History YMMV / AnimalHouse

** The ending shows D-Day driving off in a stolen police car, captioned with "Daniel Simpson Day '63, whereabouts unknown". In ''Film/MyCousinVinny'', Bruce [=McGill=] would play Sheriff Farley, prompting some viewers to humorously theorize that [[BecomingTheMask D-Day actually became a police officer]].

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Creator/JohnBelushi partied even harder in real life than Bluto did here. Unlike in the movie, John Belushi actually died from it in 1982.

** The scene in which Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto visit a roadhouse bar which turns out to have an exclusively black clientele and, as a result, immediately fear for their lives, is also cringeworthy for some viewers today. It doesn't help that several tall ScaryBlackMan stereotypes proceed to verbally intimidate the Deltas by asking to [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt dance with their dates]]. This was also during the early sixties when segregation was still around. Funny thing is, Ned Tanen (a white guy and the head of Universal's film division) wanted the scene gone, but Richard Pryor (an African American) found it to be [[CrossesTheLineTwice incredibly hilarious]] (with a letter that reads “Ned, ‘Animal House’ is f***ing funny, and white people are crazy”), so that scene was kept.

** A (comparatively) small wince for anyone who works in higher education comes when the Dean discusses the Delta disciplinary files with Greg. Today, that runs afoul of a little thing called [[https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/brochures/parents.html FERPA]] -- Wormer would be literally ''breaking federal law''. He does it again when he reveals the grade point averages of each individual Delta to Hoover, Pinto, Bluto, D-Day & Flounder collectively. Granted none of the guys care, but under FERPA you're still not supposed to do it.

* WeirdAlEffect: The WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue [[TropeCodifier which everyone has mimicked/spoofed]] was actually a parody of the epilogue of ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'', made just five years earlier.

** Both Otter and Pinto can be considered to have crossed it when the former tries to sleep with Shelly and when the latter ''does'' sleep with Clorette. While both women are willing, it's still rather QuestionableConsent, as the former is already in a poor frame of mind given she's grieving, and the first reason she accepts Otter's advancements are because he lied to her about who he is. (In Otter's defense, Shelly's later statements make it clear she was using him at least as much.) And in Clorette's case, someone of that age sleeping with an adult (even a young one) is considered rape. Granted, Pinto is just as clueless about sex as Clorette, but that wouldn't hold up in court.

* ValuesDissonance: This film can invoke this to some people;

* ValuesDissonance:

** The scene in which Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto visit a roadhouse bar which turns out to have an exclusively black clientele and, as a result, immediately fear for their lives, is also cringeworthy for some viewers today. It doesn't help that several tall ScaryBlackMan stereotypes proceed to verbally intimidate the Deltas by asking to [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt dance with their dates]]. This was also during the early sixties when segregation was still around.

** The climax is basically [[DesignatedHero the good guys committing an act of non fatal terrorism]]. No way any mainstream movie would let the heroes get away with something like that, at least not outside -- once again -- The Sixties civil rights or anti-UsefulNotes/VietnamWar movements.

* DesignatedHero: Sure, they may be funny, but there's nothing actually heroic about the film's heroes. If you met a frat like the Deltas in real life, you'd probably wish someone like Dean Wormer got rid of them too. Their opponents may be awful in their own right, but that doesn't make the behavior of pretty much every Delta member resemble anything even close to good. The entire climax is essentially the good guys committing a non fatal act of terrorism. Even worse when you remember that most of the people present for the chaos the Deltas cause didn't even do anything to them, with those who wronged them being a small section of the targeted group.

** Enlist [[LesCollaborateurs one group of students]] to spy on another
** Run a [[KangarooCourt "disciplinary hearing"]] in which the spies try the spied-upon, and the latter have no reasonable chance to address the charges against them (some of which are absolutely false)
** Justify all this with a "double-secret probation" based on [[LoopholeAbuse a "little known codicil".]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: The climax is presented as a victorious moment for the Deltas, but they ultimately accomplish little more than terrorizing their antagonists and lots of innocent people. There's plenty of people present who know them, Wormer almost certainly has knowledge of where they live and would be able to point the authorities towards where to find them. And given their actions were very public, and very illegal, in the extremely likely chance of capture, the Deltas would easily face legal trouble. Despite this very real and likely possibility, they're shown to go on to lead successful lives afterwards, but given some of the positions and the characters of the men occupying them, that can leave a troubling image in the eye of the viewer. Particularly bad is a mad man like Bluto achieving any level of political power, or Otter - someone whose indulged in at least one example of very QuestionableConsent - becoming a gynecologist. One has to wonder how those men would abuse those positions.
* FairForItsDay: Neidermeyer screaming "Faggots!" over and over again during the finale tends to raise a lot of eyebrows when viewed by modern audiences. However, worth noting that in the '70s the word -- while still generally used as an insult -- had not quite risen to the level of hateful profanity that it occupies today (many gays at the time, in fact, actually used it as a self-identifier).

** Both Otter and Pinto can be considered to have crossed it when the former tries to sleep with Shelly and when the latter ''does'' sleep with Clorette. While both women are willing, it's still rather QuestionableConsent, as the former is already in a poor frame of mind given she's grieving, and the only reason she accepts Otter's advancements are because he lied to her about who he is. And in Clorette's case, someone of that age sleeping with an adult (even a young one) is considered rape. Granted, Pinto is just as clueless about sex as Clorette, but that wouldn't hold up in court.

** Pinto finding out, ''after'' having sex with her, that the mayor's daughter is only 13 comes across as unfunny today, when public tolerance for sexual relations between adults and minors, even where the minor may have misrepresented themselves as an adult[[note]]Even at the time the film's set, were Pinto to be prosecuted, the burden of proof that he genuinely believed she was of legal age would have been on him.[[/note]] has gone way down, to a level far lower than it was in 1978, and to modern audiences the scene is more horrifying than funny.
** The scene in which Otter, Boon, Flounder, and Pinto visit a roadhouse bar which turns out to have an exclusively black clientele and, as a result, immediately fear for their lives, is also cringeworthy for some viewers today. It doesn't help that several tall ScaryBlackMan stereotypes proceed to verbally intimidate the Deltas by "asking" to [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt dance with their dates]]. This was also during the early sixties when segregation was still around.

** A (comparatively) small wince for anyone who works in higher education comes when the Dean discusses the Delta disciplinary files with Greg. Today, that runs afoul of a little thing called [[https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/brochures/parents.html FERPA]] -- Wormer would be literally ''breaking federal law''. (He does it again when he reveals the grade point averages of each individual Delta to Hoover, Pinto, Bluto, D-Day & Flounder collectively. Granted none of the guys care, but under FERPA you're still not supposed to do it.)
** The treatment of ''all'' women -- not just Clorette, but Babs, Mandy, Mrs. Wormer and even Katy -- is a lot more cringe-worthy from the viewpoint of the new millennium. All of them are either depicted as sluts, or highly sexualized in rather creepy ways.

** The climax is basically [[DesignatedHero the good guys committing an act of non fatal terrorism]]. No way any mainstream movie would let the heroes get away with something like that.

** A character as moral and sensitive as Hoover would never decorate their bedroom with a Confederate flag in TheNewTens or later.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Well, you must admit that fat, drunk, and stupid ''is'' no way to go through life.

*** Landis was so worried that the scene might be racist that he showed to Creator/RichardPryor. Not only did Pryor find it hilarious, he found it ridiculous that it might be offensive.

* DesignatedHero: Sure, they may be funny, but there's nothing actually heroic about the film's heroes. If you met a frat like the Deltas in real life, you'd probably wish someone like Dean Wormer got rid of them too. Their opponents may be awful in their own right, but that doesn't make the behavior of pretty much every Delta member resemble anything even close to good. The entire climax is essentially the good guys committing a non fatal act of terrorism. Even worse when you remember that most of the people present for the chaos the Deltas didn't even do anything to them, the those who wronged them being a small section of those present.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Otter is clearly supposed to be a LovableSexManiac, but his methods come across as rather creepy and manipulative, at one point straight up lying to a grieving girl to sleep with her, which also makes [[QuestionableConsent his consent rather questionable at best]]. The fact that his future job is one that he almost certainly uses as an excuse to feel up women doesn't help.

** Given the constant, nightmarish and unchecked havok routinely caused by Delta House, the villain status of Dean Wormer can come off as questionable, at least until he goes out of his way to make sure the Deltas are sent to Vietnam after they have already been expelled. On the other hand, there is the point of view that an authority figure who tries to enforce the rules should abide by them, be above reproach and shouldn't abuse his power in the first place, no matter the cause. It should be noted that more than one source states Wormer was modeled after UsefulNotes/RichardNixon.

** The treatment of ''all'' women -- not just Clorette, but Babs, Mandy, Mrs. Wormer and even Katy -- is a lot more cringe-worthy from the viewpoint of the new millennium. Tying into that, Otter using straight up deception to sleep with girls would make him the villain in this story if it was made today.

* DesignatedHero: Sure, they may be funny, but there's nothing actually heroic about the film's heroes. If you met a frat like the Deltas in real life, you'd probably wish someone like Dean Wormer got rid of them too. Their opponents may be awful in their own right, but that doesn't make the behavior of pretty much every Delta member resemble anything even close to good.

* DesignatedHero: Sure, they may be funny, but there's nothing actually heroic about the film's heroes. If you met a frat like the Deltas in real life, you'd probably wish someone like Dean Wormer got rid of them too.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Otter is clearly supposed to be a LovableSexManiac, but his methods come across as rather creepy and manipulative. The fact that his future job is one that he almost certainly uses as an excuse to feel up women doesn't help.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: For as wild and drunk as the Deltas are, they still had the most hateful reaction to Kent Dorfman's appearance in the slide show of potential pledges. Ironically, it was the unapologetically low-life Bluto who had the strongest negative reaction with his yell. Yet the only real reason for this show of contempt was Dorfman's lousy social skills; apparently, acting a little different is a greater crime than getting drunk all the time and having dismally low grades. Sad to say, though, this is TruthInTelevision, as anyone with Aspergers/on the autistic spectrum can tell you.

** The treatment of ''all'' women -- not just Clorette, but Babs, Mandy, Mrs. Wormer and even Katy -- is a lot more cringe-worthy from the viewpoint of the new millennium.

* MisamedFandom: Post "Me Too," the film became a frequent target for accusations of giving impressionable young viewers the mindset that led to them committing sexual harassment and rape. This is despite the film having a scene where Pinto literally listens to the angel on his shoulder and doesn't take advantage of a drunk girl passing out in his room.

* MisamiedFandom: Post "Me Too," the film became a frequent target for accusations of giving impressionable young viewers the mindset that led to them committing sexual harassment and rape. This is despite the film having a scene where Pinto literally listens to the angel on his shoulder and doesn't take advantage of a drunk girl passing out in his room.