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Sun, 03 Aug 2025 04:12:54 -0700 Andy from private IP, post #17024187 /all National Lampoon's Animal House is the greatest work about Greek Letter Organizations ever committed to film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_House I was telling my wife that my fraternity experience was exactly like Animal House and that the movie was hyper-realistic. She said she had never seen Animal House and I knew she was unfamiliar with Greek life, so I found Animal House on Netflix and made her watch it yesterday. Basically, every character and most situations in the movie have direct analogs to my experience in Theta Chi at UCLA. For example, I was definitely the chapter president character since I was chapter president. For the other characters, there were guys who were ladies' men, guys who were hopeless with women, drunkards, a couple secretly gay members, etc. I told my wife at various points that, while some of the specific pranks and elements of the film are exaggerated for effect, the overall feel and vibe 10/10 accurately captures the experience. Sample attached-- the devil/angel ethical dilemma scene about passed out-drunk sex is just one example. She was shocked that this movie very accurately captures how I lived for just under three years of college. If anything, the film is too charitable in certain areas, though not many. They skewer a lot of what went on, and do it really well. One of the scenes toward the end where the dean calls Delta members into his office because their GPAs are below 2.0 is extremely realistic considering that we got quarterly GPA reports on our members and had to maintain a GPA at or above the all-men's average in order to retain our official recognition by UCLA-- a little-known fact. I'm going to do a write-up where I dissect Animal House scene-by-scene and character-by-character and post some of my extensive archival material from that era. Thankfully, I had my grandfather's film camera and not a digital camera, so I have actual film prints of many fun times in the fraternity (nothing too scandalous, don't worry). Looking forward to this project. #Alcohol #DrugFree #Education #Movies #Romance Sun, 03 Aug 2025 04:41:15 -0700 Andy from private IP Reply #11255265 I'll start by posting various areas in which Animal House is too charitable or otherwise inaccurate when considered in the context of my own experience: 1. There was far *more* drinking, drunkenness, hangover/illness from alcohol, peeing, vomiting, vandalism, and broken glass than in the movie. 2. The violence (usually external), though rare, was not light-hearted at all, and put people in the hospital on several occasions, not just holding ice to their face. 3. The hazing of pledges through drinking, physical labor, sleep deprivation, and other means absolutely occurred, was controversial within the organization, and caused some people to quit or take a step back. 4. The run-down facility with constantly broken systems and fixtures was a shameful disgrace and unfit for human habitation, much less hosting any respectable visitors. 5. Living in the fraternity house was actually hazardous for various reasons, which is why many members refused to live in it. 6. Nobody in the film has issues with money, spending, drugs, or gambling, all four of which were common problems. 7. No one in the film works, which was also common for guys to do. 8. Many members maintained high GPAs despite all of the challenges and barriers. In winter quarter 2002 of my senior year, while living in the house and shortly after departing as chapter president, I believe I got a 3.93 GPA. This was the highest or second-highest in the group of about 45 members, and should have been impossible. Sun, 03 Aug 2025 05:07:45 -0700 Andy from private IP Reply #11821429 Next, I'll go over areas in which things are exaggerated for dramatic effect in the film: 1. There was no scenario in which members would be out at a Black-only club, and/or abandon women, even women they just met, at any club knowing that bad things could happen to them. There were several hero complexes in the group, myself included, so women were occasionally saved from bad situations and anybody who even came close to committing crimes against women was prevented or expelled from the group. 2. There were no 13 year-old girls allowed at parties (lol). The one time I ever knew of or saw any girl under 18 at a party was when a freshman from LMU came to our Black Sunday party in 2001. There was no way to determine her age until she told us, and college freshmen were common attendees of parties. 3. Even the most expensive fraternities at UCLA did not have houses like Omega house, and nobody even in those fraternities wore suits and ties. The personalities of the Omegas are also exaggerated for effect. There were, however, humiliation rituals at these other groups, such as a very questionable one at Lambda Chi Alpha where the members allegedly stripped naked, covered themselves in Vaseline, and wrestled with each other. I laughed at that one-- the most we had was "pledge bowling" where the pledges were arranged like bowling pins, the floor was covered in beer, and members would slide into them to knock them down. Ha. 4. There was more than one run-down, troublemaking fraternity at UCLA to occupy the dean's attention. And we were not intentionally making trouble, we were just run-down. 5. The dean of a 30,000-student university does not have time to single out one individual fraternity, visit them, or focus on them in any way. This policing function is typically done by the national organization of the fraternity, not the university, although there are judicial board proceedings if the university finds out about something important. 6. The scale of pranks in the film is far higher than the actual pranks. Stealing a horse and breaking into a building, then scaring the horse to death, would be pretty extreme. The idea of creating a custom float and crashing a homecoming parade is a great idea, but it's only going to happen in a movie. In a real fraternity, everyone is either broke or says they are broke, so the concept of doing anything group-wise except drinking or creating a party fund is pretty foreign. As one example of an actual prank, a guy stole a city parking meter one time and ended up getting arrested and charged with grand theft (I walked by it in a garage and saw an officer dusting it for prints, and I wondered what kind of idiot tries to steal a parking meter. Answer: my bro). In addition to being a dumb idea, that screwed up his future law license. Other guys had the stupid idea of joyriding on rolling chairs they took from a storage facility on campus, and they, too, were arrested and charged with grand theft even though they claimed they weren't intending to keep the chairs. Things like that were more realistic because they didn't cost anything or require much effort. 7. The quality level of the fraternity and membership now is far higher than it was 25 years ago, because the academic standards and competitiveness of getting into UCLA are far higher than they were. Thus, better students are joining, and the organization has in some ways gentrified, which is overall better. Still has many of the same problems and challenges, though, which apparently stem from human nature in a group setting. Sun, 03 Aug 2025 07:35:47 -0700 marlon from private IP Reply #16180978 missed out as i attended a commuter college in Flint, after class i was going home. Sun, 03 Aug 2025 07:48:07 -0700 whiteguyinchina from private IP Reply #13878783 I hope this doesn't come across wrong. But, ghey. The whole thing. Very very ghey. Sun, 03 Aug 2025 08:11:38 -0700 marlon from private IP Reply #12059012 didn't like it, saw it only because people online kept talking about it. there must be better flicks out there for Andy to see. hell Revenge of the Nerds is a contenderReplies require login.