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This was the original big problem in the movie.
The Alpha Betas burned their frat house down.
The Alpha Betas were having a wild party. One of them tried a fire-breathing trick, and presto! The frat house burned down!
Nerds were getting more popular.
Frat boys had problems with their classes.
The school was not science-intensive.
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What was Takashi's secret to winning the drink-and-bike race?
Takashi has a lot of alcoholic resistance.
The nerds sabotaged the other bikes.
The jocks all have a bad sense of direction.
The nerds had a drug that erases being drunk.
The nerds had a trick up their sleeves: a chemical that could remove the effects of alcohol. No matter how much beer Takashi drank, he wouldn't get sloshed.
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In real life, the crew went to the University of Arizona to film the "Revenge of the Nerds." However, it was known by this name in the movie.
Eva College
Adams College
Filming at the University of Arizona for the fictional Adams College nearly didn't happen after the school officials read the script. However, things worked out, and they even had students come in as extras.
St. Ignatius College
Westchester College
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One of the lead nerds, Lewis Skolnick, is played by this actor, a member of Hollywood royalty.
Peter Fonda
Dean Paul Martin
Robert Carradine
Robert Carradine is the "nice guy" in the Carradine family. He was also Sam, Lizzie McGuire's dad. Unbelievably, he also plays a tracker in "Django Unchained," maybe to follow a family tradition of playing cowboy roles.
Nicolas Cage
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Remember, it's the '80s. What did Booger do to Takashi while painting the house?
Booger kept on insulting him.
Booger made Takashi smoke some pot.
Back then, you needed stoner jokes for a teen movie. This scene with Takashi passing out when Booger made him smoke pot sets up for a party scene later in the movie.
Booger made him paint the wrong color.
Booger helped him with the painting.
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All the nerds were very smart, but what made Wormser different?
He could not speak English.
He was autistic.
He was a child genius.
All the other people in the nerd crew are just about the right age for college - except Wormser. He's so smart, he's in college when he should be in high school. And yeah, he appreciates shenanigans already!
He had no friends at all.
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When the nerds go on the offensive, they choose "liquid heat" massage oil as their weapon, using it on these.
Jockstraps
Massage oil generates a lot of heat when you apply it to sore parts of the body. If you make jockstraps wet with it, let's just say that's a lot of "cooked eggs."
Football helmets
Socks
Gloves
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Nice guy Gilbert Lowe is played by Anthony Edwards. Funny enough, he also plays the lovable nerd-like character in this movie about fighter pilots.
Top Gun
Most people don't connect that Edwards is Goose in "Top Gun," the awkward, geeky co-pilot for Maverick, Tom Cruise's character. Edwards had a bigger role - and lost a lot of hair - as Dr. Mark Greene in the TV show, "ER."
Iron Eagle
Airwolf, the movie
Blue Thunder
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Do you remember that honking, spastic laugh that the lead nerds had? Well, nerd-dad actor James Cromwell said that his accidental inspiration was this.
How his favorite dog barked
His son's own laughter
His then-wife's laugh
James Cromwell probably didn't mean it, but he patterned that honking laugh after his then-wife's laughter. He only realized it was his wife's later on. By that time, he'd taught everybody else how to do it.
How his dad coughed
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This was Booger's amazing skill during the fraternity contests.
He could smoke more pot than anyone else.
He could drink more beer than anyone else could.
He could hold his breath the longest.
A darn-long beer belch.
Booger's beer belch beat the heck out of Ogre's in terms of length of time. Behind the scenes, it was supposedly a mix of a camel and a person's belch.
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This is the classic frat thing that the Tri-Lambda boys did to get back at the Alpha Betas' sorority ally, the Pi Delta Pi.
A panty raid
Though it wouldn't fly these days on film, frats do raids on sorority houses. The aim would be to get at least one or two panties, as proof that they really did do it. The film doesn't show if they were returned.
Splashing them with cold water
Kissing them and running away
Giving them flowers in public
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The drill the Tri-Lambda nerds used to install hidden cameras was a success because of this.
The drill was super sharp.
The drill used lasers.
The drill had a silencer.
The drill the nerds used had a silencer they invented. In real life, drills have become quieter, because of the use of better mechanical designs.
The drill was super small.
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Booger is played by Curtis Armstrong, and it's kinda funny since there was one thing he refused to do at first. What was it?
Fart on camera
Belch on camera
Pick his nose on camera
Armstrong said he did not want to pick his nose at first. It's good thing he decided to dig in to his schnoz, since Booger was one of his iconic roles.
Smoke a joint on camera
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This famous victory song was used at the end of the movie.
Baby Got Back
The Thong Song
Back in Black
We Are the Champions
It looks a bit hokey now, but the nerds of Tri-Lambda won people's hearts for just being who they were. And Queen's "We are the Champions" made the feeling of the last scene even better for nerds around the world.
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Again, it's the '80s. This is what made Lambda Lambda Lambda different from the other national fraternities.
They were a street gang.
They were originally all-black.
The nerd crew applied to an all-black fraternity. Of course, they had at least one black member, the glamorously gay Lamar.
They were a fraternity for nerds.
They were a sorority, not a fraternity.
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This is a now-iffy scene, where one of the nerds used this sorta-kinda sci-fi costume to fool a Pi Delta Pi girl into playing some, err, hooky.
A Martian costume
A robot costume
The Darth Vader look
While the costume, as shown, was not really Darth Vader, it looked enough like one to let people know what it was supposed to be. But it was his performance with his, uh, saber that won the day.
A Star Trek costume
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John Goodman played this in the movie, and it was very different from most of the roles that we know him for now.
The fat nerd
The slob frat boy
The football coach
John Goodman would later be known as Dan Conner, from the TV series "Roseanne." He also voiced good-guy characters in Disney movies, like Sulley from "Monsters, Inc." Not bad for a guy who played a jerky coach!
The school principal
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This was the sorority partner of Lambda Lambda Lambda.
Pi Delta Pi
Sigma Psi
Omega Mu
Omega Mu was the girl version of the nerd crew. They were Ugly Betties before Ugly Betty came along. The sorority name has become a bit of slang for uncool groups of girls in some places. Thankfully, the term has gone out of style.
Eta Beta
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This is the nickname of the association of fraternities at Adams College.
The Alphabet Council
The Frats and Jocks
The Greek Council
The association for the various fraternities and sororities in the school was known as the Greek Council. This is due to the use of Greek letters for the names of fraternities. Today, the term is still used across some campuses.
The Big Men on Campus
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Brian Tochi plays this with his role as Takashi Toshiro.
The Dumb Asian
The Asian Sidekick
The Asian-Looking American
The Asian nerd from another land
Brian Toshi portrayed the clueless but smart Japanese stereotype in "Revenge of the Nerds." He played the same character type in the "Police Academy" movies.
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Talk about life imitating art! This make-believe frat became a real one later on.
Alpha Beta
Pi Delta Pi
Lambda Lambda Lambda
Lambda Lambda Lambda is a real fraternity organization now, with chapters in some schools. The home chapter is at the University of Connecticut. It devotes itself to brotherhood and appreciation of pop culture.
Eta Beta
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It may be soft and swishy, but this custom-built equipment helped Lamar win a contest.
A floppy javelin
Javelins are usually rigid sticks. But in Lamar's case, the nerds made a floppy one, so that Lamar's bouncy feminine run could be maximized. And win he did!
A feather boa
A whip
A bicycle
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The Alpha Betas aren't that dumb, but doing this after their house burned down isn't exactly smart.
They got obsessed with hating nerds.
They roasted marshmallows with the burning remains of their House.
Ogre roasting some marshmallows with Pi girls using burning house bits established that they were dumb jerks in general. And they were probably stone-drunk.
They dropped out of the football team.
They acted like losers.
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During the school fair, the Tri-Lambs were outselling everybody in the pie sales. This was why.
They had a good pie recipe.
They put pot in the pie.
They had many friends.
They had a nude photo of a Pi girl in the pie plate.
The Tri-Lambs did more than watch girls with the hidden cameras they installed in the Pi house. They took nude snapshots, and then printed them out as the bottom of pie plates. Revenge can be disturbingly sweet.
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Donald Gibb plays Ogre, and he actually loves playing Ogre-types in movies, TV shows and commercials, including one for this famous action film.
Bloodsport
Donald Gibb plays Ray Jackson, an American fighter, in the movie "Bloodsport." There, he plays an adult version of Ogre, though he tends to be less of a bully.
Delta Force
First Blood
American Ninja
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Do you remember Poindexter, the violin nerd with the thick glasses? Timothy Busfield, the actor playing him, needed this, because the glasses were that thick.
He had to memorize his steps.
He needed a guide.
Busfield literally had a companion guide him if necessary while he was wearing the character's glasses. It's a case of being blind with glasses on!
He used hearing aids to get directions.
He had to feel out where he was going.
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James Cromwell may play the proto-nerd dad in this movie, but he also played Farmer Arthur Hoggett in this farmyard fantasy.
Grapes of Wrath
All My Children
Babe: Pig in the City
James Cromwell can look serious and introspective - and still be funny! As Farmer Hoggett, he was a hit as the gentle farmer who owned the pig, Babe.
Wizard of Oz
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So, we have been talking about Lambda Lambda Lambda, and it turns out that their name is also a joke, aimed at this controversial organization.
The Black Panthers
The United Nations
The KKK
Just as HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey" is one letter ahead of IBM, the Tri-Lambs - LLL - is one letter after the KKK. It's one of the darker jokes in the movie.
The Al Qaeda
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This is what Robert Carradine supposedly did to get into character.
He dressed as a nerd all day.
Robert Carradine was serious about the role, so he prepared by dressing up as a nerd as much as possible. He even went to the University of Arizona ahead of the crew to get familiar with the campus.
He read many books.
He got into nerdy hobbies.
He practiced having a squeaky voice.
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Lamar, the wonderfully gay nerd played by Larry Scott, was so famous that the actor took up a tough guy role in this other famous '80s teen film.
Pretty in Pink
Breakfast Club
Karate Kid
Scott did many other guy's guy roles because people actually believed he was gay. He also went into dramatic projects because of it. Talk about having to man up!
One Crazy Summer
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Why did Lewis say the following immortal line: “All jocks ever think about is sports, but all nerds ever think about is sex"?
He watched some nude girls.
He was talking to an Alpha Beta.
He scored with a Pi girl.
Lewis said this after finally sleeping with Betty, one of the beautiful Pi girls. She was very impressed with his skills in bed. Perhaps all that thinking paid off.
He was talking to himself.
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When Ogre first sees the nerds, he does this, aside from calling the nerds out.
He belches.
He drinks beer.
He drops a guy from the roof.
It is a spot-on moment for how crazy Ogre is. He was holding someone by the ankles from the roof balcony of the frat house, and seeing Lewis and Gilbert made him drop the guy - just so he could shout at them.
He punches somebody.
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Booger did this to win the arm wrestling contest.
Smiled at the enemy.
Farted.
Picked his nose.
In one of the funnier and more disgusting moments in the film, Booger did an instant pick and roll with his nose, and then held the hand of the girl he was up against. It's no surprise he won!
Spit.
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When it was time for the stage presentation contest, the Tri-Lambs did this.
A musical techno-rap number.
If anything will date "Revenge of the Nerds" as an '80s film, it would be this musical number. Old-school electronic music, rap, clapping choir on the side and the neon lights in the background make it a perfect music video.
A science experiment.
A film showing with comments.
A stage play.
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Lewis and Gilbert had another thing they brought from home that was sadly underused in the film. What was it?
A homemade robot
It’s the classic mad scientist and nerd badge - the robot they made themselves. Sadly, it would appear in only a few scenes, notably where it scares the hell out of Poindexter when cleaning the floor.
A stack of science books
A pair of matching pocket protectors
A set of sci-fi tools
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