Passes the Bechdel test
National Lampoon's Animal House
1978. Directed by John Landis, written by Harold Ramis and Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
13 women characters. 10 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 75. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Faber College has one frat house so disreputable that it will take anyone. It has a second one full of rich young Anglo-Saxon men who are so sanctimonious that nobody can stand them except Dean Vernon Wormer, who enlists the help of the second frat to drive the boys of Delta House off the campus. The dean's plan comes into play just before the Homecoming parade to end all parades for all time.
- Released
- 28 Jul 1978
- Genres
- Comedy
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 79 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Otter 96 lines, man
- Boon 73 lines, man
- Hoover 49 lines, man
- Flounder 45 lines, man
- Doug 38 lines, man
- Pinto 38 lines, man
- Bluto 37 lines, man
- Gregg 37 lines, man
- Katy 32 lines, woman
- Wormer 28 lines, man
Full cast, 41 people
- John Belushi as John 'Bluto' Blutarski
- Karen Allen as Katy
- Tom Hulce as Larry 'Pinto' Kroger
- Stephen Furst as Kent 'Flounder' Dorfman
- Mark Metcalf as Doug Neidermeyer
- Mary Louise Weller as Mandy Pepperidge
- Martha Smith as Barbara Sue 'Babs' Jansen
- John Vernon as Dean Vernon Wormer
- James Daughton as Greg Marmalard
- Kevin Bacon as Chip Diller
- Tim Matheson as Eric 'Otter' Stratton
- Verna Bloom as Marion Wormer
- Cesare Danova as Mayor Carmine DePasto
- Peter Riegert as Donald 'Boon' Schoenstein
- James Widdoes as Robert Hoover
- Bruce McGill as Daniel Simpson Day
- DeWayne Jessie as Otis Day
- Sarah Holcomb as Clorette DePasto
- Lisa Baur as Shelly
- Donald Sutherland as Dave Jennings
- Douglas Kenney as Stork
- Chris Miller as Hardbar
- Bruce Bonnheim as B.B.
- Joshua Daniel as Mothball
- Sunny Johnson as Otter's Co-Ed
- Stacy Grooman as Sissy
- Eliza Roberts as Brunella
- Aseneth Jurgenson as Beth
- Katherine Denning as Noreen
- Raymone Robinson as Mean Dude
- Robert Elliott as Meaner Dude
- Reginald Farmer as Meanest Dude
- Jebidiah R. Dumas as Gigantic Dude
- Priscilla Lauris as Dean's Secretary
- Rick Eby as Omega
- John Freeman as Man On Street
- Sean McCartin as Lucky Boy
- Helen Vick as Sorority Girl
- Rick Greenough as Mongol
- Stephen Bishop as Charming Guy with Guitar
- John Landis as Cafeteria Dishwasher
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 75
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 7 to 8 | 1 | 15 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 6 |
| 11 to 12 | 4 | 18 |
| 13 to 14 | 6 | 16 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 19 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 22 |
| 19 to 20 | 2 | 18 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 11 |
| 23 to 24 | 5 | 27 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 32 |
| 27 to 28 | 6 | 17 |
| 29 to 30 | 5 | 6 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 3 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 5 | 29 |
| 37 to 38 | 10 | 16 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 3 | 11 |
| 45 to 46 | 5 | 39 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 14 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 6 |
| 51 to 52 | 7 | 10 |
| 53 to 54 | 4 | 10 |
| 55 to 56 | 1 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 2 | 7 |
| 59 to 60 | 1 | 7 |
| 61 to 62 | 3 | 2 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 5 |
| 65 to 66 | 7 | 24 |
| 67 to 68 | 4 | 13 |
| 69 to 70 | 2 | 16 |
| 71 to 72 | 19 | 57 |
| 73 to 74 | 1 | 2 |
| 75 to 75 | 5 | 26 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
NOREEN: They were horrible! SHELLY: Oh I don't know. F~ank was kinda cute.
BABS: I suppose I'll just have to get it r:iyself, then. MANDY: You'd better change first. I flushed it down the toilet.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 18 are women's.
110 lines from women, 513 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
13 women and 27 men in the cast. 10 women and 21 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 13 of 698.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 63 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 16% of the words (973), men 84% (5,172). Women have 18% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
7
Two men
63
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 12% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- John Landis (man)
- Written by
- Douglas Kenney (man), Harold Ramis (man), Chris Miller (man)
- Produced by
- Judith Belushi-Pisano (woman), Matty Simmons (man), Ivan Reitman (man)
- Shot by
- Charles Correll (man)
- Edited by
- George Folsey Jr. (man)
- Music by
- Elmer Bernstein (man)
- Costumes by
- Deborah Nadoolman Landis (woman)
- Cast by
- Michael Chinich (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
2 women, 10 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 7 men, 3 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 1 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 4 men
-
Production
1 women, 4 men
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 3 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 27 on average. Men: 29 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Martha Smith 25, Karen Allen 26, Mary Louise Weller 31
Men
Kevin Bacon 20, Stephen Furst 23, Tom Hulce 24, James Daughton 28, John Belushi 29, Mark Metcalf 32, John Vernon 46
Exhibit H: the money
It made 52.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $2.7 million
- Box office
- $141 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 75 scenes and 698 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
