prominent Confederate flag on the wall, attitudes about animal cruelty.” – Craig [57:59]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This comedy had as big of an influence as any comedy that has come out in the last 50 years.”
  – Chris Ryan [01:49]

• "Animal House, almost like a crater where it landed. It starts all these different microgenres."
  – Craig [03:07]

• “We called boobs ‘yabos’ in college because of this movie.”
  – Chris Ryan [10:31]

• “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”
  – Chris Ryan, quoting Dean Wormer [11:48]

• “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? He's on a roll, keep him going!”
  – Chris Ryan [11:48]

• “They picked ‘62 because... the last innocent year in America.”
  – Chris Ryan [24:25]

• “They filmed it in late ‘77, comes out summer of ‘78. SNL is the biggest it’s ever going to be, because this movie comes out, makes Belushi an even bigger star.”
  – Chris Ryan [08:02]

• “He becomes as white hot famous as anyone we've ever had.”
  – Chris Ryan, on Belushi [18:36]

• “My weak link was 1962 is now 64 years ago. It feels like a fucking lifetime.”
  – Chris Ryan [53:33]

• On the “Shout” needle drop:

  • “It's the undisputed champ [of wedding songs]. It's like, who's the best quarterback of all time? It's Tom Brady. Like, there's no argument.”
    – Chris Ryan [40:12]

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Timestamps for Essential Segments

• [03:00] – Animal House and the evolution of modern movie comedy
• [06:00–10:00] – College mythology, influence and quotable lines
• [13:00] – Sketch, magazine, and SNL comedy DNA
• [15:00–21:00] – Belushi’s comedy singularity and its consequences
• [23:00–25:30] – The script’s origins and the “last innocent year”
• [30:25–35:49] – Scene-by-scene rewatchable breakdowns: Bluto's intro, food fight, parade, toga party
• [36:22–40:32] – Wedding/party culture and the “Shout!” legacy
• [53:40–57:28] – What’s aged the worst: issues of consent, race, flag imagery, and outdated norms
• [62:30] – Villain debates: Niedermeyer vs. Dean Wormer
• [75:42–77:19] – Apex mountain, legacy of cafeteria scenes, and college movie canon
• [85:28–87:36] – Final verdicts, modern comedy comparisons, how Animal House “hangs” today

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Additional Insights & Anecdotes

Behind-the-Scenes Stories

• Filming at University of Oregon, method acting “fraternity bonding” (72:07)
• Donald Sutherland chose upfront pay instead of royalties—missed out on millions (41:16)
• Belushi’s all-time “trifecta” year: SNL, Animal House, Blues Brothers [17:32]
• Original script was far raunchier, cut down by Universal for a $3M budget (24:56)
• Otis Day (Dwayne Jesse) owned rights to the band name, toured for years (74:19)

Best of/Most Awards & Categories

• Most Rewatchable Scene: Toga Party & “Shout!” [36:22]
• Best Cameo: Donald Sutherland as Professor Jennings
• Best Character Name: John Blutarski (Bluto), Mandy Pepperidge, Gregory Marmalard
• Best Use of Food: "Amazit" in cafeteria scene
• Hottest Take: “Animal House caused more copycat damage than any other movie ever made.” – Bill Simmons [64:59]
• Best Life Lesson: "Don't get mad, get even." [83:40]
• Who Won the Movie?: John Belushi [85:28]

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Modern Reassessment & Cultural Context

• The hosts agree: Animal House’s structure, anarchic pace, and lack of punchlines make it more about the “hang”—like a dirty Dazed and Confused—than about a tight story (85:59).
• They acknowledge the film pushes the boundaries of political correctness, with moments now completely out-of-bounds, but argue the spirit was “equal-opportunity offending” for its time (87:58).
• The film’s unmatched influence on actual college culture, party traditions, and the lexicon is both lauded and critiqued.

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Summary Verdict

Animal House stands as the anarchic, endlessly quotable granddaddy of all college comedies—even if its wild, anything-goes style hasn’t aged gracefully in all respects. Belushi’s Bluto, classic set-pieces, the immortalization of the toga party, and its foundational place in both film and campus history remain legendary. For better and for worse, Animal House both reflected its time and rewrote the rules of what movie comedies—and American campus life—could be.

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Next Week: The “Summer From Hell” kicks off with 2001: A Space Odyssey (the ultimate "computer from hell" movie) as The Rewatchables turn to thrillers and domestic disasters.

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Transcript

[Chris Ryan]

The Rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network where you can find the Watch with Chris Ryan. What are you watching these days?

[Craig]

CR Widow's Bay.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, I can't. I couldn't. Just hasn't taken for me one of

[Craig]

the best shows of the year and really? Oh yeah. And then I'm. I'm riding euphoria out to the finish.

[Chris Ryan]

Me too.

[Craig]

Yeah, I like me.

[Chris Ryan]

Have I done my rue impression for you yet?

[Craig]

No better than I thought it was going to be. Nice job.

[Chris Ryan]

Craig's here as well and we're joined by a special guest, Murph. It's a three man pod. Hey Murph. Been waiting for this one for a long time. One of the most influential comedies ever. The last one we're doing for Netflix is a joke month. It is still on Netflix. Animal House is next.

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[Chris Ryan]

fireradio.com this message is brought to you by Apple Card. Hey, you could be earning 2% daily cash back in that purchase and that one and even that one. That's because Apple card users earn 2% daily cash back on every purchase, including everyday items they buy online or in store when using their Apple Card. With Apple Pay not an Apple Card customer, you can apply in the Wallet app on iPhone subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch Terms and more at Apple Co Benefits. Cr Hard to explain what this movie meant. In the 80s we just didn't have a lot of comedies. This is the only comedy about college. Probably had 6, 7, 8 you would just rewatch over and over again the lines it Reached the point the famous lines from this movie and then there was like a whole separate subsection of lines from this movie that you could just do shorthand with people. And I think this comedy had as big of an influence as any comedy that has come out in the last 50 years.

[Craig]

Animal House, almost like a. It's got like a crater where it landed and it like starts all these different like micro genres. It kickstarts these careers. Basically launches like three different filmmakers into the world. With Reitman, Ramis and Landis had already worked obviously. But like it's. It's importance almost dwarfs. It's like entertainment sometimes. But I still really like enjoy having it on a lot.

[Chris Ryan]

What was the movie you said? It's like putting on an old sweatshirt.

[Craig]

Ghostbusters.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I feel that way about Animal House. Yeah, I've just seen it so many times. I know everybody section of it. It's got Belushi, who's. Who's right here. Actually one of my favorites of all time.

[Craig]

You know what I wanted to ask you about was what. What kind of relationship you had to National Lampoon as like an institution outside of just the Hughes movies and this

[Chris Ryan]

only knew it from Animal House.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

From all the people that kind of went on and then from reading the books about it. You know, when it. Once you started reading the like even the Bob Woodward book about Belushi, Saturn Lab book that came out in 84, 85. Just in general, I had no idea until I started reading how impactful it was. I didn't know as a kid.

[Craig]

It's just kind of fascinating because, you know, it's not dissimilar from a lot of upstart media stories that you read about from the last 20 years. Like it's not that much different than Vice in some ways or something where it starts out as this like small time production house or you know, like magazine based out of Harvard, and then branches out into all these different things and takes advantage of corporations looking for basically, for lack of a better term content at that time.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like Grantland. Just these little underdogs.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh no, we work for espn. It's a before after for comedy movies. Just felt like Blazing saddles was what, 74, 75 range. This movie comes out and it leads to two different eras because you have the rambunctious comedy era, right? That's Animal House. Meatballs, Caddyshack, Blues Brothers, Airplane, Stripes. Like big stars, big set pieces. Just felt. Felt like it was for Everybody who was 20 and older in the 70s. And then people like us who were growing up after, jumping in. But it also ushered in the raunchy comedy era.

[Craig]

Sex comedy. Yeah. Which.

[Chris Ryan]

Which then Porky's really capitalized on. But we've talked about that in the

[Craig]

past of the nerds.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Zapped class. Losing it. This was like a whole cottage industry. So it spawned two separate industries of comedy.

[Craig]

It also pretty much invents the modern college comedy. Yeah. Which maybe doesn't even really, like, take flight until the 90s. Like, I grew up with kicking and screaming.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Everybody wants some is later. But PCU was a big one for me. Like, that is a really reliable sub genre of comedy.

[Chris Ryan]

I feel like it was the first college movie. I'm sure there were others, but this is the first one I can really think of that I saw where it was like, is this what it's like to go to college?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you think that kind of. Yeah. I was. I was on a text thread last night with two of my best friends from high school, went to Colgate.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

And they were in a frat in Colgate with two of my other friends who became good friends. And we were just texting about this movie and how much, like, they had seen Animal House for years, and they. When they went into college in the late 80s, was like, I want to be in a frat. You're just making the Animal House jokes as you're in the frat.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And that's just kind of how the 80s went. I have some takes on this later, but this movie was like, someday I'll go to college and I'll be like, the Animal House guys. It's hard to explain.

[Murph]

I have.

[Craig]

That's how I felt about high school with Ferris Bueller, where I was just like, I'm going to go to high school. I'm going to have my own room, you know, Which I did. I was only a child, but, like, I'm going to have, like, this universe within my room, and I, like, these are going to be my friends. But one day, like, I'm just going to have, like, the coolest day ever. Like, in high school, when I'm like, cut in class.

[Chris Ryan]

Craig, you. You're later than us. There's a million college movies that are out by then. Right.

[Craig]

Less than you'd think, though.

[Murph]

It's mostly high school more than college.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Murph]

You're like, old school and stuff. It's usually like, joke. That's like neighbors, but those are more like plays on adults interacting with college less than college kids.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Murph]

Themselves.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So when you watch this movie, first of all, the movie takes place in 1962.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, this is now. Feels like a kajillion years ago.

[Craig]

Crucial kind of thing that they did, which was made a movie about when I think, honestly the writers were like, this is when America had its innocence. Is like before Kennedy, Kennedy assassination, before

[Chris Ryan]

Vietnam, Watergate, with everything very, very, very,

[Craig]

very like aggressive, modern sensibility of like raunch, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And so they like, they infuse it basically with like late 70s debauchery, but it's about like when everything was still innocent.

[Chris Ryan]

So they catch lightning in the bottle when this movie comes out. They film it in late 77, comes out summer of 78. SNL is on at that. SNL is the biggest it's ever going to be because this movie comes out, makes pollution even bigger star. You have all this national and Putin stuff happening where all these people. It was like this comedy factory. Now they're all going out, getting hired by Hollywood. You have the 70s comedy movement in general, which is happening on two separate coasts. Right. And this is like the Letterman, Seinfeld, Jay Leno. All these people are in LA too. And then you have young people pushing against old people, which is a thing that's happening all through the 70s and finally trickles into comedy with Saturday Live and some other stuff, and just kind of people lampooning people older than them, pushing the envelope, trying to be raunchy, trying to offend people.

[Craig]

There's one more thing.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's go.

[Craig]

You're starting to get late 50s and early 60s nostalgia because of American happy and Happy days. So it's people who are probably in their late 30s or early 40s thinking about when they were kids and the music that was on and the way people dressed and the, like, the different archetypes of people that were around.

[Chris Ryan]

Why can't that come back?

[Craig]

Well, it does. I mean, we just do it for the 90s now, or we do it for the early 2000s.

[Chris Ryan]

Are we doing it correctly for the late 90s? It feels like we should be nostalgic for pre social media and what life.

[Craig]

Yeah, I think that's due soon. Like, we're kind of like there is like a kind of early 2000s, like, you know, like that era, like nostalgia going on.

[Chris Ryan]

And we'll probably go, craig, you're coming back.

[Murph]

I mean, people are wearing corded headphones again because it's cool and nostalgic. And I never stop.

[Craig]

You never stop.

[Chris Ryan]

But you, I knew people would remember.

[Craig]

You were like, Ben said That everybody likes the Strokes now and stuff like that. That is his age. Like that's. That's another sign of that kind of

[Murph]

people are dressing like that.

[Craig]

It runs in these cycles. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You could see it a little bit with the. With the JFK. Carolyn Bassett too. With the early 90s people going backwards. But it seems like music. There's a huge nostalgia movement now for that early 2000s stuff that we loved. And then the comedies is the other one mainly. Cause we're not making comedies the same way we have, which we've talked about a million times. But that whole Apatow generation run. And then the late 90s stuff, I feel like is as big as ever. So many running lines from this movie. And I think there's like levels of this. Right? These are lines that just have become

[Craig]

part of like, the lexicon we're in.

[Chris Ryan]

Like in my everyday life from college on, like when. When Flounder comes in, he's like, you guys playing cards. That was something we would just say. And you. You knew somebody was doing a Flounder. Major league yabos. We called boobs yabos in college because this movie I had that.

[Craig]

What's. What's age the best.

[Chris Ryan]

And that foot is me. That was another one. You would just do it. Thank you, sir. Mav. Another. The toga. Toga, like anytime. Like, should we have party Friday night and just be like. Even think we're having a toga party? Yeah, it's like Toga.

[Craig]

My parents used to make double secret probation jokes.

[Chris Ryan]

That was. That was this movie probably created that.

[Craig]

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

There. But there was stealth ones too. Like, wait a little. Wait till Otis sees us. He loves us. You throw that one out. Otis, my man. When we had Otis Nixon on the Red Sox, there was like a whole bunch of Otis my man jokes because everyone knew Animal House.

[Craig]

There's one that I actually from that. The Dexter scene that I really like is when Peter Ryger, I think, says, you girls come here often.

[Chris Ryan]

He's great in this movie, by the way. You mind if we dance with you dates? Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, sir. Is. Was the one that became the biggest one along with. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. He's on a roll. Keep him going. Niedermeyer Dead became another famous one. And then the remain calm. All is well. But I mean, I just listed that's 12 lines from this. And they really did become part of the way people talk. It's hard to explain.

[Craig]

There's also, I think I was watching the Chandler Levak movie Roommates a couple weeks ago. The Netflix thing, 20 year old. It's basically. It's basically Animal House, you know what I mean? Like the idea of like taking a really good formative setting in someone's life and doing it more in like a vignette style and having a lot of gags within gags within gags. And I think that there's a way that this is like this movie feels like magazine articles in a way, or it feels like paging through a magazine. It doesn't feel like this scene influences the next scene necessarily. And that is like kind of like Kentucky Fried Movie. It's kind of like SNL and Lemmings and the other things that they were doing around. It's like Monty Python. It's very much like out of sketch and out of magazine rating.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And it's funny that all these people kind of indirectly or directly knew each other from the 70s, these comedy people, and it didn't matter. Like they know each other from Second City. Groundlings, Lemmings, snl. They went to college together at Harvard and they were all kind of interconnected, like in this movie. Landis didn't know any of these guys. John Landis, this is his first big movie. Harold Ramis, it's his first big credit. And he knew, I think he was the one that knew Belushi from Second City. So he was like, we gotta have Belushi's Bluto. Ivan Reitman's first big movie ever. Another one. He might be taking the producer lead for us.

[Craig]

Reitman.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah. This is like at least his sixth or seventh.

[Craig]

I would bet. Bruckheimer is number one.

[Chris Ryan]

Bruckheimer, yeah, you're right. Bruckheimer's probably one. Belushi's first mainstream movie. We'll talk about him in a second. Kevin Bacon and Karen Allen. Karen Allen, about to go on just a.

[Craig]

She must have been Raiders. Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Meteoric rise for her. Tim Matheson, Bruce McGill, Tom Hulse.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Chris Ryan]

Bruce McGill, like just became a different human being, like 20 years later.

[Craig]

Yeah, he became like, like the legendary middle aged character actor.

[Murph]

Wipe that smirk off your face.

[Chris Ryan]

You would. You would have no idea. He was D Day in this. I have a lot of Tim Matheson thoughts later. And then Stephen first is Flounder and then Maggie from Caddyshack, who I can't wait to talk about later.

[Craig]

Is that the 13 year old? Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then randomly, just three Donald Sutherland scenes for no real reason.

[Craig]

Yeah. And it Sounds like they basically needed

[Chris Ryan]

him to get the head to.

[Craig]

It's like, imagine a world where Donald Sutherland is like, I'll do it. That's what gets it over the hump.

[Chris Ryan]

I was trying to think of the equivalent now to that, which would be like, if. I don't know, you just got like, Ryan Reynolds or somebody probably need to make this.

[Craig]

I mean, he's not. I don't know if they're.

[Chris Ryan]

No, but it's somebody at that level. He was famous enough that it was a big deal. He was in the movie. All right, so belushi only received 35,000. Paid a bonus after it became a hit. They created the character as a cross between Harpo Marx and the Cookie Monster. I don't know the Harpo, but I don't remember Harpo Marx's work.

[Craig]

You never did Marx Brothers?

[Chris Ryan]

No, no. Was he like the crazy.

[Craig]

I always, like, associated a lot of this comedy stuff with Stooges. Like a lot of the. Like. Yeah, that kind of stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

Big exaggerated. Because he was doing comedy on stage forever and you had to do a lot of, like, dramatic. Did you ever see anybody who ended up becoming famous in a Groundlings or Lemmings or anything like that?

[Craig]

Second City in New York, like, back in the day, I saw Human Giant, which is Aziz Ansari and Paul.

[Chris Ryan]

She's group.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So I saw. I was dating a girl who moved to Chicago and we went to Second City and Horatio Sands really was on the cast. And he hadn't made SNL yet, but was just clearly really funny and was like. And then when he went to sn, I was like, that was the guy we saw in Chicago. And then the other one, little different. But when the first year I was working for Jimmy's show, he used to have Zach Galifianakis on all the time. Really? He had, like, this fake character. We all loved him. We thought he was, like a genius and he would come on. I think he used to play his brother Seth. He had this fake brother.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And. But we would always, like, pitch stuff like, we got to get this and Zach and. But, you know, he wasn't famous at all. And then he became Zach.

[Craig]

You know, one of my favorite bits reading about Animal House was. Was reading about Landis going on Carson, I think. Was it Landis who went on Carson? And he did, like, a movie called Schlock, but Carson liked it and, like, just was like, I'm going to have this guy on the. And he does, like, a great performance on Carson.

[Chris Ryan]

Really?

[Craig]

Yeah. But, like, the idea that you could go on Letterman or go on Carson and nobody knew who you were, but if he liked you and he had you on three times, people were like, that's a guy now.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, like, that's what I try to do with my podcast. Craig. Yeah, yeah. When somebody comes on, it's like a papal blessing.

[Murph]

Papal blessing. I feel like the modern version of like seeing Horatio Sands do improv or something like that is now it's like being a fan of somebody's comedy YouTube channel. And then like three years later they're in a movie or on SNL.

[Craig]

I remember Veronica, who's on SNL.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Veronica slow as our guys.

[Murph]

I remember Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney. We used to love their YouTube channel. Good neighbor stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Murph]

And then like four years later, they were on SNL. We're like, holy shit.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

That is the equivalent. So 78. Our guy Belushi.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

He pulls off. We talked about this during the Blues Brothers pod. He pulls off one of the great trifectas ever in the history of Hollywood. He's on snl, which is the most important comedy show and probably the most influential TV show. He's in this movie, which finishes third for the year and is the biggest comedy movie ever, and then releases the Blues Brothers album. And that goes to number one. And he has all of that going at the same time in the winter of 1978. And now Murph's.

[Craig]

What happens when this happens?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know what's going on here. Murph, you want to get down? Yeah. You didn't like something.

[Craig]

This is what happens when you work. It's not professional.

[Murph]

Let him out.

[Chris Ryan]

No, he'll lie over there. So Belushi, he flew too close to the sun.

[Craig]

Sierra, so to speak. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. This was it.

[Craig]

I think he'd be flying close to the sun. People think it's Icarus.

[Chris Ryan]

It was Belushi. He had already was prone to maybe having some. Some issues.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And then this happens and he becomes as white hot famous as anyone we've ever had. This is it. This is like he becomes too famous to be on snl. He gets every single comedy you could possibly be offered to you. And he's touring with a band in front of sold out crowds.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Too much.

[Craig]

One of my favorite things is the. He has to do like he does three days a week on Animal House.

[Chris Ryan]

He's flying to Oregon to animals.

[Craig]

All of them, like all these, like, bits and jokes he's thinking of. And then they would watch SNL on Saturday Night. And those things that he was joking about on like Tuesday would be on the show on Saturday.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, that was another. He was allegedly clean when he was doing this movie and he moved there with his wife and he's. He's living in some house. He's not living with the, with the cast. Trying to stay clean.

[Craig]

They host Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And he's like. And then I think he went off the rails right after and that was that. There's been a lot of stuff written about this but nobody really. Farley's the only one like Belushi that I can think of like that could just physical presence, the pratfalls, the facial expressions, the comedy. Like the moment you see him, you're just like, I'm just laughing already. He hasn't done anything yet.

[Craig]

And the same kind of thing that Farley, Everybody always has to say about Farley was that they would just do anything for a laugh. Yep.

[Chris Ryan]

I wonder who else is. Would you say Danny McBride, even though he wasn't physically. Like that is a little. Like that or. No. Like where you just see him and you're like, I'm ready to laugh.

[Murph]

He can say anything and you'll laugh. The physical side is maybe not as

[Craig]

much there with him.

[Murph]

I don't know. Robin Williams, I feel like, had a

[Chris Ryan]

little bit of that.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah, that was. But that was as much like, I'm just going to do 15 minute bits. Like off of what one thing that you say this was like, I'll jump through a plate class window.

[Murph]

And didn't care if he. I mean, the Farley story about Chippendale Sandler didn't want him to do it because he's like, people are just going to laugh at you.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Murph]

Farley was like, I don't care.

[Chris Ryan]

There's something. It's such a small group of people that have had this. And it happens with athletes too. If you just go to a game or a comedy event or whatever and you sit down and somebody comes on the stage or the court, wherever, and your eyes just go to them. That's what blue. Everyone said that's what blue sheet had. Like when he's. The years before snl, every time he came on stage, he just owned the stage.

[Craig]

And it's also like it has an almost Beatles like concentration of like it was just a few years. Yeah. You know, it was. It was not like this 20 year career. It was like it was basically six years, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Pretty much. I mean, SNL's 75, he's dead in 82 yeah. It had an interesting effect on SNL because Animal House made the show bigger. The fourth season of SNL, which starts in 78. The 78, 79 season, the audience increased to the point that the Lorne Michaels and the writers kind of resented it. Lauren called it the undeserved audience. It was like, we were doing this. Where were you guys before? Now you're just here because Animal House.

[Craig]

Well, it's also like, they were like, hipsters, essentially, and that now all of a sudden, like, all the squares were like, I watch this, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And there's a lot. A lot of the research from this was once Animal House happens. All these guys now can get jobs. Everyone's looking for the next Belushi. Animal House. Everyone's looking for the next person to write that. So National PJ o' Rourke had this whole thing about it killed National Lampoon immediately because everyone who wrote for it was now being approached.

[Craig]

How can I get a script going?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah. And it just would, like, demolished, basically, this counterculture thing. They became the culture.

[Craig]

Yeah. Although by the time PJ o' Rourke is running National Lampoon, like, I. It's. It's probably like, its sensibility is more conservative than you would be. You'd be surprised to find out, like, how conservative, like, their. Their worldview was.

[Chris Ryan]

I think I was never a big National Lampoon guy. I always probably like Mad magazine or as weird as that is. But Spy was the first one where I was like, finally a magazine for me. Yes.

[Craig]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, have either of you read

[Murph]

that National Lampoon, like, yearbook parody?

[Craig]

I looked at, like, some of the pages just online for this, but it's kind of ingenious. I'm sure other people had done it beforehand, but it's basically Boone's yearbook. Yeah. With, like, notes scrawled. And then there's some of the characters. Couple of the characters from the movie are in it. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

There's a really good National Lampoon documentary that was made kind of in the early days of when we were good at documentaries. I'm going to say it's like late 2000s, early 2010s. I thought they did a good job. They interviewed a lot of people.

[Murph]

Is it called drunk, stoned, brilliant. Dead 2015. Yep.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, that documentary is good. So this was based on Ramis's experience, Ramis's experience at Washington University, Miller, Chris Miller's experience at Dartmouth, and then Ivan Reitman at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Not on my radar.

[Craig]

That was in one of your safety schools.

[Chris Ryan]

And Then Doug Kenney, who is one of the writers, pretty legendary lampoon guy died in Hawaii with Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase and him were on vacation. Fell off a cliff. Unclear what happened. Big mystery. The Doug Kenney thing's a really interesting.

[Craig]

I didn't know about this.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, big rabbit hole. He was involved in Caddyshack. Lot of cocaine back then, obviously in all kinds of ways. And a death that they still don't know what happened. And some people wonder if he killed himself or he didn't.

[Craig]

Right.

[Chris Ryan]

But anyway, he graduated from Harvard. His frat experience was closer to the omega side. And the three characters from the yearbook you mentioned were Larry Kroger, Mandy Pepperidge, Vernon Wormer.

[Craig]

Oh, so it's probably Larry's yearbook then, I guess.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you mentioned this earlier. They picked 62 because they thought that was the year before JFK, the year before Vietnam gets going. Kind of the last innocent year in America.

[Craig]

It's like. But it's like almost like right around then because I remember my earliest memories of like the car radio are my parents listening to like big Chill style oldies. So for them this is like kind of almost like that they're freezing that time in amber and they're starting to make money off of Happy Days and stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

So the original script, and there was a lot more vomiting. There was a lot of crazy shit. They did like nine drafts and then finally got greenlit at 3 million bucks. And the National Lampoon guy, Matty Simmons, no relation, said, screw it, silly little movie, we'll make a couple bucks. Landa said he thought it was the funniest script he'd ever read. Really offensive. He said there was a great deal of projectile vomiting and rape and all of these things. Yeah, I don't even know what that meant for a comedy. But they get Belushi and they're off $3 million budget made $141.5 million. Feels like probably more since then. This is just.

[Craig]

Well, also $140 million off $3 million is an insane profit, Craig.

[Chris Ryan]

They did it, made 120. They did the re release a year later in 79. Made another 21 million. Just because Belushi was more famous.

[Craig]

Let me ask you this. Did you watch this? What had. Did you watch this after you'd seen Caddyshack?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't remember when I first saw this. I saw Caddyshack in the theater. I don't think my parents let me see this in the theater. So I probably saw it after Caddyshack. But I love Belushi, so I probably figured out a way to see this at some point. This is one of those where it's like, this movie's been in my life for 50 years. I don't remember when I saw it. Other ones I do remember.

[Craig]

It's interesting to think about this kicking it all off. But a lot of people, most people who are listening to this podcast probably saw it in and around maybe even after they saw Revenge of the Nerds, or maybe even after they saw Porky's, or maybe even after they saw, like, PCU in Dazed and Confused. I mean, you. You might have an experience where it's always sitting there on the shelf. Like, I remember really being drawn to the. The cartoon poster. Yeah. And, like, that style of, like, kind of caricature that I was just like, what is this? You know?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, the part I don't remember from the 80s is how we saw the unedited version, because we didn't really have the VHS stuff until, like, 83, 84 range. So it was probably edited for a couple years there on the different channels and then became unedited again.

[Craig]

Well, this was definitely a sleepover movie, no question.

[Chris Ryan]

I feel like everybody had a copy of it. Yeah.

[Craig]

But if you. I remember when I was like, I. I must have been like, eight or nine maybe, or something, and it was just like, we're gonna watch Animal House tonight. My older brother got it, you know? Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Top 11 movies in 1978. Craig. Grease, Superman, Animal House. It's our top three. Wow. Every which Way But Loose.

[Craig]

Is that a rewatch ball?

[Chris Ryan]

It is for me. Say the word. Clint Eastwood in an orangutan in a truck. Heaven Can Wait. Hooper.

[Craig]

If we do August one for US Month, it should be Every which Way But Loose. Lincoln. What else?

[Chris Ryan]

There's so many. One for us. Us. Jaws 2 was seventh. Revenge of the Pink Panther, the Deer Hunter, Halloween, and Foul Play. Deer Hunter top 11. Bring up the Deer Hunter. Cranking, cranking.

[Craig]

Almost rewatchable. Come on.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, that's definitely. That's not even a one for US Month. No, no, that just came out.

[Craig]

That's Russian Roulette month.

[Chris Ryan]

That came out on steelbook.

[Craig]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Ebert four stars.

[Craig]

Fucking loved this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

It's anarchic, messy, filled with energy. It assaults us. Part of the movie's impact comes from his sheer level of manic energy. It's better made than we might at first realize. It takes skill to create this sort of comic pitch. Probably caught Ebert at the right time of his life, too. I wonder if 1998 Roger Ebert loves

[Craig]

it as much as he's coming. He still has a little bit of like Russ Meyer vapors coming coming out

[Chris Ryan]

of it, no question.

[Craig]

But I do imagine if you saw this in 78, it would feel like punk rock. It would feel like he describes it as anarchic, you know.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, we'll talk about it when we do rewatchable scenes. But there's seven minutes in the middle of this movie where Belushi just goes to another planet. Yes, it's like an all time takeover, but we'll talk about that in one second. We'll take a break. The playoffs are here and you can predict all the action all the way to the finals. With FanDuel predicts, all you have to do is sign up, get your $25 bonus, predict the spread, the total points, even the game winning moments that make the playoffs. From opening tip to the final buzzer. Stay locked in with every pass, every play, every moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion. Sign up now for your $25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts offered by FanDuel Production Markets LLC, a registered Futures Commission merchant. 18 plus bonus is non withdrawable. Expire 7 days after receipt Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply. See [e-mail] predict bonus offer terms this episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all in one creative studio with AI powered image and video generation

[Craig]

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[Chris Ryan]

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[Craig]

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[Murph]

Woo.

[Craig]

Yeah, still tight.

[Chris Ryan]

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[Craig]

We brought up Belushi.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, he just not a Belushi guy. Most rewatchable scene. Really good entrances for Bluto, Otter and D Day in the beginning. Yeah, I like a good entrance. See Bluto, he's just drinking a beer.

[Craig]

Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman. Damn glad to meet you.

[Chris Ryan]

I can't wait to talk about Matheson. I really like him in this movie. The pledge recruit sequence when they're naming everybody your weasel, your mothball. You're going to be Pinto. Why Pinto? Louie, Louie. I like Belushi. Just probably looks. I don't know if he was really drunk for that scene during the Louie Louis that looked hammered. Yeah, and then we go to the other frat for the thank you, sir, may have another. All right, so those are two. Flounder kills a horse, followed by the D meeting.

[Craig]

Holy shit.

[Chris Ryan]

The cafeteria scene.

[Craig]

Yeah. The food fight.

[Chris Ryan]

The food. Belushi in the food line. First he's eating out of the garbage, basically. Yeah. And then he goes through the food line.

[Craig]

That's just like also a six minute Buster Keaton scene. Like it's. It's silent for the most part until he goes. Everybody goes and sits down with the preppy kids. But like all of that stuff with

[Chris Ryan]

him, I like when the donut falls off the tray. He just keeps going. Yeah. Just grabbing stuff, putting things on top. Eats the jello. And then he makes the horse sound at that guy.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Chris Ryan]

And then does the amazet. Which I think for Me at age 10 or 11 was the height of comedy for me. Yeah. The funniest thing of all time. Entirely improvised in the cafeteria. And then they just kind of went. The amazing thing was apparently improvised too. They didn't know that was coming.

[Craig]

Yeah,

[Chris Ryan]

Just a home run. But it's up there for me. It might be my most rewatchable. We do have the latter scene, which I guess is probably a little problematic these days.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But it's a little bit of a voyeur thing.

[Craig]

I mean, but that basically is. It invents Revenge of the Nerds and Porky.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Yeah. The turn to the camera. Eyebrow race.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Alzheimer. The ladder falling backwards is just fucking funny. It just goes back. I had so this seven minutes of Belushi just taking over the movie. I almost wonder, is this a new category? The Victor Wembanyama award for when somebody just completely annihilates four minutes of a movie or a.

[Craig]

There's no defense for this.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. It's like, what's happening? He just scored 12 points in two minutes. Blocked five shots. But that was just a total. Wemby does that Belushi thing. It's still funny for your generation, right?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, good.

[Craig]

What? The Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

[Chris Ryan]

Just everything Belushi did, but especially the cafeteria. I just feel like that's. It's got to be timeless comedy for who? However old you are. Yeah.

[Murph]

I think. I think some people might find it like a little. It's juvenile humor that like, hasn't aged in like a clever way. But I still think it's really funny.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, good. The grocery store scene is underrated.

[Craig]

I really like the grocery store scene, Flander.

[Chris Ryan]

Just catching 15 things.

[Craig]

Also, my cucumber is bigger.

[Chris Ryan]

The flirting. There's something about those mid-70s horny housewives that they would have in these movies. Like in Slap Shot or this movie. They really did it for me.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Toga party. I like when Otter takes their coats and throw.

[Craig]

Just throws them on the ground. There's so many good little, like, just blink and you miss it. Visual sight gags in this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Like that Guitar guy gets demolished. We get shout. This is the Kid Cudi pursuit of happiness. Word for needle drop. I think this is my most rewatchable scene because I really love the shout performance. I love how it cuts back and forth with the audience. I like a little bit louder now. Like a little bit louder.

[Craig]

Oh, my God.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

It's so good that Wedding Crashers was like, let's just do that again.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. They did the homage. The road trip to the bar to see Otis Day.

[Craig]

Yep.

[Chris Ryan]

Dexter's way to Otisias. He loves us. Wormer reading the grades.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

0.2. Fat drunken stupid.

[Murph]

That guy has an amazing voice.

[Chris Ryan]

And he had like. Almost like. It seemed like a glass eye or something.

[Craig]

John Vernon.

[Chris Ryan]

But I know he didn't. But he had a way of, like. He just always seemed like he was about to say something evil.

[Murph]

Just like the way he says double secret probation. It's so good.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

If you're a character actor in the 70s, you just are like, what I do is wear a suit. And I do the same part in every movie. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

So I just show. I just nail it.

[Chris Ryan]

The big Bluto speech, which I think is the most famous scene for this movie because it lived on in sports and jumbotrons for 20 years after.

[Murph]

It's kind of the first. Hold on, let him cook.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Murph]

You know.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Murph]

He's like. They're like Germans. And he's like, hold on, let him.

[Chris Ryan]

He's cooking Groggy Dougie and some of the other Hitler Youth underrated line. Every. Every part of that thing is great. The. The parade scene's fun.

[Craig]

The parade scene is like a precursor.

[Chris Ryan]

It's a mess.

[Craig]

Blues Brothers, where it's like, we don't really know what to do here. So let's have a giant set piece.

[Chris Ryan]

Belushi just climbs on top of a building for no reason.

[Craig]

I could. I could have fixed it, though. But that's in a category coming up.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, great. And then the closing credits, which I think this movie probably invented.

[Craig]

Well, it's certainly apex Mountain for Z1. NAO title cards.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Nobody did this before this movie.

[Craig]

I have no idea.

[Chris Ryan]

And I feel like everybody's ripped it off since there's so many Good ones. The Marmalade became a Nixon White House aide. It was raped in prison in 1974. Otter became a gynecologist. Beverly Hills Senator and Mrs. John Butarsky. Yeah, just like fucking home runs all over. I like that. D Day's whereabouts were unknown. What do you have for most rewatchable?

[Craig]

The most rewatchable scene for me is the toga party with Shout.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I agree.

[Craig]

That's just the most fun to watch.

[Chris Ryan]

What's the most 1978/1963 thing about this movie? I think we have to go with 1978.

[Craig]

Well, I just had the. The prominence of National Lampoon as a comedy brand. It's like an umbrella that, like, was doing all this different stuff and was launching all these careers.

[Chris Ryan]

I have a smoking pot in a dark room as a secret clandestine event.

[Craig]

And that you are afraid you might get schizophrenia from it.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like, oh, try that. I had that. And then Pinto's girl revealing that she's 13 is just insane. Yes, it was insane in 1978.

[Craig]

It's out of control when it's crazy

[Chris Ryan]

Bill go 16 or 17, maybe it's still borderline insane.

[Craig]

But 13, it's like she's like, I'm 13. And he still goes for it.

[Chris Ryan]

He's just like, I guess do anything, but he's.

[Craig]

He asked. He has to get.

[Murph]

Oh.

[Craig]

Because he has to get married to her first. Right.

[Murph]

And she's like, hey, mom and dad, this is the guy that molested me.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, I think doing in 1978. Obviously nobody in the room or no notes or edits were like, hey, make her older. Thirteen's crazy.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Murph]

The when would I have died award. I would have killed myself after that girl said I was 13.

[Craig]

Yes, 13.

[Chris Ryan]

Also, she. I mean, the real actress is probably like 20. I just.

[Craig]

Let's hope.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know. I don't know if they thought 13 was funny or it would be funny if she says she's 30.

[Craig]

I can't even begin to imagine. Yeah, it is the craziest thing in

[Chris Ryan]

this movie because Old School basically does Old School, which ripped off multiple parts of this movie. Yes, but they do.

[Craig]

The Old School is almost a remake.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, but they do the same thing with. With Luke Wilson when he's with Alessia Cuthbert and it turns out she's in high school.

[Murph]

It's crazy. I mean, this girl is lying topless in this movie and then an hour later she's 13.

[Chris Ryan]

It's just. It's just nuts. I don't understand It.

[Murph]

Yeah, she was 20, the actress.

[Craig]

It's just weird that you nailed that.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, she looked like she was at least in college, but I think they

[Craig]

thought it's like, got a great scout. Sigh.

[Chris Ryan]

Hey, you know, I sized her up. I think they thought 13 would get a big laugh. Yeah, look, this is 1978.

[Craig]

Landis takes some big swings, man.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. In terms of big swings, probably not as big as the Twilight Zone. No, no. The Floyd Gondoli, Butter in My Ass and Lollipops in My Mouth award for something I just enjoy, man.

[Craig]

I just like Louie Louie and Shout. Those songs are undefeated. They still go really hard at weddings.

[Chris Ryan]

Still play Shout at weddings.

[Murph]

Oh, yeah. I think that was going to make my. My category would have just been what's age the best. I have not been to a wedding where Shout is not playing.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Craig]

You may think you're better than Shout, but every time you go to a wedding and Shout plays, you're like, this is the thing that really set the wedding off.

[Murph]

It is the single best moment of every wedding is Shout. It still plays. Live band, dj, doesn't matter. Everybody loves Shout. Getting on the floor like it is.

[Craig]

It's the time when everybody's like, let's get fucked up.

[Murph]

The question for I was going to ask though, is, did the wedding thing happen after Wedding Crashers or were people doing that in the 80s? After Animal House, After Animals? Really?

[Chris Ryan]

Every wedding I went to from the early 90s on, there was Shout.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And I assume that was the case in the 80s too. And we've.

[Craig]

The weddings that I have been to have all had Shout.

[Murph]

But pre Wedding Crashers.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, fuck, yeah. Oh, no.

[Craig]

Every single wedding staple.

[Murph]

I just didn't know if, like, everybody liked the song watching Animal House, but that has nothing to do with a wedding. I didn't know if Wedding Crashers made it popular at weddings.

[Chris Ryan]

No, Shout was. You would. No, no, no, no.

[Murph]

It was a thing before.

[Chris Ryan]

No, you'd go to a wedding even in the early 90s and it was like, can't wait for show. You just knew it was coming and you knew the band was going to play it. The thing is, like, it's the undisputed champ.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like, who's the best quarterback of all time? It's Tom Brady. Like, there's no argument.

[Craig]

It's chocolate ice cream. There's just like, very few people who are like, I don't like Shout. I don't want to do that. Like, then why'd you come to the wedding?

[Murph]

It's just like the most. It's a complete communal experience. Everybody knows the moves. It's the best.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, because you. The fact that you have to, like go down to the ground and then come back up and get happy again is the key to sh.

[Craig]

Now the question is, have you ever done Gator where you jump on the floor and shake it?

[Chris Ryan]

I don't remember doing that one, no. Yeah. It's like. Shouts Michael Jordan. And every once in a while a new song comes in and tries to be LeBron and then we have an argument about it. It's like, no, no, it's still shit. My athlete gondoli. I like when a movie gets made because it wasn't going to get made until some random star from the time period agreed to be in it for two scenes. And then they're like, now we can make it.

[Craig]

Sutherland's here.

[Chris Ryan]

Sutherland. He worked for two days. He was offered $25,000 for the two days or 2% of the film's gross.

[Craig]

He took the 25 and he took

[Chris Ryan]

the 25K because he thought the movie was going to bomb. It's amazing. We've done 437 rewatchables at this point. 438, something like that. It's amazing how many times the movies were like, right on the fringe of not being made and then they got random. Yeah, yeah. And Donald Sutherland sound like he was famous. But even I said Ryan Reynolds before. He wasn't even as famous as Ryan Reynolds. It was.

[Craig]

I just think it's a different kind of fame. I mean, he's also like doing a. Credibility still doing like three movies a year pretty much around. I'd have to look at like his actual filmography, but those people, like worked a lot, you know.

[Murph]

And I love. In the opening credits, I love when it says at the end. And so. And so as Jennings and Donald Sutherland as Jennings.

[Craig]

It's great.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I have him in what stage? The best too, because I'm convinced he's wearing just his same clothes from Invasion of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

[Craig]

It's the same outfit.

[Chris Ryan]

He's wearing the same outfit that he wears for an hour of the movie. And he was probably filming the other movie.

[Craig]

Showed up in a corduroy suit and they were like, you know what? Honestly, that's perfect.

[Chris Ryan]

It's. And he looks the same. He's got the same hair, the same mustache. It's like he just got pulled out.

[Craig]

What does he do? Does the John Milton speech. She does the. My novel is A piece of shit scene and then he's in the last.

[Chris Ryan]

He's in two and a half scenes. Basically the biggest. What's aged the best for this movie is Bluto's speech became an incredibly impactful home game sports movie. Let's get the crowd going. During this era that I think is basically over now, but from late 90s, say like 98, 99 range through the 2000s, there was like five or six different movies where they would play the scenes. They would do Rudy, they would do Hoosiers. And this one always brought the house.

[Craig]

I feel like 300.

[Chris Ryan]

300's a good one.

[Craig]

Gladiator and like what's another one that's kind of replaced this as like a.

[Chris Ryan]

But I don't feel like they do this anymore because people. During the timeouts, I think the Lakers

[Craig]

used to do three. Like to have 300 playing. When they would do the starting lineups, the Celtics would.

[Chris Ryan]

They got to the point where they just wouldn't run the clip.

[Craig]

They would just play the speech.

[Chris Ryan]

They would. They would do the speech but they would intersperse it with, you know, Celtic and they would like do like the next level recut of it. But Animal House was a major one and you would just see blues. It was like nothing is over.

[Craig]

Have you ever heard this at a game?

[Murph]

I don't think so.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, they don't do it anymore. Yeah, this was like a 10 year run. I have more. But what do you have for what stage the best.

[Craig]

The way that they depict the. What is essentially like Smith College. Like the. The Seven Sisters schools.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

The girl who dies in a kiln explosion.

[Chris Ryan]

Fun.

[Craig]

And Otter's like she was gonna make me a pot.

[Chris Ryan]

We were engaged to be engaged.

[Craig]

But just the whole. That whole segment. It's not necessarily like a rewatchable scene, but it's so nailed on like that whole like women's college thing.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. There's somebody working at the front desk.

[Craig]

Belushi destroying the acoustic guitar. I feel like I've seen like a billion times and like is still like. I think of it every time I'd ever go to a party and somebody would be like, there's a guy in the corner playing Dave Matthews and you're just like, how funny would it be to just smash this thing against the fucking wall and be like, sorry.

[Chris Ryan]

I have. I think Matheson is tremendous as I unbelievable this time. I think he's so good in this movie. And it's like kind of looks like Craig, by the way.

[Craig]

That's really a compliment.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't understand why Tim Matheson didn't become a bigger star.

[Craig]

I had him coming up, but we could talk about it now. Like, he is actually the. Could have been Harrison Ford because he was another guy up for Raiders. And, like, he's a little, like. I think he is like a Hollywood native. Like, whole life. Like on Western TV shows when he's a little kid and stuff.

[Murph]

But.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, I wonder, did he get. It's in casting what ifs. I'll do one now. Where they tried to get Chevy Case. Chevy Chase for Otter, and he ended up doing foul play. I wonder if he just got Market corrected by Chevy Chase.

[Craig]

Well, he's in Fletch with Chevy Chase.

[Chris Ryan]

Hilarious. Because in Fletch, he plays the guy who hires Chevy Chase because they look like each other.

[Craig]

But it's funny to watch him be Chevy Chase's straight man in Fletch. But he's just doing Chevy Chase in.

[Chris Ryan]

I think Otter is so fucking funny in this movie.

[Craig]

And his speech at the trial.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Where he's like, if the fraternity system is on trial, then the entire system is on trial. I won't have you besmirch the United States of America. And they walk out seeing the Star Spangled Banner.

[Chris Ryan]

I love how Horny is, too. Like, he meets Flounder's girlfriend.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And he's like, here, come over. He's just, like, clearly going to try to get Flounder's girlfriend to go up to his room. He's always trying to have sex with whoever he's in the room with. But he's like, there's something charming about him. I don't know. That's why the gynecologist thing's so funny at the end.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like, of course.

[Craig]

Hysterical.

[Chris Ryan]

I thought Matheson just killed it. Crazy college razzie kids. Yeah. Neidermeyer when they're all in the thing.

[Craig]

Like, that's also an.

[Chris Ryan]

We've all been to college with those kids.

[Craig]

Yeah. Reigert and Matheson playing golf and just.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah. Just trying to hit the.

[Craig]

Don't think about it as work. Think about it as something you enjoy.

[Chris Ryan]

This is a small one, but at the beginning, when Flander and Pinto go to the thing to meet all the people. Like the. Basically the first scene in the movie and he lets Pinto in and then slams the door on Flounder. And it's like a great. Like, it actually seems like he hits him with the thing. But it's just like. Just immediately sets the tone when Flounder

[Craig]

goes over to Greg and starts talking to him. And then Greg's like, kind of guides him back to the four rejects.

[Chris Ryan]

And he's like, why just talk to him some more.

[Craig]

I've already met these guys. And he's like, great. You'll have plenty to talk about.

[Chris Ryan]

Hand jobs with latex gloves.

[Craig]

You think that's aged the best?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it's hilarious. Flounder and Silent Rage four years later Silent. That is a one for us Month.

[Craig]

Silent Rage.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, we're finally gonna end up doing that. But Flounder is Chuck Norris's sidekick in Silent Rage.

[Craig]

That would be an amazing collection of films. It's just if we did. If we did Lincoln. Silent Rage and we tried to time

[Chris Ryan]

with Netflix, it was like, hey, so I'm not sure how you're going to promote this in the carousel, but it's. It's one for us month. Toga parties did become a thing in the 80s.

[Craig]

I never.

[Chris Ryan]

I was at the tail end of it when I was in college. I don't think I ever went to one of us.

[Craig]

You weren't in a fr.

[Chris Ryan]

No court.

[Craig]

Hos were. Did you. Were you?

[Murph]

I was in a fraternity for two years and we did throw a toga party in college.

[Craig]

Did you like you were in junior and senior or freshman?

[Murph]

Freshman. Sophomore.

[Craig]

Why'd you stop?

[Murph]

I just like, honestly didn't like it.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Murph]

I don't know.

[Craig]

Wow.

[Chris Ryan]

Sounds like he got hazed.

[Murph]

I did go through that, but just not for me. Yeah, we threw the toga party at a house senior year. Actually not in the frat.

[Craig]

Was it fun? It's great.

[Chris Ryan]

It's the best.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The toga thing became a big thing for about, I would say, 10 years.

[Craig]

Never. Never got it.

[Murph]

It's also like the easiest dress up party you can go to. Like, it's. Everyone just wears a bed sheet. It's the easiest thing in the world.

[Craig]

You got to wear like shorts underneath the bed sheet though, right?

[Murph]

Not. Not me. Not Otter.

[Chris Ryan]

And then this is my high school buddy, Jim Grady, who went to Colgate and I think was president of his flat. He texted this yesterday. Little known secret. I wanted to be rush chair at Sigma Sigma Chi just so I could say hi. Jim Grady, rush chairman. Damn glad to beat you. Not joking apparently. Really did that.

[Craig]

Oh my God.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, this is a great woods age. The best. So they, they had this bit in the original script, but they didn't film it with the JFK float. And they had the four people dressed like Jackie Onassis on the day he Got assassinated.

[Craig]

Oh, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But they had this. They. They were going to have a car go through his head and it was going to be in the exit wound spot of when he got assassinated. And then Landis is like, we got to cut this. It's too offensive.

[Craig]

So that's when he was like, we can't do that. But can we? What if she was.

[Chris Ryan]

Somehow the 13 was fine. If they had had the car zoom through his head in the exit wound, I think that would have aged pretty funnily in my opinion. Yeah, it's just like, holy shit. They were really going for it in 1978, but they decided not to do it. And then you mentioned the other. What stage? The best. Louie Louie, Shamalama. Ding Dong Shout.

[Craig]

The music's great.

[Chris Ryan]

I had one last age. The best. It's Sarah Holcomb's IMDb.

[Craig]

Okay. Sarah Holcomb is Colette, the. The young girl.

[Chris Ryan]

Sarah Holcomb is the. Yeah. Who ends up being Maggie and Caddyshack. Oh, thanks for nothing. She's in four movies and then apparently, sadly had some issues and was out of the industry. Her first movie ever is Animal House and her last movie is Caddyshack. Her second to last movie is some movie called Happy Birthday Gemini.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

And then she makes one other movie and she's the star of Walk Proud. Do you know what Walk Proud is? I'll just read you what it's about. Robbie Benson plays Emilia Mendez, a young Chicano gang member in Los Angeles who begins to question his gang life when he meets and starts to fall for a white girl who encourages him to try and leave. Robbie sang the theme song Adios yesterday. No, he was a blue eyed Caucasian in real life, but made up in dark face and wore black contact lenses so he would look like a Latino for the movie. And then all the researches. This movie was reviled. This is considered one of the most offensive movies.

[Craig]

This seems like a Robbie Benson passion project though.

[Chris Ryan]

Walk Proud. Yeah, Robbie bets it as Emilio Mendez. But if you're like, I'm also doing

[Craig]

the song, like you gotta be believing in the material.

[Chris Ryan]

Did we do this for Politically Incorrect Month with Soul man and a couple others?

[Craig]

What if we did Walk Proud with Van but just like made known comment about how weird it was?

[Chris Ryan]

CR And I love this Walk Proud Benson is just.

[Craig]

Is in his bag in this movie.

[Chris Ryan]

So. But this ties back to them thinking it was a good idea to have a 13 year old. This is 1970, the start of the cocaine era.

[Craig]

Their radar is off.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, people are just it's like, yeah, we got Robbie Benson. He's gonna play Emilio Mendes.

[Murph]

That movie was released by Universal.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. By the way, Robbie Benson was like a star because he was coming off one on one. This was like his next big project. So, yeah, that did not go well. Anyway, those were her four movies. Great shot. Gorder Award. What'd you have?

[Craig]

I had the freeze frame of when the horse has the heart attack. There's fucking nothing better. I would say this goes into what stage? The best. Putting animals indoors. Like large farm animals indoors.

[Murph]

When you see the four legs just up and the guy breaks in the jigsaw.

[Craig]

Carmine's like, I'm going to use legs. If you ever try to, like, say, oh, my God, he's measuring the doorway.

[Murph]

Oh, it's good.

[Chris Ryan]

Kahuna Burger for best use of food and drink. It's got to be amazit or that.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Chess. Rockwell Brocklander's award for best character name. I could give you John Blutarski. What about Mandy Pepperidge?

[Craig]

It's pretty good. I have Gregory Marmalard.

[Chris Ryan]

Gregory raped in prison. What do you have for a flex?

[Craig]

Oh, I had the Dennis Beck relationship test for Otter.

[Chris Ryan]

Otter as Dennis Peck?

[Murph]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

With Flanders girl just coming in.

[Craig]

Be like, dennis back. Los Angeles pd. Damn glad to meet you.

[Chris Ryan]

Butch's girlfriend. Word. Weak link in the film other than the 13 year old I have, minus

[Craig]

the Greg, Mandy, Babs love triangle is just the handjobs are funny.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't know about this.

[Craig]

And I'm just kind of like, all right, guys. Like, this is not your mean to. Why I'm watching Animal.

[Murph]

The hand job scenes kill me.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Why is it soft?

[Murph]

And he's like, sorry, just this Delta thing's on my mind, kids.

[Chris Ryan]

19, all you want to do is get laid.

[Murph]

To be 19.

[Chris Ryan]

My weak link was 1962 is now 64 years ago. It feels like a fucking lifetime.

[Craig]

Yeah, I mean, I did Ben watch this.

[Chris Ryan]

Zoe Simmons, my daughter, who's home right now. I. It was on. She was on her phone the whole time and thought it was too slow, but did enjoy Belushi.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

That was her review.

[Craig]

Had she seen it before?

[Chris Ryan]

No.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

No. But yeah, if you're remaking this, I guess we did remake it as old school.

[Craig]

Basically.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes. The Steven Seagal shitting on himself award for most unbelievable anecdote from the actual film Shoot. Yeah, I'm going with. So they filmed this at University of Oregon. And they weren't supposed to interact with the students, but then one day, these girls at a fraternity Invite them to a fraternity party. All the Delta actors go. They're greeted with hostility from the Oregon students. Guy Widows, who played Hoover, throws a cup of beer at drunk football players and they end up having a brawl. And McGill gets a black eye. Widows got some loose teeth. And then Belushi was filming snl, came back, found out about the fight and they had to like physically restrain him from going to find the football players fighting them.

[Craig]

He's a fucking real one. Yeah. I love the detail in the New York Times oral history, I think Widow says he was basically like hooking up with a girl whose dad was a dentist.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

So he got in at 8 in the morning. The next morning, get his teeth fixed.

[Chris Ryan]

The Ed Norton Reverse Dunk Award for Did this movie need a random sports scene? So can I get rid of like one of the two hand job scenes and just have like a intramural football scene or something?

[Craig]

This is exactly what I was going to say. Which is this movie needed to end with a flag football game or a football game intramural football game to decide whether or not they could stay in college. And I went as far as to just break down. Oh, let's go 1960.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't even know you did this.

[Craig]

1960 do football position. So you got quarterback, halfback, fullback, center, garden ends.

[Chris Ryan]

So Otter's qb.

[Craig]

Otter, definitely qb.

[Chris Ryan]

He's probably a good qb.

[Craig]

Incredible pocket presence.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Little Bradyish charisma.

[Craig]

Esque, you know, sure. Kind of Jimmy G a little bit.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

But like would excel in the McVeigh system. Unfortunately, back then it was like 90% runs. But yeah, Halfback, you go, Boone. I like Reigert.

[Chris Ryan]

I think he's crappy.

[Craig]

Speed going between the tackles. Fullback, obviously. Bluto, center. I go D day. Kind of calling it all out Kelsey style. Sees all the coverage.

[Chris Ryan]

Interesting. I could see him as a tight end too.

[Craig]

Yeah. And then guard Flounder. You got to put him somewhere. And then my wide receivers are Hoover and Stork.

[Chris Ryan]

What is.

[Craig]

What does Widow say? Oh, no, Otter. When he's like Stork, when you came here, everybody thought you were.

[Chris Ryan]

Thought you were brave Damage. He said, that's Doug Kenny, by the way.

[Craig]

Yeah. Now I don't know what the other team.

[Chris Ryan]

So. But this is basically Revenge of the Nerds. Decided, oh, we should actually. This will be our ending.

[Murph]

We'll have.

[Craig]

If they just remade the end of the longest yard, I would have been like that. That's great. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So you could have gone football. Basketball would have been weird. Softball.

[Craig]

No, because it feels like it's fall there. It feels like it's. It's.

[Chris Ryan]

So rugby would have been the other one, I think.

[Murph]

Or you could have done track at Hayward Field at Oregon.

[Craig]

That's true. But they're supposed to be at Dartmouth, right? Like this is supposed to be the Northeast, isn't it?

[Murph]

Yeah, but there's, there's a shot, the ROTC thing. You see Hayward Field behind them, the big track.

[Craig]

Dude. What? Among the things that has aged the best is Eugene as a college town.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh yeah.

[Craig]

I've been there a few Times recently.

[Chris Ryan]

So a 7v7, 1962 intramural football, something.

[Craig]

And it's like we'll let you stay in school if you win this Belushi definitely scores. Oh, you know what? It's also an old school.

[Murph]

Does a big gymnastic.

[Craig]

Basically do a decathlon or like Olympics. Yeah.

[Murph]

This movie's still huge at Oregon. I mean they play shout at in between every third and fourth quarter.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh yeah, yeah. What's age the worst? I'm sure the Belushi Boyer stuff wouldn't go over awesome these days. We mentioned that 13 year old girl and then the angel devil scene.

[Craig]

Yeah, I had that one tough one. Angel devil scene, statutory rape, prominent Confederate flag on the wall, attitudes about animal cruelty.

[Chris Ryan]

The. The angel devil scene really hits the jackpot of things that would never happen again. Especially when we find out that how young the girl is. But I gotta say, the devil's like her, her.

[Craig]

I have one more what's age the worst? Which is a personal preference thing because obviously he was relatively successful around this. I just would love to have seen the Reitman or Ramis version of this movie directed. I think Landis is like this one in Blues Brothers. Feels so flat to me. Yeah. And he loves to do like a big master shot where there's like lots of sight gags and like recurring bits or whatever. But I just wish it had a little bit more pizzazz with the direction. And I like what he did with Trading Places. So it's not like I don't like any John Landis movies. And I mean Kentucky Fried movie was still like the hardest I ever actually laughed in my life up until that point. But these two like Blues Brothers and, and Animal House are like kind of like a little too static for my tastes.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, Landis. I'm trying to think of like there's coaches over the years that get too much credit for the teams they had.

[Craig]

Right.

[Chris Ryan]

Like Casey Jones was like this, like what a coach. It was like he had Bird Parish McGill and Bill Walton. And you know, we've seen football coaches like this too. Or Mike McCarthy.

[Craig]

Right. We're about to find out.

[Murph]

How dare you?

[Chris Ryan]

Well, Mike McCarthy that one year, and it's like Mike McCarthy would have coached and then, you know, he's available and starts bouncing around. And I wonder with Landis to the people he had on Animal House. Now I'm sure he gets credit for some stuff. And he's been really good in the different books of spinning stuff his way and making it seem like even in

[Craig]

the oral history for Animal House, multiple matters. Like he immediately started calling it his movie.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And everybody was like, what the man? Like, we like, this is all of our life stories.

[Chris Ryan]

He's pretty famous for revisionist history stuff. And it seems like a lot of the people that have worked with him aren't that flattering about him after the fact. Like, Eddie Murphy was another one that really turned.

[Craig]

Eddie worked with him a bunch, though.

[Chris Ryan]

I know, but the last one coming to America, he turned on him. And then didn't Landis do like the.

[Craig]

The be the Beverly Hills Cop that set at like Disney World?

[Chris Ryan]

Basically the bad one.

[Craig]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So I don't know. Obviously he was talented, but I also feel like if. If Reitman or Ramis had directed this, I'm sure. I'm pretty sure it still would have been funny. There's some. Some racism stuff that may probably makes sense because it's set in 1962, but that when you watch that, you're like, oh, what's your major? Primitive cultures. And then it just cuts right to Otis.

[Craig]

It's like, ah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Well.

[Craig]

And like the. The mayor has the long jockey statue, the Confederate flag. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The only other woods age of worst. This inspired a lot of copycat stuff, including they made us ABC sitcom called Delta House.

[Craig]

You ever seen it?

[Chris Ryan]

No. Dean Wormer was in it. So was flounder. McGill was in it as D Day Widows was in his Hoover. Michelle Pfeiffer made her acting debut. And then Bluto's brother Blotto, played by Josh Mostel.

[Craig]

Zero myself. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yikes. Then CBS decided to do co ed Fever about all female Baxter College one episode. And then brothers and Sisters on NBC at frat and sorority sitcom three months. I never watched any of these.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

And in the late 70s, I watched everything. I was an only child. I did not watch this. The Hans Gruber scale villain ranking Niedermeyer or Dean Wormer in the finals.

[Craig]

I think Neidermeyer's pretty iconic.

[Chris Ryan]

Can I make the case For Dean Wormer, please. He hates these guys so much that he fails them out of college and then says, and I notified the local draft boards that you are now. That is, like, as evil as it gets. He's like, I'm actually gonna send you guys off to be murdered.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So I'd vote for him. Peter Meyer does try to shoot somebody during the parade. Chaos.

[Craig]

I will give. So then if you say that I'll do the Ruffalo Hannah Ruben award. I'll give it to Mark Metcalf for.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, yeah.

[Craig]

Niedermeyer's spittle champion. Like spitting in Flounder's face during rotc.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, he. They Twisted Sister had the we're not gonna take it video. And they bring Neidermeyer back to basically play Neidermeyer again, yelling at Dee Snider. And that. That actor, Mark Metcalf, basically, he became Neidermired.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Was like. We've talked about. I think that's a rewatchables category, actually, in the Flexes. Did you. Can you escape this?

[Craig]

Yes. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

This character. All right, we'll take a break and then we'll do Hottest Take. This episode is brought to you by the Active Cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it, big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game and grabbing a coffee, it earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Say it with me. The Active cash credit card from Wells Fargo. Be a 2 percenter. Learn more at Wells Fargo.com active cash terms apply. This episode is brought to you by Brooks Running. Sometimes in the film world, we see performances on screen that are so mind blowing, you think someone somewhere is bending the rules. Like when one actor plays twins or nails a really difficult accent. The Glycerin Flex from Brooks is that phenomenon in shoe form. It provides a flexible cushion ride that's made to move with you. With a breathable upper, your shoe feels like a distraction. Free second skin. It's the ultimate blend between human movement and tech. So if you want to experience the best parts of your performance, flex the rules in the new Glycerin Flex shop, the glycerin [e-mail] all right, the CR thinks Luke Wilson could have been Harrison Ford. Hottest. Take a word. What do you got? C.R.

[Craig]

can we just talk this out for a second?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Is this movie or is Belushi's career different if he plays Flounder? If Blushy doesn't do like a Belushi, like, mega performance.

[Chris Ryan]

He saves Bluto for the next one.

[Murph]

Yeah.

[Craig]

Or maybe like in you do Animal House 2 and Flounder becomes Bluto or something like that. I know he's probably a little old to play a freshman.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

But I would have loved to have seen Belushi, like, try one different. Like, sort of.

[Chris Ryan]

He does that in Neighbors, which I saw in the theater where he plays the straight man, basically.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And you're just sitting there the whole time waiting, waiting for him to explode.

[Craig]

The other, the only other one was like, literally the Tim Matheson thing where I was just like, this guy does this movie. He's got like. Like literally, like the platonic ideal movie star looks goes up for Raiders. It's him, Tom Selleck, Jeff Bridges and Harrison Ford.

[Chris Ryan]

Just got market corrected a couple times. Ended up like, by the time we got to the 90s, he's in a lot of those lifetime type of movies.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Who's attracted to the nanny?

[Craig]

He is like, later.

[Advertisement Voice]

Period.

[Craig]

Probably highlight would be when he's the VP on West Wing.

[Chris Ryan]

Right. My. My hottest take. I think this movie caused more copycat damage than any other movie ever made.

[Craig]

Damage.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I think it completely wrecked two generations of college kids trying to. Basically, this was given the blueprint for like, let's Go fucking Crazy Tonight. They would have done it anyway, but this movie gave them a map. Yeah. To be like, well, we could have a frat. Like, they like, all this stuff was kind of happening anyway. But I think this movie, like, was. Was the gasoline and the fudgeing match for.

[Craig]

I think the argument that even outside of Animal House, like outside of the Greek system, there's some influence of Animal House on interior design in houses lived in by like three or more men. Three or more guys. Like where you have. We just put an air hockey table that we found on the sidewalk and hung it on the wall. You know what I mean? Or like the TV is on a milk crate and we have three movies and we watch them on a loop.

[Chris Ryan]

I think this movie killed more brain cells than any other movie ever in

[Murph]

terms of the impact it had on kids going to college in the future.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I think just kids being like, someday I'm going to college, I'm going to be like the Animal House guys and just going fucking nuts. Casting what ifs the initial cast wish list. Chevy Chase is Otter. Bill Murray is Boone. Brian Doyle Murray is Hoover. Dan Aykroyd is D Day. And Belushi is Bluto. And Lorne wouldn't let that Lauren thing's not true.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

I don't think he ever would have not let somebody do a movie like Aykroyd has said, because they based D day on Aykroyd because he rode a motorcycle and he feels like he should be in this movie. But they're filming it during season three of snl, and Aykroyd was, like, a huge part of the show, and he felt like if both him and Blushi were flying back and forth doing a movie, it would hurt the show. And that's why he said he didn't do it. I believe that story more than I. I just don't think Lauren would be like, you're not doing this.

[Craig]

He never oper see how I did now. I mean, I'm a little too old, probably, but, like, I would love to try and do, like, bicoastal potting and just see, like, if I could do

[Chris Ryan]

CR in New York Monday to Wednesday.

[Craig]

Yeah. And then I'm back here to do rewatchables Thursday, Friday, I'd be dead. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Like, the rewatch must have been canceled this week because Bill died from flying back and forth. Chase turned down the film for Foul Play. And there's, of course, Landis and Chase disagree on what happened.

[Craig]

Like, just absolutely busting each other's balls in the press.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Landis, who I think does spin stuff toward his version of things. He's like, I didn't want Chase to be in it. I told him it was going to be an ensemble. And then, yeah, I was like, you're not going to be the star of this movie. And I Jedi mind tricked him into saying no. And Chase was like, I was offered Foul Play with Goldie Hawn. Like, of course I was.

[Craig]

And I think he was like, as usual, John Landis is full of shit. Or something like that.

[Chris Ryan]

John Landis is full of shit, as he usually is. Ramis wrote the part for Boone for himself, but they decided he looked too old, which is funny because half the people in this movie look too old.

[Craig]

And I think that was another Landis call. And Ramis was pissed off about it.

[Chris Ryan]

Still mad about it. Yeah. Landis wanted Jack Webb from Dragnet and Kim Novak to play the Wormers. And Jack Webb thought, this movie is not funny. Bigger question is, does Craig know who Jack Webb is?

[Murph]

I don't.

[Chris Ryan]

Did you ever see Dragnet?

[Craig]

Tom Hanks? Did Dan Aykroyd Dragnet? No.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Two generations removed from not knowing who he is. Reitman wanted to direct, but had no directing skills and they said, no, thanks. That's that Guy Award. Really tough because this movie came out 48 years ago.

[Craig]

But I went with John Vernon.

[Chris Ryan]

I think Flounder is that guy. Do people know what his real name is?

[Craig]

Yeah, I guess I. But he's not in a ton of stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Niedermeyer would be the other one.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Dion Waiters. I could offer you Donald Sutherland for two and a half scenes. I could offer you Dean Wormer's wife. I could offer you Otis Day. Or I could offer you Shelly, the girl who was Fawn's roommate, who really wanted Otter to feel better about this.

[Craig]

The girl who's Fawn's roommate cracks up.

[Murph]

That girl's great. She's really good.

[Craig]

She's really good. But I'm going to go with Sutherland just because it is a classic. Dion Waiters of. I'm in two scenes, everybody's like, that's Donald fucking Sutherland. He's in mash.

[Chris Ryan]

And then, yeah, I have Dean Wormer's wife. You can get your finger out of my ass.

[Craig]

You love a drunk witchy.

[Chris Ryan]

I love drunken witchy. Great stuff.

[Craig]

Can I. Is this for casting what ifs? I mean, I guess this is also casting Couch Director City. The. It's pretty legitimate research that this movie was offered to a bunch of major directors.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

So John Schlesinger, who did Midnight Cowboy.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Did you believe this?

[Craig]

It's in the New York Times oral history. So I was kind of like, maybe this is true. But it went out, at least to Schlesinger, Alan Pula, Mike Nichols and George Roy Hill and Bob Raffleson.

[Chris Ryan]

I didn't understand that at all.

[Craig]

That's amazing.

[Chris Ryan]

George Roy Hill directed this?

[Craig]

Well, I mean, he was probably directed Slap Shot. It wouldn't have been completely out of the question.

[Chris Ryan]

I just can't imagine why any of those people would have done this.

[Craig]

Which of those directors do you think would have been like, so the 13 year old,

[Chris Ryan]

what are we doing?

[Murph]

Do I hear 15?

[Chris Ryan]

I forgot to mention Shelley. Two IMDb credits.

[Craig]

What's the other one?

[Chris Ryan]

An episode of Charlie's Angels.

[Craig]

Oh, okay.

[Chris Ryan]

That was it. I thought she was good. I would have liked to have seen her.

[Craig]

She was Robbie Benson's Chicana girlfriend and walked around.

[Chris Ryan]

She dated Emilio Mendez before somebody else. Recasting Couch. Director City. Would you have. I would do.

[Craig]

I think I'd like to see Reitman do this one. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I have Reitman as director. Craig Flex, Jamie Lee Curtis.

[Murph]

Unnecessary nudity. But I think all of the nudity in this movie is Defensible because it's all at the service of these like loser, horny college kids.

[Craig]

Yeah, sure.

[Murph]

I actually think all of it's fine for 1978. And it's totally fine. There's one scene where I'm like, Karen Allen's just bare ass in that one scene. Just. I don't know why that's in the movie.

[Craig]

And that's why Sutherland's ass is out. Is apparently. He was like, I. If she was going to have to take her pants off, I was going to take my pants off.

[Murph]

Like.

[Craig]

Like a.

[Murph]

In solidarity.

[Chris Ryan]

Southern solidarity.

[Craig]

Because the rest is like, sure, blue.

[Murph]

She's a creep. He's looking in. All of it actually kind of works. And then there's just the beginning of a scene. Karen Allen is putting on a dress.

[Craig]

We didn't. We haven't really talked about her. And rer.

[Chris Ryan]

In what sense?

[Craig]

Just as like they're like in kicking and screaming in this movie. Like they're in the most like relatable normal relationship.

[Chris Ryan]

Could have used like one more scene with them.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

One last hand job scene.

[Murph]

Karen Allen, she looks great in this. Looks great.

[Chris Ryan]

Great. Really one of a kind.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Something really just like fetching and approachable.

[Craig]

Did you have a girlfriend in college when you were like, I love the Boston Red Sox and drinking beer and hanging out with my friends who was just like, when are you going to grow up? Yeah, yeah.

[Murph]

Her like pouring beers at the beginning of the movie behind the bar at Delta.

[Chris Ryan]

You're like, fuck.

[Craig]

But it's all. Yeah, like, like that was also. She's also like the coolest thing ever. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

That's what I like about the character is I'm not positive she exists in real life.

[Craig]

Sure.

[Chris Ryan]

Trying to think of any friend, girlfriend I had who.

[Murph]

No, she's like the platonic ideal of a woman. In that.

[Chris Ryan]

Half ass center research we mentioned, University of Oregon allowed them to use the campus for 20k. But they were like, don't mention us. And then all these years later they have like a tour when you go, yeah, here's all the filming locations. Then you shout between the third and fourth quarters of every football game.

[Craig]

Just don't watch the movie, but know that we were in it.

[Chris Ryan]

Black extras had to be bused in from Portland due to the scarcity around the college campus.

[Craig]

Christ. Wow. In 78.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Landis brought the Deltas five days early so they could all bond. And they all bond. And then Bruce McGill's room became party central. And then the Omegas were another part. And they all didn't really like each other.

[Craig]

Like, it's weird that on a movie like Animal House, they're doing, like, method acting rules. Cause I think I read that, like, Greg. Greg wanted to party with them, but it was like, you know, I couldn't really. So, like, it just put me more into character. And I was like, come on, man.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you think they took movies more seriously in the 1970s because we made less of them? Right. So if you're in this, it's like, this is a big deal. We have to. Now I just feel like I'd be like, yeah, I'm an Animal House. Then I'm going to do a thing on Friends and Neighbors. And then you're just kind of bouncing.

[Craig]

I don't know. I think there's also something about, like, you know, this. These movies back then, like, also excelled at, like, finding unknowns. And so people were probably like, this is my big break. I'm gonna take it seriously. Even if it's Animal House.

[Chris Ryan]

True. Belushi went to local nightclubs during filming. Checked out bands. Became fascinated by a musician named Curtis Salgado, who wore sunglasses and loved the blues. And it became the Blues Brothers. They almost did a sequel. Craig. It was going to take place during the 1967 Summer of Love. A reunion at Otter's wedding.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Which is funny in itself. Otter was going to get married. But then when More American Graffiti bombed the box office, I saw that movie in the theater. Universal stalls the project. Belushi dies and they're done.

[Craig]

Yeah. This would have been. It was going to be set at Height Ashbury. I don't know if it necessarily would.

[Chris Ryan]

It's kind of into the idea.

[Craig]

I mean. Yeah, but I. It's like. It's a different sensibility than the one that was in this one. This kind of like, Ivy League prick sensibility.

[Chris Ryan]

Dwayne Jesse played Otis Day.

[Craig]

This is my favorite piece of research.

[Chris Ryan]

Purchased the rights to the character name. They made it up and became Otis Day. And Night.

[Craig]

He doesn't do the music in the movie. He's lip syncing.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And Landis finds out, like, 25 years later that this guy has been just touring the country doing Otis Day. He's like, good for him, I guess.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Stephen Bishop. No relation to my buddy Bish, who was also named Steve Bishop. This is a running joke for us that there are two Steve Bishops.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

He was the guy with the guitar.

[Craig]

Oh, okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Keys. Had a career. He had a career on his own. Started dating Karen Allen after they met in the set. Dated for years. Wrote the song Separate Lives based on their breakup that became a hit song for Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin. And was in the movie White Nights.

[Craig]

I remember.

[Chris Ryan]

Separate Lives. Yeah. Emotional. Not a great karaoke song.

[Craig]

No.

[Chris Ryan]

Bruce McGill and Tim Matson started Black Sheep. They're the only actors to star with Chris Farley and John Belushi.

[Murph]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And then Universal's film president, Ned Tannen, wanted them to cut the entire black bar scene. Thought there would be riots across America. Big argument back and forth. They sent the movie to Richard Pryor and he sent Ned a note saying, animal House is fucking funny. White people are crazy. And that ended up staying. This movie really, really hit the gamut of weird things to touch. Apex Mountain. Belushi.

[Craig]

Yes. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Tim Matheson. I'm gonna say yes. Felt like the world was his oyster after this movie.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Cafeteria scenes.

[Craig]

Is he also in 1941 with Belushi is Mason in that?

[Chris Ryan]

Cafeteria scenes. Spent some great cafeteria scenes.

[Craig]

Yeah. Dining hall scenes. But this is probably up there. This is the best food fight I've ever seen.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I think it narrowly edges just one of the guys they make. Greg Tolan. Craig. Didn't like that.

[Murph]

It just beats it out.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Murph]

Barely.

[Chris Ryan]

John Landis, I think.

[Craig]

Trading Places, personally.

[Chris Ryan]

Yep. I agree. Hand jobs. Why is it soft?

[Craig]

I kind of want to Google Greatest movie hand jobs, but I'm a little worried.

[Chris Ryan]

This is Stephen first.

[Craig]

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And goes on to play Dorfman again multiple times. Right? Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Peter Ragard.

[Craig]

No. But I can't, off the top of my head, think of what it is.

[Chris Ryan]

Maybe I think it was Animal House for years, but now I think it's Sopranos.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

He dates the Russian hooker, and then Tony beats the show.

[Craig]

Delancey and Local Hero are the two that I remember. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

College movies. I'm gonna say yes. Toga parties. Yes.

[Craig]

Do you have a second favorite college movie?

[Chris Ryan]

Old School.

[Craig]

Do you have a third favorite?

[Chris Ryan]

Road Trip? I think Road Trip's excellent. I really like that movie.

[Craig]

I think Everybody Wants Some. Is, like, way up there for me now.

[Chris Ryan]

It's getting there. It's. It's aging really nicely.

[Craig]

Were you ever a PCU fan?

[Chris Ryan]

Never. Really? I never really love Piven.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

You've only watched his. His television series nine times.

[Chris Ryan]

Lloyd Cruiser. Hanks.

[Craig]

Hanks.

[Chris Ryan]

I think Hanks.

[Craig]

I think Hanks could do Otter.

[Chris Ryan]

Scorsese or Spielberg.

[Craig]

This is really tough. Neither of them, obviously. It's two different. Entirely different.

[Chris Ryan]

I think it's definitely Spielberg. He basically tries to do this in 1941 to some degree. Right. Scorsese would be like, there's cocaine. There's all kinds of going on. It's like the.

[Craig]

When Belushi's on the ladder, he's just like staring. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Picking it. I have a few.

[Craig]

Does Dean Wormer really need to go digging into the school's constitution to find a reason to expel these guys? They're clearly like, they don't go to class.

[Chris Ryan]

They're all good at 0.0.

[Craig]

We got to put them on probation. We have to look for all these reasons.

[Chris Ryan]

Get them out of 18. Just fucking kick them out. A few of the actors too old for college, no question. But I think that's part of the joke. Wouldn't Mandy hear Bluto in the ladder or see him?

[Craig]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

He's moving the ladder over and could you actually even do that? It's like a 12 foot ladder. Could you jump it up and move it like that?

[Craig]

If Flounders brother was also had been in the frat, wouldn't he kind of understand if his car got destroyed on like a frat road trip weekend?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, true.

[Craig]

And also like, I'm not sure I totally understand why Boone's being such an idiot with Katie, like, guy. Karen Allen, man, like, what are you doing? I gotta go on a date with a bunch of like Smith College girls for a weekend.

[Chris Ryan]

Mrs. Wormer goes to the Delta party.

[Craig]

Yeah. It's insane.

[Chris Ryan]

There's no way that happens.

[Craig]

She's like, get me a drink.

[Chris Ryan]

Fawn dies in a kiln explosion.

[Craig]

Awesome.

[Chris Ryan]

What? I just need more information. Yeah.

[Craig]

So you do your. You do. You shape the clay and everything. You, you put like a lacquer on it. It just exploded like a super oven. Yeah. And they used to have those in my like arts and crafts classes.

[Chris Ryan]

More information.

[Craig]

And they would always be like, it was really weird. Now that I think back about like shop and arts and crafts class when I was a kid because we were around like table saws and kilns and all these chemicals for black rooms, for, for dark rooms, for photos.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

And it was like, yeah, you guys just don't drink that and don't put your hand in the oven.

[Chris Ryan]

Right. Why didn't we see Flounder puke on Dean Wormer?

[Craig]

I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

Big miss. I think this movie's made 20 years later we see the puke. Yeah, he's like just covered in puke. They'll figure it out. Can you really just buy 10,000 marbles? Flounder buys 10,000 marbles. Like think how many marbles that is.

[Murph]

I love that. That scene is literally one second long. It like cuts them. He's like, 10,000 marbles, please.

[Craig]

Cuts away.

[Chris Ryan]

And would a store have 10,000 marbles? Could you go to a store right now and buy 10,000 marbles? How did they see out of the. The float car, The Eat me flow car?

[Craig]

It was like a. It's like a tank, basically. I don't. I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

Every time they cut to it, it's just completely covered with float stuff.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And they're Bruce McGill's just. Just driving it around like insane.

[Craig]

That whole. That whole sequence is so nuts.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Sequel, Prequel. Prestige tv, all black cast or Untouchable? I think a sequel could have worked if Belushi hadn't died.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I think a reunion thing would have been really funny.

[Craig]

I think they could have just like this could have just been a franchise where they just kept making animal houses set throughout the decades.

[Chris Ryan]

But big mistake.

[Craig]

I guess they just let other.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, we had four American Pies.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Fergie the Florist, Zane Lowe, Robert Evans or somebody else?

[Craig]

Boone. Here you are, man. Higher education. But we find you at an all time low. Committing statutory rape, binge drinking, not taking his studies seriously. My. My Zane is rusty. I'm sorry, I should probably. Where do we go from here? And where's your 13 year old child bride gonna go with you?

[Chris Ryan]

We were inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis. I had. I had Dr. Charles Nichols. You'll have to excuse my friend John Butowski. He's not feeling well.

[Craig]

It'll be good.

[Chris Ryan]

Just one Oscar. Who gets a blushy?

[Craig]

I guess so. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Probably Unanswerable questions. Did this movie create double secret probation?

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Was this a term that existed before this movie? I'm gonna say it did not exist.

[Craig]

Maybe it was taken from like their college experience. But it is very funny. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Would you have.

[Craig]

Did this movie invent not only the sex comedy but the college comedy? And what were these guys majoring in?

[Murph]

Communications. Was that major back then?

[Craig]

In 1962?

[Chris Ryan]

It would have been funny if Bluto was a big political science guy. Well, Middle east man stuff's happening there. Doesn't.

[Murph]

He's pre med. Right.

[Craig]

But pre law, same thing.

[Chris Ryan]

Did the Omegas create the Illuminati? The frat hazing was pretty.

[Craig]

I think they pretty often really real.

[Chris Ryan]

You know Kubrick got Eyes Wide Shut in that scene. This is my big one. Was Greg gay?

[Craig]

I guess so. I can't remember it's possible.

[Chris Ryan]

Two of the hottest girls at that.

[Craig]

Mandy and Babs. That's. Yeah, those are your hottest.

[Chris Ryan]

Wouldn't have was. Was against premarital sex and could barely get it up for a hand job in the car on a thing. Just. I have some suspicions. Seem really, really interested in the. In the feuding with the Deltas. I don't know. Craig.

[Murph]

Very repressed.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, something's going on with him. The memorabilia you'd want from this movie. So many choices.

[Craig]

This is easy for me. It's the fishbowl boobs from behind the bar.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, I had the college sweatshirt Belushi wore.

[Murph]

Yeah, that's a great one.

[Chris Ryan]

That's a good one. Which you can get on. I mean, everybody ripped that off. Since you can buy that. I was actually going to try to speed rush that to wear that for the podcast. Couldn't figure it out. Coach Finstock, Mr. Miyagi. Best life lesson. Don't get mad, get even.

[Craig]

You know, I had your only Young Ones double feature. Old school.

[Chris Ryan]

I have Revenge of the Nerds.

[Murph]

I've never seen Revenge of the Nerds.

[Craig]

I. I don't know if that would ever be a rewatchable.

[Murph]

Hard to find.

[Chris Ryan]

As soon as it's streaming again, it's going to be a rewatch.

[Craig]

Come on, Ted Sarantos.

[Chris Ryan]

Come on, Ted.

[Craig]

Do the right thing.

[Murph]

You love comedy, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Big comedy fan. What do you have for double feature?

[Craig]

God.

[Murph]

I guess it's old school. Yeah.

[Craig]

Another good one would be Project X.

[Murph]

Project X For the debauchery.

[Craig]

Yes.

[Murph]

You can go. Neighbors, I guess.

[Chris Ryan]

Great one, but yeah. Ben had a Project X party at our house.

[Craig]

He did?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Murph]

Was it a. What do you mean, though?

[Craig]

Like it was a theme party or. It was like a project.

[Chris Ryan]

It was supposed to be 125 people, and it turned out to be 400 in the.

[Craig]

When did this happen?

[Chris Ryan]

Ah, two months ago.

[Craig]

You kept that under the rug.

[Murph]

Really?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Well, I was mad about it, and Ben was. And Ben was not happy about it. And then six months later, he's like. It's like when I had my project. Next part of my.

[Craig]

Did try to do that looked at. No one's more disappointed about this than me.

[Murph]

He did.

[Chris Ryan]

He played all the tricks.

[Murph]

Kids from other schools started showing up.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. People throwing up in the street. It was an amazing disaster. Master. But he. Ben's a mastermind. I think he did all this.

[Murph]

But did anything go wrong? Did anything burn down or.

[Craig]

Did anything go wrong here?

[Chris Ryan]

Nothing burned down. The cops did come.

[Craig]

Are you still finding like, cigarettes in random places and stuff.

[Chris Ryan]

It's the maddest I've ever been in him, but I should have known. But now the thing is, he can never have a party here again.

[Murph]

I should have showed up like the dean's wife.

[Chris Ryan]

You probably. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised.

[Craig]

Would have been amazing if we were like. I heard about this party tonight. Weird. It's a bill.

[Chris Ryan]

Who won the movie?

[Craig]

Belushi.

[Chris Ryan]

Belushi. Craig, give us your thoughts.

[Murph]

I love this movie. I like it more now than I ever have. When I watched it, whatever, 10 years ago, closer to Zoe's opinion, I was like, okay, it's a little underwhelming. Maybe it's. The pacing is just different, the way it's cut. But I don't know why. Watching it, I had an absolute blast. It's such a great Hang because it's a Hang movie, which is rare now. It's not really. There's not a lot of hard jokes, punch lines in this film. It's more like Dirty Dazed and Confused. It's.

[Craig]

You know what it is too, is it's. It's just short stories. So, yeah, like, until the last 30 minutes, there's basically no coherent. It's not really a plot. You know, it's like, no, here's all these funny things that happen to these guys in college. And then at the end, it's like, they have to stay in college. So there's going to be a parade.

[Murph]

Yeah, it's just more about the hang and the movie. This movie, for all of its, you know, that's like. Hasn't aged well in certain ways, but it's just like your fun drunk uncle, who is hilarious, and you just put up.

[Craig]

It's like, when was the last time you'd seen it before you watched it

[Chris Ryan]

for this every couple years. I'll jump in. I like the. The interplay between the guys. Like, there's real friendship in this movie, which I think a lot of movies have borrowed since.

[Murph]

I think it's actually just quite well acted. I think it's underratedly well acted across the board for how dumb this movie seems like it is.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, Mason Rag Rag's great. They're all really funny in this.

[Murph]

And I think movies back then compared to comedies now, like, I don't know. Even though this movie's about a lot of stupid stuff, like, there are a lot of commentaries on society and what's going on across the country. And now I think comedies are a little bit more siloed in what they're trying to say. And they're more just about like the punchline on the screen.

[Craig]

There's also like comedies are a little bit more high concept now. So it'll be like this is a comedy about how like a guy will die in five days if he doesn't meet the love of his life.

[Murph]

I just watched a college movie on Hulu Pizza movie which is starring a Stranger Things kid. It's all about like a kid in a dorm who takes drugs trying to get pizza. And it, I mean it is what it. But it's like it's not saying anything. It's just a fun crazy comedy about a guy taking drugs in college. But it's not. It's not wider than the very narrow scope of the movie.

[Craig]

Right.

[Murph]

And these movies back then were just. Were different.

[Chris Ryan]

The National Lampoon, I'm thinking some Watergate, Vietnam, Nixon stuff in here too. In smart ways that's not over the top like what we have now.

[Craig]

Yeah. And I think that they're sort of umbrella excuse for the way that this movie and you know, the 13 year old stuff is almost so beyond the pale. But like they're like. It was an equal opportunity. We made fun of everybody.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Craig]

You know, kind of thing.

[Murph]

I also think sometimes when you have to work within parameters, the movie gets better. Like, you know, the script was apparently way, way, way rauncher than it actually was. But Universal kind of putting like, like guardrails on the movie. I actually think ends up. You have to make it work and actually make it funny for it to validate being in the film. And it can't just be raunchy for raunchy sake because there's like rape scenes apparently that they cut. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Murph]

So I think sometimes when you have kind of the off the wall style and you pair it with a studio and you have to kind of land in the middle, sometimes it is the best outcome.

[Craig]

It's a magic baby.

[Chris Ryan]

It's a classic. That's it for Comedy Month. We ended up doing four quote unquote politically incorrect movies.

[Murph]

Something about Mary Tropic, Thunder, Borat, Animal House.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Four movies that definitely push the envelope

[Craig]

for different ways for you to go back and revisit which is the one that you feel like.

[Chris Ryan]

Honestly, Borat.

[Craig]

Yeah, I was just.

[Chris Ryan]

You missed that episode. You were at a high. Fitz's wedding. Borat just. I was on the treadmill and I almost fell off like four times. I don't know why. It just fucking kills me.

[Craig]

It's really.

[Chris Ryan]

But all of them, I thought held up really well. I think there's something about Mary is has. We've been with that movie now for 28 years, so you know all the bits. But it's still Warren still makes me laugh. Especially when Warren came back in the last Survivor episode. You see that? Jonathan's brother came back dressed like Warren.

[Craig]

That's right.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. It was amazing. Comedy Month, though. Pretty fun.

[Craig]

What's next?

[Chris Ryan]

So we're doing we're going to do Summer from Hell starting starting next week. All movies that are from hell. We've talked about this for a long time.

[Murph]

You want to announce the June 1st movie or no?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, we're. So the first one is going to be 2001 computer from hell. And then Netflix, Netflix licensed a bunch of movies for this. So it's going to be and I don't know if we're going to do all of them, but Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Single Wife, Female, Good Son, Pacific Heights, which I don't know if they were able to license.

[Craig]

That's the one I was most excited about.

[Chris Ryan]

You're excited about that one Domestic Disturbance, which is in the running for funniest, unintentionally funniest movie of the 2000s.

[Craig]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And a bunch of others. So they're all on there. So from Hell, it might be last longer than a month.

[Craig]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Might be like a month and a half. What a way to ring in the World Cup. Some mailbags as well. Yeah. In honor of our World cup people. All right. Thanks, Craig. Thanks, Cahao. Thanks, Chris. Ryan, see you next week in the rewatch. Later, Sam.