National Lampoon's Animal House Quotes

Context

This line is spoken by Dean Vernon Wormer (played by John Vernon) in the film National Lampoon's Animal House, directed by John Landis (1978).

At Faber College, Dean Wormer wants to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi fraternity—a group of students he sees as fat, drunk, stupid losers. So he calls them in to his office to discuss their GPAs. When he addresses Kent "Flounder" Dorfman, who has an 0.2 GPA, the dean has only one comment: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." It's good advice, we guess. But we don't think Dean Wormer's trying to be helpful here.

Where you've heard it

Hopefully nobody's lobbed this snark grenade at you. If so, just stick a pair of pencils up your nose and own it. That oughta teach those jerkfaces.

Additional Notable References: 

• Want to know more about the making of Animal House? Pick up the book Fat, Drunk, & Stupid. No, we're not calling you fat, drunk, and stupid. That's the name of the book.
• A sobriety website offers this same advice.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Insulting? Sure. Pretentious? Well, yeah—Dean Wormer wasn't about to lump himself in with the Delta Tau Chi boys. Chill out, Wormer.