MovieChat Forums > National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) Discussion > What food did Belushi spit out when he w...

What food did Belushi spit out when he was a zit?

posted 14 years ago by jfboyer
85 replies | jump to latest

Has there ever been a definitive answer as to what he put in his mouth and spit out?

We were eating last week and I said something to my 9 year grandson about not pretending he was a zit with the mashed potatoes. He, of course, had no idea what I was talking about. But my son did and laughed. My husband then said that it was not potatoes, but a hard boiled egg that Belushi put in his mouth. We got into a big argument about what the food was.

I looked around the net and found many different ideas as to what it was. Mashed potatoes, hard boiled eggs, cream filled cup cake, etc. But all the ideas seemed to be just that - ideas - as to what the food was. We got out the movie and stopped it as he was holding the food before putting it in his mouth. But we still could not really tell what it was other than it was round, looked bigger than a golf ball and smaller than a tennis ball, was white and had enough body to it to enable him to pick it up without it falling apart.

Because he was able to hold it with his fingers seems to eliminate mashed potatoes, but we never could figure out what it was. Any answers here?.....

[–] fistoffury 13 years ago

I always thought it was a doughnut.

[–] ta421sbtrhalf 13 years ago

http://www.hulu.com/watch/2345/saturday-night-live-little-chocolate-do nuts

Here is one where he is eating a doughnut. Little chocolate donuts.

People on ludes should not drive!

[–] jstang411 13 years ago

I re-watched the movie a couple nights ago and paid particular attention to what Bluto puts in his mouth.

What went in looked to be cottage cheese. It had the sheen and the large granular formation. Plus he grabbed it out of the cold plate section in the cafeteria line.

That does not mean though that what comes out could not be mashed taters. That might make for a better spray. They had the advantage of "cut" and reset after all.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rwsmith29456 12 years ago

I thought it was something like a cream puff.

[–] ericjg623 11 years ago

That's what I always thought it was. Some sort of pastry with lots of cream inside.

[–] DoctorJA 12 years ago

It seemed pretty obvious to me that it was a cottage cheese ball that was shaped by being scooped by an ice-cream scooper. I live in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area, and cottage cheese is very commonly seen in cafeteria-style restaurants served exactly the same way. I wonder if cottage cheese is perhaps only available in certain geographic areas in the country? Any thoughts??

[–] gabby_bm 12 years ago

Belushi said it was mashed potatoes. But it could have been implied to be cottage cheese. All I know is that handling it the way Belushi did, putting it to his mouth could easily have broken apart too much in his hand. Also, the spray would have had messier results, i would think, with little curd balls all over the place. Hard to clean up- especially if they needed to re-shoot the scene.

The actors may have also objected to cottage cheese and mashed potatoes would be a lovely substitute.

So i can accept that maybe they wanted to imply it was cottage cheese, but the actual product itself for the camera shot was indeed mashed potatoes.

My "#3" key is broken so I'm putting one here so i can cut & paste with it.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hodie 11 years ago

Cottage cheese, I think. Just saw the scene.

He grabbed a plate of it when he was on the cafeteria line. And large-curd cottage cheese is kind of dry and doesn't break up much when spat out like that. It looked way too bright-white for mashed potatoes to me.

"Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

[–] BobCH88 11 years ago

it's a ball of cottage cheese!

[–] Piperson 10 years ago

I think it's cottage cheese too.

I love the way that after Babs says Belushi is a "P I G pig", Belushi says "See if you can guess what I am now". The way he says it makes it sounds like he and Babs are just partaking in a normal conversation. It is so brilliant.

[–] jstang411 10 years ago

I think it's cottage cheese too

Don't know if you read all the posts on this, but there are a lot of good points and evidence for a number of possibilities. IT is the cafeteria food product equivalent of the grassy knoll....we may never know until the studio released the sealed production notes in 2040. :)

[–] gabby_bm 10 years ago

Then they'll be conveniently "lost" or stolen, I'm sure. i just can't dispute John Belushi's own testimony.
And of course that after entering his mouth, cottage cheese would not come out in large clumps- not under that much pressure! http://www.thesnipenews.com/thegutter/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/JohnB elushi-AnimalHouse-Zit.jpeg

Still, even if there were concrete evidence (which I feel I've presented in this thread) there would be those who would dispute it or question it as part of a larger conspiracy- a black flag operation of the highest order- propagated by the Idaho Potato Council in order to sell more potatoes and destroy the cottage cheese markets.

**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
.

[–] jstang411 10 years ago

a black flag operation of the highest order- propagated by the Idaho Potato Council in order to sell more potatoes and destroy the cottage cheese markets.

LOL. I think what did spit out was instant mash potatoes, but the problem is after they discovered they were not invented till after the year of movie, the coverup up began. Belushi spilled the beans at one point and then....he died young. His best friend's Mom's Cousin claims he wasn't even in LA on the night of his death.

[–] gabby_bm 10 years ago

The Idaho Potato Council has eyes everywhere!

**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
.

[–] jstang411 10 years ago

What I also find funny is what actually happened was some prop guys stood around and hit their cheeks over and over trying to figure out what would get the visual they wanted from the scene.......and whatever they settled on we are debating 35 years later.

Disclaimer -- what they actually chose did not necessarily match up with what we saw before on the screen. And still convinced it came from the cold plate section of the cafeteria line.

[–] gabby_bm 10 years ago

I watched that scene lots of times and it appears as though the tray got rearranged at some point. It looks different from the food line to when he approached Neidermeyer and again when he approached the table.

I'm sure they had lots of fun with the R&D before settling on mashed potatoes. They likely tried chewed up cauliflower, cottage cheese and maybe even had John slurp up some tapioca or cooked rice. Not only does the effect of the spread have to be perfect, but it has to be able to stick to the "spectators". i can just see Landis and a couple others sitting at a table with a variety of foods and calling in some poor schlep intern (or a student volunteer from the campus?) to stand there while the panel spews a variety of food in a variety of ways before deciding on the mashed potatoes.
("thank you, Chip. You've been very helpful") as the poor kid, covered in expelled food walks out in a daze wondering what the hell just happened.

**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
.

[–] harpon-1 10 years ago

Whatever concoction it was, Z its are known to spew the most!

http://thehearpe.tripod.com/index.html

[–] harpon-1 10 years ago

Hey, the southern broad can spell!

http://thehearpe.tripod.com/index.html

[–] chinawhite252 10 years ago

A boiled egg.

Cult Leader my mind's frightening, I drink blood from a human skull like a Viking