I remember when first, Stripes, and then Animal House came out - which I was really proud of, even though it was kind of loose and quite raucous - there were imitative movies that were not quite as good.

I never like to do parodies. I never do. It's just not my style of comedy.

We got some devastating reviews on Animal House at the start.

I always see things that I can improve. But frankly with Stripes, I'm surprised at how effective it is, even today, and how vibrant that movie is and how juicy the performances all are.

Well, actually, I did start out in comedies. Very, very early.

In a comedy it helps enhance things that were already there.

I call it like the domino theory of reality. If you can go one step at a time and it seems to make sense, you can then take your audience into an area that is relatively outlandish.