Animal House Wins Best Picture

By Matthew Goldenberg

Feb. 24, 2013

In an absolutely stunning surprise this evening, the 1978 film Animal House won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2013. Despite the fact that the movie was not even nominated for any awards or even released in the appropriate time frame, the Academy, decided that it deserved the honor because of the “great symbolism present in the movie.”

The host of this year’s festivities, Seth MacFarlane, was asked to deliver the following message on behalf of the Academy instead of introducing the presenters for the award as is the norm.

“The Academy feels that the movies produced in 2012 were so diverse and deserving of this award that no one would be happy with a decision,” began MacFarlane, “To this end, it was decided that another movie should be honored instead. Being that the classic that it is, the award goes to Animal House!”

In a statement released after the show, the Academy further explained their choice of movie. “You’ve got to understand,” read the statement, “they bring a horse into an office and it dies! If that isn’t classic American comedy, then we don’t know what we’re doing. That is just a really compelling scene. It symbolizes a lot of current issues.” The Academy referred to the film as “an allegory for the pressing social issues of time: a great influence on the 1980 presidential election.”

When interviewed after the show, Ben Affleck, the director of Oscar-nominated film Argo, said, “We were proud to have been nominated for the award. We had our hopes high but we are also glad that a great film such as Animal House ended up taking home the award. They deserve it too. There is a lot of under-appreciated symbolism in that movie.”

As of press time, Arnold Schwarzenegger could not be reached for comment after winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in The Terminator.