Top 6 College Comedies (I Can Think of Right Now)

Seeing how the highest traffic to this blog was when I did my Top 5 Scores (I Could Think of Right Then), I can only assume that my Top 5 lists can carry some merit and discussion. I present to you, my next list in a series of random Top # lists, the College Comedy. Please feel free to comment, leave your thoughts and opinions!

The Rules:
No college sports movies! They are college movies in the sense that you have to go to college to play college football. Other than that, you rarely see the players in class except for the obligatory montage in the middle of the film.

Only college movies There are quite a few movies out there that have parts of high school and post-college life in them. I'm going strictly college with this list.

It has to take place AT college American Pie 2 is an example of a "college movie" that doesn't take place at college, so no summer stories. And no "immediately following college/ I don't know what to do with my life" movies like Adventureland.

6. Old School

Any movie that inspires a group of actors to be referred to as the "Frat Pack" has to be a good college movie. While this movie could break some of the above mentioned rules, I'm including it because it has the classic students vs. faculty conflict that have been the basis of college movies since the dawn of... college movies. Moreso, it seems that every generation has their college movie and I would be remiss in my duties to not acknowledge that this film is one of the defining films for the expectations of high school upperclassmen future college experiences. I was IN COLLEGE when this movie came out and it changed my expectations for college. Disappointment had never been so hilarious!

And Terry O'Quinn.

He will always be Howard Hughes to me!


5. National Lampoon's Van Wilder


After many years away from the college genre and many, many theatrical failures, Nation Lampoon returned with a bang. Van Wilder introduced us to many future stars. Ryan Reynolds, Kumar, that formerly-cute-but-now-haggard blond girl, the teacher from The Breakfast Club, a fat guy in a Speedo, Booger as a security guard and the drummer from The Wonders. Ok, so we knew most of those people, but it was how they were used that really made this movie something to behold. A classic story of fear of the unknown wrapped up in college parties, pranks and underdogs. Life lessons in an easy-to-swallow pastry of unknown origins for the short attention span of the early-2000s.

4. Real Genius

I loved this movie back before I even knew what college was! Luckily I was blessed with an older brother and older sister that are 10+ years my senior, so I was able to experience movies and trends far before it was time. This goes so far back in my childhood that I would get this movie and Weird Science confused. I loved both of these movies a lot, but I could never sort out in my head that Weird Science had the giant missile in the kitchen and Real Genius had the laser.

This movie ranks high on the college scale because who hasn't been completely overwhelmed with schoolwork, had that odd roommate (or guy living in their closet) and the jerk professor that makes life a mess and you wish for nothing more than to get back at him in some insane and completely impractical way?

Delicious salty revenge
3. Revenge of the Nerds

The underdog story. You know it, you love it... That's why it keeps on being made. People can relate to it! But up until this point it had always been that guy who was just in the wrong social class or had something metaphysical holding him back. And up until this point, geeks, nerds and all the oddballs were just that: geeks, nerds and oddballs. Finally a movie came along and said that it's ok to be different and strange or smart. The true underdogs won in this film. And it wasn't your typical win, it was a social win. And better yet, all of these characters were able to find who they truly were, accept it and have others accept it as well... And that, to me, it what college is all about. You learn who you really are in college. You find friends for life in college, whether it's a frat, a roommate or a relationship. You decide your career in college, and most of us start out with one career path and end up on a completely different one by graduation. It's life and it starts there. So, thank you Revenge of the Nerds, for allowing us the confidence to be who we are and not regret it!

2. PCU

I saw this movie before I even knew what college really was... I knew my sister was at college and I knew that meant she lived away from us, but I didn't know what it was. As far as my early-teenager mind could comprehend, college was just more school and that seemed like a terrible idea. I mean, you go through preschool, kindergarten, elementary school and middle school, then high school seemed cool because Nickelodeon made it seem cool on tv... But then you graduate, and you're done with school, but most people choose to go back to school!?! That make no sense! You're free!!! BE FREE!!!

Then I saw PCU and there was a movie about college that had nothing (save for thesis statements) to do with school. It had girls and beer and parties and friends and George Clinton... Everything needed to distract you from schoolwork! According to this movie, you could just slack off and drift through college in a haze of a substance of your choice, then just stress out over your thesis and BAM! graduate! "Who wouldn't want to do this!?!" a young Mark asked himself. "Yes, the different Politically Correctness groups are a little annoying but a little P Funk will cure all of that!"

Ahh, to be young and dream again...

1. Animal House

How could this not be number 1!?! It started multiple genres like the "gross-out" genre and every college comedy basically is trying to recreate the magic of this movie! And almost every college movie recently tries to have at least one cast member of this movie in it for "cred." Sorority Boys had at least 4 I can think of off the top of my head, Van Wilder had an Animal House cast member, a Revenge of the Nerds cast member and a Breakfast Club cast member in an attempt to get to it's target audience. This movie must have done something right to have it's cast sought after to improve the feel of these movies.

The appeal of this film is that it's pure id. If you take my explanation of college according to a pre-teen/teenager after watching PCU, than make Animal House the explanation of college according to a caveman or that homeless guy in downtown Baltimore that is so obviously blasted on some sort of alcoholic product at 8:30 in the morning. It is nothing but a series of fart jokes and animal-like behavior. Every action these characters make is to make life enjoyable, regardless of the outcome for others. And the only way school factors into this movie is because the lack of attention to their grades and classes will end their fun. It is a party movie and just plain fun from beginning to end.

The only negative to this movie is that my wife got me an Animal House Trivia Game and I can't find anyone else with as much useless knowledge about this movie to play with me!

So there you have it! Let me know if you agree, disagree or you're just indifferent.