The novel chronicles the life of Doug Kenney, one of the original writers of National Lampoon. Before Kenney came on, Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman had been working on a script called "Freshmen Year" based on Ramis's experience at Washington University. Ramis and Kenney then worked on a script called "Laser Orgy Girls" that involved aliens and a Charles Manson like character all in high school. Deciding to move the story to college, the two brought on Chris Miller who supplied frat stories from his times at Dartmouth. At a writer's meeting they all agreed that "at the heart of every great fraternity, there is a great animal." They all immediately thought of Belushi. (278) The main drive of their treatment would be a "renegade" fraternity bent on "fun and chaos in equal parts" against a "Nixonian administration" and a desire for the characters to "create chaos." (279) All three writers, especially Kenney, were confident that they would write the "ultimate youth comedy." (280) In the end, "their desire was to tear down the institution they despised while celebrating the anarchic, sex-obsessed, beer-swilling teenager that they believed was within every decent red-blooded American male." Karp realizes that Animal House was one of the first movies to look at, in an "unflinchingly honest manner," American taboos on "sex, masturbation, race, and other previously unspeakable topics." (313)
    Karp's biography of Doug Kenney provides useful insight into the working and beginnings of what would eventually become Animal House. One can see the formation of the dominant themes discussed in the other sources that became the staple of college comedies. More importantly, the writer spurposefully set out to make a college movie that had never been done before, with themes that they knew would resonate with not only the youth of the day, but with every "red-blooded American male."

  Thomas and Heldenfel's homage to Animal House describes the film as a "raunchy, testosterone-laden, anarchic comedy." Before it was released, many believed it would be a forgettable, cheap comedy." Landis admitted that he had no idea how popular the film would become; it went on to gross over $100 million. Yet, Animal House was more than just a successful comedy. According to these two men, half a dozen modern comedic elements can trace their roots back to Animal House. Many comedies depict class warfare (Trading Places, 1983), especially when it comes to poking fun at the academic establishment. Marijuana is now almost always shown in college-themed comedies. The movie established sex as a major theme by "blowing away the notion of what was permissible in film comedies." Gross-out humor became an idea that future comedies built the entire movie around. Animal House brought about the concept of slackers banding together as one unit to fight back against their oppressors. Finally, John Belushi's presence in the film helped launch the film career of many other SNL cast members.
    This article confirms the hypothesis that Animal House was a major turning point in comedic film. Unlike the other articles, which deal with the more theoretical and symbolic changes of the college comedy, this article cites tangible movie elements that movies adopted from Animal House. Five specific aspects: class warfare, marijuana, sex, gross-out humor, and the slackers, became notable recurring themes of future films. Though Animal House was certainly not the first film to have these elements in them, it created the new college stereotype, which almost always included all of these five elements. This article shows what makes up the new stereotype of college after Animal House.