PCU

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A college comedy film that could be described as Animal House meets the clashing of right-wing and left-wing politics of The Nineties, based on the novel of the same name written by Neal Stephenson very early in his career.

Tom is a pre-freshman having a visit to Port Chester University before he attends it properly. Hilarity Ensues as he manages to piss off half the campus, with his only safety between two groups, which themselves hate each other: The groups are Balls and Shaft, a right-wing fraternity that went underground after fraternities were banned from the school, and The Pit, a group that split off from Balls and Shaft and just wants to goof around (and to get around the ban, it doesn't call itself a fraternity).

However, the fraternity has the allegiance of the left-wing school president, at least in the sense of both hating The Pit. And they have a good plan on getting rid of it.

This 1994 film starred Jeremy Piven as Droz and David Spade as Rand, with a special appearance by George Clinton.

Not to be confused with Pawtucket Credit Union.


Tropes used in PCU include:
  • As Himself: George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic
  • Animal Wrongs Group: Flower and her crowd.
  • Batman Gambit/Xanatos Gambit: The plan to get rid of The Pit was to slap them with all the unpaid bills for their building and anticipating that Droz would suggest a wild party to raise the money. This would cause loads of complaints from the PC students, thus giving enough reason to shut down The Pit even if the money was raised in time. Its the former for being based on what The Pit residents would do and the latter for benefiting whether they did it or not.
    • Later Droz pulls a Batman Gambit of his own, anticipating he could get the student body to rally to him, thus getting the president fired for failing to handle the situation.
  • Dawson Casting: Nobody in this movie passes for college-aged. Jeremy Piven's character is at least said to be in his seventh year of college.
  • Dean Bitterman: So much, that her bosses are just looking for an excuse to get rid of her.
  • Double Meaning Title: Could stand for "Port Chester University" or "Politically Correct University".
  • Must Have Caffeine: Droz is introduced waking up from a bender and repeatedly screaming, "Coffee!"
  • Everyone Chasing You: Tom halfway through the movie, and Rand at the end. Tom even exploits this to get enough people to come to the party.
  • Freudian Excuse: Played With. While it's not made clear if Rand was any less of a Jerkass before he roomed with Droz, it's shown in a flashback that Droz was a pretty horrible room mate.
  • Hope Spot: The end of the party, where even the "Caine–Hackman Theory" was proven.
  • Hypocritical Humor: The last student protest in the film: WE'RE NOT GONNA PROTEST!
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: Droz after getting in trouble for throwing "a hundred pounds of meat at a peaceful vegan protest."

Droz: Oh, come on! That was way more than a hundred pounds!