Pinto

* Film
* Poster

> "*Can I buy pot from you?*"
> ― Pinto to Professor Jennings
>
>

**Larry "Pinto" Kroger** is a main protagonist in the film *National Lampoon's Animal House* and it's television spin-off *Delta House*. He was a Delta Tau Chi pledge along with his roommate Kent "Flounder" Dorfman.

He was portrayed by Tom Hulce in *Animal House* and Richard Seer in *Delta House*.

## History

In 1962, college freshmen Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman seek to join a fraternity at Faber College. They visit the prestigious Omega Theta Pi House's invitational party, but are not welcomed there. They then try next door at Delta Tau Chi House, where Kent's brother was once a member, making Kent a "legacy." There they find John "Bluto" Blutarsky urinating outside the fraternity house. The Deltas "need the dues" so they permit Larry and Kent to pledge. They receive the fraternity names "Pinto" (Larry) and "Flounder" (Kent).

Vernon Wormer, dean of Faber College, wants to remove the Delta fraternity from campus due to repeated conduct violations and low academic standing. Since they are already on probation, he puts the Deltas on something he calls "double secret probation" and orders the clean-cut, smug Omega president Greg Marmalard to find a way to get rid of the Deltas permanently.

The next day, Bluto and D-Day steal the answers to an upcoming psychology test, but it turns out the Omegas planted the exam stencil and the Deltas get every answer wrong. Their grade-point averages drop so low that Wormer only needs one more incident to revoke the charter that allows them to remain on campus.

To cheer themselves up, the Deltas organize a toga party, during which Otis Day and the Knights perform "Shout". The dean's alcoholic, lecherous wife, Marion, attends the party at Otter's invitation and has sex with him. Pinto hooks up with Clorette, a girl he met at the supermarket, and makes out with her only to learn she is the mayor's 13-year-old daughter. He later takes her home in a shopping cart. Due to the party, Wormer organizes a kangaroo court with the Omegas and revokes Delta's charter and all belongings are confiscated.

To take their minds off their troubles, Otter, Donald "Boon" Schoenstein, Flounder and Pinto go on a road trip. Otter picks up some girls from Emily Dickinson College by pretending to be the fiancé of Fawn Lebowitz, a girl who recently died on campus. They stop at a roadhouse because Otis Day and the Knights are performing there, not realizing that it caters to an exclusively black clientele. The hulking patrons intimidate the guys and they flee, damaging Flounder's borrowed car and leaving their frightened dates behind.

Boon breaks up with his girlfriend Katy after discovering her sexual relationship with a professor. Marmalard is told that his girlfriend is having an affair with Otter, so he and other Omegas lure him to a motel and beat him up. The Deltas' midterm grades are so poor that an ecstatic Wormer expels them all. He even notifies their draft boards of their legibility. In the process, before Bluto attempts to speak to the dean, Wormer orders Flounder to speak with the words, "Well? Out with it!", whereupon Flounder vomits on the dean.

It seems time for the Deltas to give up, but Bluto, supported by the injured Otter, rouses them with an impassioned, historically inaccurate speech ("Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!") and they decide to take revenge on Wormer and the Omegas. The Deltas construct a rogue parade float with Flounder's car as its base and wreak havoc on the annual homecoming parade. During the ensuing chaos, the futures of many of the main characters are revealed, with Pinto's occupation being an editor for National Lampoon.

## Trivia

* Larry's nickname "Pinto" was the same as Chris Miller's.
* He first appeared in the National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook.
* Pinto is one of the only main characters who doesn't appear or is mentioned in Where Are They Now?, the others being Mandy, Jennings, Mayor DePasto and Clorette.