Stung by a cheating scam engineered by a rival fraternity (and having just been placed on “double secret” probation), the young men of the Faber College chapter of Delta Tau Chi decide to forget their troubles by throwing a toga party. It’s a gloriously debauched affair — featuring smashed guitars and the slatternly advances of the dean’s boozy wife — with costumes fashioned from bedsheets and music provided by Otis Day and the Knights (a fictional R&B band created by the filmmakers that subsequently toured as a real band in the wake of the film’s enormous popularity). And the mysterious word shouted by Bluto (John Belushi) that gets all the Deltas to fall down and writhe on the floor? According to director John Landis, it’s “gator” — the name of a popular ’60s dance.
