Movies of 1978 Bracket Game: Animal House Vs. Up in Smoke

https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/03/25/movies-of-1978-bracket-game-animal-house-vs-up-in-smoke/

Animal House was the first movie from the writers of National Lampoon. The magazine was started by Harvard graduates who had worked on the Harvard Lampoon in college. It was known for being raunchy and controversial. Over the course of the decade, National Lampoon spread out into other media including a radio show which morphed into a stage show.

When Lorne Michaels was casting for Saturday Night Live, he poached the National Lampoon cast and writers heavily. So when it came time to make a National Lampoon movie, the idea was to stock the cast with Not Ready For Prime Time Players. John Landis nixed the idea of casting Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd choosing instead to showcase John Belushi. When Animal House hit (it was the third highest-grossing movie of the year), it made Belushi a major star.

Up in Smoke was a smaller movie. It was aimed at a niche audience. I will admit, I don’t get stoner comedy. In college, I had a roommate who thought everything Cheech and Chong did was hysterical. He insisted that I watch some of their movies with him, but I am just not the target audience at all. Like Animal House, the movie was based on an existing comedy franchise. Cheech and Chong had been doing their stand-up act and selling comedy records for about a decade before they got into movies.

Cheech and Chong’s first effort was popular enough to become the 15th highest-grossing movie of the year. They followed it up with a lot more of the same. Two years later, they starred in the unimaginatively titled Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie. But in the “Just say no” eighties, the popularity of pot comedy was on the decline. The duo’s remaining movies saw diminishing returns. By 1984, they had abandoned the stoner comedy entirely for The Corsican Brothers, but that didn’t help either.

Eventually, Cheech and Chong went their separate ways. But they were undeniably more popular together than they were on their own. It was only a matter of time before they put their differences behind them. The inevitable reunion was gradual at first. But these days, the boys are back together giving their fans exactly what they want.

Which of these counter-culture comedies tickles your funny bone?