Summary
Faber College, 1962. We see the campus at night, and the camera focuses in on a statue of the founder, Emil Faber, inscribed with a quote: "Knowledge is good." We see two men walking. One of them tells the other to take off his beanie, even though the one in the hat insists that they're supposed to wear them until homecoming. "Don't be a fruit, okay?" his friend tells him, and they walk into a fancy event at a fraternity.
Doug Neidermeyer, the Omega membership chairman, answers the door and greets the friends, whose names are Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman. As he's introducing Kent, Doug slams Kent in the door. Doug introduces the newcomers to two women before leading them in to meet some of the guys. Laughing, one of the women says, "A wimp and a blimp," about the newcomers.
In the next room, Doug tells Kent and Larry to enjoy themselves, then shows them to a couch where a number of other men are sitting, all outcasts, whether because they are non-white, disabled, or simply nerds. Kent and Larry look at one another as they sit down. Nearby, one of the brothers brags about the fact that Omega is one of the best fraternities on campus. Kent comes up and listens in, and the brother who's been bragging about the frat introduces himself as Greg Marmalard, the president. Greg introduces Mandy Pepperidge and Chip Diller, before pointing out the captain of the swim team and the editor of the newspaper, and then finally leading Kent back over to the couch of misfits.
As they leave the house, Kent tells Larry he isn't trying hard enough to fit in at the fraternity, and Larry tells him he doesn't like it at all. Kent reassures him that his brother was in Delta, another fraternity, so they have to take him. "Don't worry, I'll put in a good word for you," he tells Larry, but Larry has heard Delta is "the worst frat on campus."
The scene shifts suddenly, and we see a mannequin fly out the second story window of Delta house as "Louie, Louie" plays. The house is a dilapidated building, and the two men walk up behind a drunken frat brother peeing nearby. When they ask if they're at the Delta house, he turns around and pees on their shoes, barely even noticing, before inviting them in.
Inside, a raucous party is taking place. Beer cans are flying everywhere. The frat brother who invited them in tells them to help themselves to free beer, and the boys walk around. Kent goes and observes some men playing cards and smoking. When Kent asks if they're playing cards, they give him death stares and he moves on.
Larry goes downstairs, where he accepts a beer from a pretty girl tending bar. Behind the bar, he notices a mural of a woman with two fishbowls in place of where her breasts ought to be and giggles. The chapter president, Robert, comes over and introduces himself to Larry, before asking the girl behind the bar, Katy, if she's seen someone named Boon. She jokes that he's upstairs with another guy because they are gay, and Robert tells Larry to have a drink.
Upstairs, we see a shirtless man named Otter trimming his nose hairs in a mirror and telling his friend Boon that he's going out with a new girl with big breasts, Marlene Desmond. While Boon is fixated on the fact that Otter is going to "pork" Marlene, Otter asks him where Katy is, to which he responds, "Downstairs, pissed off about something." Trying to help, Otter pulls out a giant dildo from his doctor's bag and tells Boon to use it with Katy. They are interrupted by Robert, who tells them that 50 guys are downstairs trying to rush the fraternity, and that as rush chair, Otter should be present.
The scene shifts and we see someone riding a motorcycle up the steps of the house, pinning Larry up against a wall. Otter goes and introduces himself to the guy on the motorcycle, whose name is D-Day, then goes down to greet the other prospective fraternity brothers. D-Day shakes Larry's hand then plays the William Tell Overture by flicking his own throat, to Larry's amusement.
Downstairs, Otter introduces himself to Kent, and he and Boon admire Kent's clip-on tie. "90% rayon. Very nice," says Boon. Robert Hoover runs over and tells Otter and Boon that Kent is a legacy. Otter jokes that that only applies to people who aren't related to someone who is a "closet case," suggesting that Kent's older brother is gay. Boon notices Katy is leaving and goes to stop her, but she gives him the middle finger.
Boon catches up to Katy outside, and she's mad that Boon has been so unavailable during the party. Boon says he wants to go up to her parents' house for the weekend, just him, her, and Otter and another girl, but Katy is unimpressed. "Is this what you're gonna do for the rest of your life...Hang around with a bunch of animals getting drunk every weekend?" she asks. He replies, "After I graduate, I'm gonna get drunk every night," and spins her around.
The next day, we see a stately administrative building as dramatic music plays. Inside, Dean Vernon Wormer asks Greg Marmalard what the worst fraternity on campus is, citing several instances of misconduct and suggesting that the members of Delta fraternity need to be kicked off campus. Greg reminds Dean Wormer that Delta is already on probation, and Wormer fires back, "Then as of this moment they are on double secret probation!" before adding an order to Greg: "Find me a way to revoke Delta's charter...Put Neidermeyer on it. He's a sneaky little shit, just like you, right?"
The scene shifts and we see the Delta brothers voting on new pledges. When Larry's photo comes up, they all vote yes, saying, "Who cares? We need the dues." Next, they put Kent's photo up on the screen, which causes everyone to scream and throw beers at the screen. No one wants to take Kent, but Otter stands up and makes an appeal to the group, telling them that they all were obnoxious as freshmen, but that's all the more reason to let Kent in.
We see Otter and Boon going into Kent and Larry's dorm room and spraying them with fire extinguishers. Robert Hoover, wearing a Native American headdress, leads the new pledges through the pledge to join Delta. The large fraternity brother who peed on Larry and Kent's shoes, Bluto, gives each of the new pledges fraternity names, naming Larry "Pinto" and Kent "Flounder." The brothers celebrate with heavy drinking as "Louie Louie" plays.
Meanwhile, at the Omega fraternity, new pledge Chip Diller and others go through a much more serious pledge. Men in robes read a pledge surrounded by candles, before spanking the new pledges, who are in white briefs, with paddles. "Thank you sir, may I have another?" says Chip when he gets paddled.
The next day, we see Professor Dave Jennings teaching a class on John Milton's Paradise Lost. Kent doodles in his notebook, a picture of a plane crash as Jennings goes on about Paradise Lost, and the struggle between good and evil. He poses the question to the class, "Now was Milton trying to tell us that being bad was more fun than being good?" No one raises their hand, and Jennings confides to the class that he finds the book boring too, when suddenly the bell rings.
We see Mandy Pepperidge sitting on the bleachers as her friend asks if she and Greg are having sex. "Greg doesn't believe in premarital intercourse," Mandy tells her, as the camera pans down below the bleachers. Underneath the bench, Bluto is looking up their skirts.
We see Larry and Kent (now Pinto and Flounder) doing jumping jacks in a group of students dressed in military uniforms on a field as Chip yells orders. Neidermeyer comes up on a horse and barks more orders, as Boon and Otter stand nearby preparing to hit golfballs. As Neidermeyer yells degrading words at Flounder, Boon and Otter agree, "He can't do that to our pledges...only we can do that to our pledges!" Neidermeyer yells at Flounder for having a pledge pin on his uniform.
Analysis
The film takes a satirical perspective on the topic of college from the very beginning. As stately music plays, the camera zooms in on a statue dedicated to the founder of the school, but in contrast to the distinguished appearance of the statue, the founder's slogan simply reads, "Knowledge is good." The stupidity of the slogan shows the viewer that the film is not going to be one that takes its subject matter very seriously. This is not only a comedy, but one in which the humor thrives on ridiculousness.
The humor of the film only heightens when the central characters, Larry and Kent, enter the elite fraternity at the college for a meet-and-greet. Inside are a number of stereotypically WASP-y and snobbish frat brothers and their big-haired girlfriends. The exclusiveness of this social set is subtle and nasty, as they feign politeness to the two newcomers while simultaneously backing out of every social interaction. The boys are left to sit with the rejects, a collection of misfits who seem out of place because they are either non-white, disabled, or chronically geeky. In this scene, the film satirizes the nastiness of the more upper-crust, straitlaced campus personalities.
The initial fraternity's uptightness is thrown into greater contrast when Kent and Larry arrive at Delta, a dilapidated party house where people are in a perpetual state of ecstatic partying and drunkenness. Wild music plays, and a particularly Falstaffian party monster, Bluto, accidentally pees on the boys' shoes within minutes of their arrival. In contrast to the first fraternity, Delta is a much warmer environment, but it is considerably less prestigious and seems to exist in a constant state of chaos.
The central conflict of the film is revealed when we meet the stern Dean Wormer, who wants to kick the members of Delta off campus. He loathes the chaos that the fraternity brings to the school and consults with Greg Marmalard about how they can bring the fraternity down. This development is the central organizing conflict of the film in that not only does it keep the narrative moving forward, but it provides a contrast ripe for comedy. The difference between the stuffy and serious dean and the wild and chaotic fraternity creates a humorous edge. The more conservative and rule-oriented the dean becomes, the more rule-bending and poorly behaved the Delta brothers are sure to become in response.
In addition to the narrative conflict, there is a secondary thematic conflict in the film: the conflict of growing up and deciding to take on more adult responsibilities versus living a life of permanent adolescence and wildness. The fraternity brothers of Delta are notably messy and immature, behaving like wild animals on the weekends, but Dean Wormer isn't the only one who resents the chaos. Boon's girlfriend Katy confronts him about his predilection for partying and the fact that he chooses the frat life over spending quality romantic time with her. Then, in class, Professor Jennings discusses Paradise Lost and asks the class about Milton's stance on good versus evil—the question of whether being bad is ultimately more fun than being good—before confiding in them that he thinks Milton is boring. The film maintains an ethical ambivalence and does not seek to directly answer the question of whether or not an indulgent lifestyle is good or bad, but simply asks the viewer to consider the question of laziness and indulgence versus hard work and seriousness. Is the titular "animal house" sustainable, or must all wild things be tamed?
