Animal White House: Was Bush Boy Basis For Bluto Blutarsky?

[johnfunk]

bear with me here, fans of fine cinema. For some years, it has been heavily conjectured, rumored and theorized that the John "Bluto" Blutarsky character in John Landis's Animal House, the Citizen Kane of fraternity comedies, was based in more than small part on the exploits of one Delta Kappa Epsilon brother at Yale University named George W. Bush.

These rumors are sure to be revived with the publication Monday in Newsweek of "Their Wars" an article comparing and contrasting the service of the former Texas governor and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.

Compare, if you will,

When Bush entered Yale in 1964, he joined Deke, the jock fraternity, and became rush chairman, handing out the nicknames and pounding down beers at "the longest bar on campus."

to one line of dialogue from Animal House:

"From now on, your Delta Tau Chi name is Weasel..."

And then there's this:

A favorite fighter-jock game was called Dead Bug. In a bar, when anyone shouted "Dead bug!" everyone, including generals, had to drop to the floor with hands and feet extended into the air, like a dead bug. Last man down had to buy drinks.

One word should come to mind for connoisseurs of fine American cinema:

"GATOOOOOR!"

Discuss amongst yourselves...

ON EDIT: Typos. Sloppy, sloppy typos fixed!

[TheSubliminableKid]

1. I've heard similar

Time to pull my deluxe, 25th Anniversary Edition of Animal House off the shelf, slip it into the DVD player, and begin taking notes.

For some reason, one very telling line of dialogue from the film. Otter tells Pinto: "Flounder, you can't spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You fucked up -- you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it!"

Why is it that I can almost picture Donald Rumsfeld saying that?

[alittlelark]

4. I think Rummy DID say that!

and by the way :hi:

[johnfunk]

2. KICK! So... does anyone else think Bluto's the basis for Bushbo?

Chat away...

[kodi]

3. no way. bush was that jerk off neidermeyer

.

[dflprincess]

5. No way

Neidermeyer was in ROTC and went to Vietnam where he was killed by his own troops (if I recall the end correctly).

But Bush as Bluto "Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" - that I can see.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Well, doesn't that explain why * didn't want to go to Vietnam?

[kodi]

7. neidermeyer was evil, so is bush

recall the rite in the fraternity.. skull and cross bones, all the way

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

8. How about Bush as Greg Marmalard?

Or does that make him too smart?

[Elginoid]

10. But wasn't Greg a Dem?

weren't they working on a "Camelot" float for the parade, with the girls in the sorority...? with all the girls dressed as jackies...?

[DemBones DemBones]

9. I have read that fellow Dekes say Bush* was Otter. Or Otter was Bush*,

however you want to look at it.

Is it Otter who becomes an OB-GYN? I remember that Niedemeyer (sp.) is fragged in 'Nam and Bluto becomes a senator.

Funny movie.

[Eye and Monkey]

11. I dunno - this stuff is pretty ubiquitous, isn't it?

There's pretty much always at least one party-house on campus, and the characters are all pretty much stock. I was never in a frat, but around frats enough to know that's pretty much true. And that was before the movie came out in '78.

I remember gatorin' at high school parties and then in alotta university towns across the SEC. Only our gatoring was alot nastier.

Clearly from his history, Chimpie reveled in being a crude drunken asshole. I see no indication that he ever had the creativity to pull off the kinds of stunts that Animal House featured.

But Chimpie sure can deliver that line - "Now watch this drive." Only it doesn't come off the same as one of the charming characters in Animal House.

[chookie]

12. Another source

Back in Oct/Nov 2000, PBS ran a documentary about the backgrounds of Al Gore and the future His Chimperial Majesty.

A guy interviewed in it states that "everyone who knew him then thought GW Bush was the basis from which the character (Bluto) was created."

It may still be on the PBS website, archived. (Frontline?)

I BELIEVE the guy who wrote the screenplay was a Yalie who knew GWB at the time. He certainly was prescient....

As Snopes would say: Yellow.