Rizzoli says she didn't go to college because she couldn't stand the idea of listening to a professor "drone on and on" and instead wanted to do work right away. Even though she was top student with academic accolades.
Professor Hadley (David Koechner) is a kooky college professor consumed with proving that Bigfoot is real.
College dean Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven) is depicted as corrupt, uncaring and overbearing and is the main antagonist of the fraternity three adults created to circumvent college zoning laws.
The football players high school teacher is also a stripper who does a dance to the song "hot for teacher."
Staff Aside
There is a conflict in the movie from his coach and Dad around Mox prioritizing education over football and getting an academic scholarship to Brown. So, they at least depict that favorably, but they still had to make a teacher moonlight as a stripper.
Mike McDermott (Matt Damon) quits law school with the blessing of his professor in order to be a professional poker player.
The Dude tells Brandt (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) that he attended college, but "spent most of my time occupying various administration building, uh, smoking a lot of thai sticks, breaking into the ROTC, bowling. To tell you the truth Brandt, I don't remember most of it."
College president Garcia-Thompson is depicted as an over-the-top liberal foil who takes political correctness to extreme levels.
A college student seeking help from Droz is majoring in Sanskrit. His reply, "Sanskrit? You are majoring in a 5000 year old dead language?"
One student Pigman just sat and watched TV for hours every day trying to prove his senior thesis the "Caine-Hackman" theory that no matter what time of day it is, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV. Droz explains, "That's the beauty of college these days." and "You can major in Game Boy if you know how to bullshit." He finally figures out how to finish his thesis when he sees Caine and Hackman in the same movie together, "A Bridge Too Far."
Staff Aside
This fuels negative conservative stereotypes about college that many classes are not useful and that young people are lazy and make bad decisions.
Monotone voiced teacher Ben Stein calls out Bueller three times while the students look completely and utterly bored. Later, he bores the students more with a quirky lecture style, "In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone?... the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work."
Staff Aside
It's an iconic funny scene. Which also perpetuates an anti-teacher, anti-intellectual mindset through comedy. We all know it's a joke but some students may use this as an excuse to mock teachers rather than learn. Conservatives benefit from a less educated voter base. The smarter they are the less likely they'll vote for today's Republican party.
The premise of the movie is that high school sucks and friends play hooky following Ferris Bueller's lead. The principal, his secretary and an economics teacher (Ben Stein) are also lampooned.
High school principal Mr. Strickland is depicted as overly strict and lacking compassion calling Marty McFly a slacker for having multiple tardies and saying he will never amount to anything.
Staff Aside
Real life high school principals would be much more diplomatic and caring in their approach.
Vice-Principal Vernon (Paul Gleason) is an angry, overly-strict educator who forbids a group of misfits serving a Saturday detention from talking or even moving from their seats. He's portrayed as having a deep disdain against the teens for making him show up to school on a Saturday and makes them write a long essay exploring their beliefs about themselves, but doesn't offer any of them guidance and instead leaves them to their own devices only to check on them occasionally to ridicule them about one thing or another.
Staff Aside
The vast majority of principals, vice-principals and educators in general strive to be good role models for their students and help them learn from mistakes that resulted in detention so they will hopefully not find themselves in that position again. When movies portray them in a negative light it reinforces the conservative belief that educators are in their profession for reasons other than teaching our youth.
Dr. Raymond Stantz says, "I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn't have to produce anything." followed by "I've worked in the private sector. They expect results."
Historical Context
Ghostbusters debuted in theaters four months before the 1984 Presidential election and was the 2nd highest grossing movie that year. Reagan obviously benefits by a joke about professors worried about the private sector expecting results when actually colleges and universities are on the leading edge of the newest advances in thought, science, technology and medicine and educating most of the best workers in the private sector.
Dean Wormer is depicted as overly vindictive, corrupt and an all-around bad person and the main antagonist of the Delta fraternity.
Professor Jennings (Donald Sutherland) smokes pot with his students, has been working on a novel for 4 1/2 years which he calls "a piece of shit" and says that he finds famed writer John Milton as boring as his students probably do.
16 Tropes
11 Movies
1 TV Show
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