History Film / AnimalHouse

* BadassBiker: Daniel Simpson Day/"D-Day", complete with manly mustache.

*** "Louie Louie" wasn't released until 1964.
*** Fred Dorfman's car, which becomes the Deltas' "Deathmobile", is a 1964 Lincoln Continental
*** Otis's guitarist is playing a Les Paul Deluxe, not made until 1968.

* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Perhaps the best known example. The 25th anniversary DVD featured a {{Mockumentary}} modern-day update on this. The highlights: Otter is a gynecologist with sexy patients, Diller is a missionary thanks to seeing Jesus in his food numerous times (including a shot of Kevin Bacon from ''Film/{{Tremors}}''), Pinto is a filmmaker, Babs is still a tour guide giving ludicrously bad information, Boon and Katy have married, divorced, and reconciled a number of times, Hoover is the Assistant District Attorney of Baltimore, Dean Wormer is senile but the Deltas are still a BerserkButton, D-Day is living off the grid across the border and flees when John Landis tracks him down, and Bluto is ''[[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush the President of the United States]]''.

->''"Animal House, House, House \\
Nobody ever went to class, \\
Then we saw Creator/DonaldSutherland's ass \\
Then they did the end like ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', \\

Directed by Creator/JohnLandis, ''Animal House'' launched the film career of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' cast member Creator/JohnBelushi. Inspired dozens of FollowTheLeader takes on the raunchy college frat movie, including some by National Lampoon themselves. Spawned a spinoff TV series called ''Delta House'', which only lasted one season. And perhaps most importantly, [[PopularityPolynomial revived the popularity of movies featuring teenagers and younger twentysomethings, which had been largely absent from movie screens]] since ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', five years earlier.

!!This film provides examples of:

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The RousingSpeech that leads to the climax is founded on perhaps the most famous in-universe example in movie history -- and PlayedForLaughs in that even the, shall we say, less than scholarly Deltas know he's wrong.
--> '''Bluto:''' Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
--> '''Otter:''' Germans?
--> '''Boon:''' Forget it, he's rolling.
** Leaving that aside, the film has ''many'' scenes where it can't hide the fact that it was shot in 1978, as cars from that era are visible, and the extras at the Dexter Lake club and the parade are generally dressed in more '70s clothing. Further, the prices shown for the vegetables at the Food King are very high by 1962 standards because they're 1978 prices, and some logos seen weren't adopted by their users in real life until later. This is understandable due to the movie's minimal budget; however, it affects even some of the more iconic elements:

** .

* HalfTruth:
** Babs to Marmalard: "I'm saying that Mandy and Eric Stratton are having an affair." (It was, at most a one-night stand, and it's not clear that Mandy and Greg were even dating when the incident happened.)
** Clorette to her parents: "This is Larry Kroger, the boy who molested me last month. We have to get married. (Actually, he ''didn't'' molest her last month. He did, however, make love to her ''that morning.'')

** During the house clean-out of Delta Tau Chi, a black cow was pulled out. How they got the cow is a mystery.

** Leaving that aside, the film has ''many'' scenes where it can't hide the fact that it was shot in 1978, as cars from that era are visible, and the extras at the Dexter Lake club and the parade are generally dressed in more '70s clothing (Jackie Kennedy also didn't wear that iconic pink suit until the day of the assassination, so it would not likely have been worn in the parade) and some logos seen weren't adopted by their users in real life until later. This is understandable due to the movie's minimal budget; however, it affects even some of the more iconic elements:

** The prices shown for the vegetables at the Food King are very high by 1962 standards ... because they're 1978 prices.

* UnbuiltTrope: This film actually does a lot in deconstructing WackyFratboyHijinx for comedy. Throughout the film, it's pointed out how wild and destructive the Deltas are, doing things that ''no'' sane college administration would allow; things that would get real college students in the 2020s expelled or even arrested. Though the Deltas do ultimately get their revenge on the Dean and the snobbish Omegas by the end, it's a PyrrhicVictory –- in spite of it all, they're expelled from the college.
** It also shows that the Deltas are not quite CoolLoser or [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority Cool Rebel]] types; they just ''think'' they are. For example, the band they hire to play doesn't ''actually'' like them -- or at least, the band's so shocked to see them in a nightclub that caters to African-Americans they don't acknowledge Boon's friendly greeting. Likewise, Otter, the basis of the teen comedy version of TheCasanova, is not quite as slick a ladies' man as he seems; his only on-screen romantic moves are PitySex resulting in CoitusInterruptus. Mandy even tells him to his face that sex with him "wasn't that great". (He just looks stunned.) Even the OfficialCouple, Boon and Katy, are ultimately shown to be a poor match -- Boon wants to avoid growing up, especially the responsibilities, as long as possible, while Katy can't wait to embrace adulthood -- and the end credits show that their marriage lasted only five years. Much of this is because the film is actually an irreverent satire of the nostalgia-driven teen dramas of the 1970s, most notably ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', something later [[SexComedy teen Sex Comedies]] missed because they were merely aping the surface features of ''Animal House.''

** On the other hand, all of the Deltas are listed as members of Faber classes (and as Mrs. Wormer reveals in "Where Are They Now: A Delta Alumni Update", Dean Wormer was fired after the homecoming parade debacle, thus whoever they got to replace him most likely permitted the Deltas to return) in the epilogue. And it was the Deltas who, within their own personalities and limitations, achieved respectable-to-remarkable success (some in professions for which they must have graduated college): sensitivity counselor, public defender, gynecologist, National Lampoon editor, and United States Senator [[spoiler: and eventually President]].

-->'''Dean Wormer (to "Flounder" Dorfman)''': Fat, drunk and stupid ain't no way to go through in life, son.

** Jennings is only ever referred to as '''Mr.''' Jennings, implying that he doesn't have a doctorate. In a real university literature department, having a [=PhD=] is more-or-less mandatory for getting offered a full professorship, so he would presumably be called '''Dr.''' Jennings. It is barely possible that he earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA), which is a terminal relative degree and would certainly qualify him for a Faber post. Still, even for adjunct faculty in a literature department, getting a teaching position without a [=PhD=] is exceptionally rare.

** Jennings is only ever referred to as '''Mr.''' Jennings, implying that he doesn't have a doctorate. In a real university literature department, having a [=PhD=] is more-or-less mandatory for getting offered a full professorship, so he would presumably be called '''Dr.''' Jennings. (Even for adjunct faculty in a literature department, getting a teaching position without a [=PhD=] is exceptionally rare)

* BookDumb: The entirety of Delta are stated to be extremely bad students; the highest-scoring person is fraternity president Robert Hoover, with a 1.6 GPA (four Cs and an F), with Bluto having a 0.0 and D-Day having no GPA at all (no courses completed).

* BookDumb: The entirety of Delta are stated to be extremely bad students; the highest-scoring person is fraternity president Robert Hoover, with a 1.6 GPA (a B, a C and three Ds; or four Cs and an F), with Bluto having a 0.0 and D-Day having no GPA at all (no courses completed).

* BookDumb: The entirety of Delta are stated to be extremely bad students; the highest-scoring person is fraternity president Robert Hoover, with a 1.6 GPA (four Cs and an F), with Bluto having a 0.0 and D-Day having no GPA at all (no courses completed).

* AffablyEvil: Neidermeyer in the opening scene with Larry and Kent. In almost every other scene, he's a belligerent {{Jerkass}} with NoIndoorVoice.

* {{Fanservice}}: Way too many examples to mention, and for both sexes.

** Babs to Marmalard: "I'm saying that Mandy and Eric Stratton are having an affair." (It was, at most a one-night stand, and it's not clear that Mandy and Greg were even dating at that point.

** Subverted by Boon Schoenstein. Though AmbiguouslyJewish, he is arguably the fourth coolest guy in the Delta Tau Chi fraternity, as well as TheLancer to the supercool Eric "Otter" Stratton. ([[ShiksaGoddess His girlfriend]] does think he's a loser, not because of nerdiness though.)

* FiendishFraternity: Omega House is a bunch of elitist jerks and Delta House is unruly beyond the extreme, so [[DeanBitterman Dean Wormer]] is at least [[UnbuiltTrope partially justified]] to kick them out even if he then [[DisproportionateRetribution overdoes it]] by arranging to get them enlisted and [[KickTheDog "hopefully"]] die in [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]].

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Mandy is about to do this when Bluto is spying on her. Alas, he falls backwards before anything happens.

* SpringtimeForHitler: RealLife example. Originally, Clorette was supposed to be 16 (in-story — the actress playing her was 19 at the time), but there was concern that Universal Studios and/or the MPAA Ratings Board would object due to statutory rape. They decided to change her age to 13, figuring the powers-that-be would reject it and they could come back with 16 as a "compromise." To their shock, the scene met with no objections from anyone.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: There are several examples in the TV version. The scene where Bluto looks in the sorority house window is highly edited, of course, and the pot party scene is cut out completely, along with both scenes of Marmalard getting handjobs in his convertible and the GoodAngelBadAngel debate over whether or not Pinto should have sex with the drunk girl lying before him. The most absurd bit of censorship, though, is changing the line, "Gregg doesn't believe in premarital intercourse" to "...premarital activity." It still means the same thing, so what's the point on editing it? Just because "intercourse" is more associated with sex than "activity." Come on, American censors...what are you doing?