Animal House or Old School?

National Review ^ | 1/21/05 | Jonah Goldberg

[Thebaddog]

I just had a laughing flashback. Thanks. It's a good way to start the weekend.

[My Favorite Headache]

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[weegee]

I believe that she sang "Baby It's Cold Outside" with the Brian Setzer Orchestra and that it was released as a track on a Christmas complitation last year.

They could team up for an album but the industry would do nothing to support such a project. They could slide it under the radar if it could be justified as the soundtrack for a film.

[Military family member]

I just finished reading his biography

[weegee]

Nothing will beat Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's "Goodman Beaver Goes PL*YB*Y" (from Help! magazine and reprinted a few years later in the paperback The Executive Comic Book) for satricial skewering of upperclass hedonism.

Goodman Beaver (Kurtzman/Elder's everyman) returns to a Riverdale-like town and finds "the old gang" (the Archie comics characters) have all adopted Hugh Hefner's Playboy philosophy (including massive orgies). At the end of the story, the devil is depicted as Hugh Hefner himself. Hef didn't take offense, he hired them to do continue along these lines with a female character instead (who became Annie Fanny); Archie Comics did take offense however, they sued and own the work now (were it sits forgotten/suppressed).

[muir_redwoods]

You're getting old when your doctor is younger than you are. You are old when the President is younger than you are. You're really old when almost nobody in the room is ever older than you are.

And if you know who Lamont Cranston is you must be dead.

[Clemenza]

The only Lamont I am familiar with worked in a junkyard. Of course, many youngins out there have probably never seen Sanford & Son.

[KneelBeforeZod]

"Into the Night" was a good movie from the 80s... Jeff Goldblum and a skinny Michelle Pfifer

---

[VMI70]

Well, we took the bait, rented "Old School", and watched it this evening. Unanimous verdict around here: It doesn't hold a candle to Animal House. It's very amusing in places, but it sure isn't uproariously funny like Animal House.

One of the things that really struck me was how unattractive the "love interest" (the girl friend of the former Late Late Show host, I can't remember his name) was, in my opinion.

Anyway, not bad, but not really good...

[x]

You know you're getting old when it surprises you what these kids don't know or haven't experienced. But you're getting really old when you don't remember such things either. Does anybody have really vivid memories of Clara Peller or Emmanuel Lewis or Herve Villechaize or are they just sort of a blur or smear?

--"Star Wars" looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.

They're right about that. But the funny thing is a lot of today's computer animation also looks obviously fake. Some of it really isn't an improvement. If "I, Robot" looks so phony now, imagine what it will look like to the next generation.

[KC_Conspirator]

The only thing that can even remotely compete with "Animal House" is "Tommy Boy" in the last 10 years. However, "Old School is a hilarious" movie.

[Plutarch]

...it's useful to realize how fast the world is changing before our eyes.

I think the pace of change has palpably slowed. The differences between 2005 and 1980 are much much less than the difference beween 1980 and 1955.

[Clemenza]

Which begs the question, what would Marshall "we're living in speed-up" McLuhan have to say about this.

I agree with you about the differences between 1960-1980 and 1980-2000. The main difference I notice between 1980 and the current period are slight changes in how we view sexuality, race, and politics (largely having to do with the fact that the so-called "Greatest Generation" have largely bought the farm, taking their attitudes with them), as well as in music. These changes are largely cosmetic, and most of the technological advances of the past 20 years (the internet, telecommunications, etc) were already in place back in the 1970s.

[dfwgator]

The movie "Old School" blew. All the funny moments were in the previews.

[Clemenza]

BS! HANK THE TANK RULES!

A REALLY BAD movie was "Meet the Fockers." Watching that stinking pile of Mierda was like going through a reverse vasectomy.

[Plutarch]

...most of the technological advances of the past 20 years (the internet, telecommunications, etc) were already in place back in the 1970s.

Thats right, and what is more that these technological changes are superficial. Strip away all your post 1980 electronics and your life wouldn't change that much.

Take away your air conditioning, interstate highways, jet travel, microwave, color television, and all other developments between 1955 and 1980, and you'll be howling.

Culturally, the music from 1980 and 2005 isn't all that much different, movies aren't that much different, family isn't that much different, even politics. On all counts, 1955 and 1980 were much much different.

[Fresh Wind]

Many of the incidents in Animal House HAVE a real life counterpart. There were even more stories that we not adapted.

There was a "book" version of Animal House that was funnier than the movie. You're right-there was a lot that didn't make it into the movie. Examples: The reason why Pinto came to be called Pinto, and the aftermath of the encounter between Pinto and the mayor's daughter. Also, "Boon", whose real name was Schoenstein, was patterned after a former National Lampoon writer who went on to ghostwrite many (all?) of Bill Cosby's books.

[dirtboy]

Animal House bump - it's running on VH1 now. Getting ready for the food fight scene.