“Looga, yeah. One malooga, four loogas.”

Justin’s rating: How many layers of clothes does Bob wear?

Justin’s review: Every so often I discover the existence of a movie that I must see right then, that very day. On a recent Saturday afternoon, the “Underappreciated Movies” subreddit mentioned Big Man on Campus, and you best believe that I was watching it by that evening. How could I not? An ’80s college movie about a hunchback who stalks the halls of UCLA? Only a rapid viewing could erase the shame of not knowing this film’s existence prior to 2024.

A college urban legend about a mysterious figure creeping about the bell tower actually turns out to be true. Bob (Allan Katz) is an almost caveman-like hunchback who’s been living in seclusion above UCLA, spying on one coed in particular — Cathy (The Office’s Melora Hardin with a blonde perm). But when she is mildly pushed at a renaissance faire, Bob swoops down to her rescue and ends up the subject of intense media and medical fascination.

Huge, misshapen, uncivilized, and a connoisseur of mismatched outfits, Bob is assigned to a university psychiatrist (Tom Skerritt) and a roommate in the form of Cathy’s constantly quipping boyfriend Alex (Corey Parker). What follows is very similar to the plot of Encino Man a few years later — a wild man who does funny things, frustrates his friends, wows everyone else, and gradually finds a place in modern society.

Big Man on Campus was written by its star, Katz, and both in the writer’s room and in the main role, the man gave it his all. His quasi-Quasimodo is a spirited troglodyte who’s immediately likable. He’s as if Tim Allen’s grunts from Home Improvement enrolled in college.

While this was a much more lighthearted take on the tragic story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, it’s not devoid of a touch of heartache. Bob’s backstory is pretty sad, showing a society that had rejected him pretty thoroughly until now.

Promised passing grades for his effort, Alex reluctantly moves in with Bob in his junk-filled clocktower (with Mooka the Rat!). They’re quite the odd couple — Bob sees Alex as a romantic rival and passive-aggressive target, and Alex doesn’t miss any opportunity to snark at his Neanderthal roomie. While they start by butting heads (almost literally), the two become unlikely friends over time.

You’re not going to get any refined, haut culture, Woody Allen humor here — but that’s not to say that there aren’t a bucket of laughs. It’s just a different kind of comedy. Slapstick and zingers are the order of the day, all set against a wonderfully silly situation. Everywhere Bob goes, joyful chaos follows, and an exasperated Alex is torn from trying to keep his roomie under control and make jokes.

Despite some fairly well-known actors and a plot that was right up the ’80s alley, Big Man on Campus got delayed and shoved to video shelves a couple years later. It’s taken a while to find an audience, although it did enjoy a rotation on Comedy Central and received a robust Blu-ray release earlier this year. For his part, Allan Katz continues to express affection and appreciation of the people who helped him make his dream movie.

Count me as one of his fans as of today. The laughs came easy with this movie, and I kept calling my kids over to watch certain scenes until I realized that I should just buy it and make this a staple of my library.

Intermission!

• “It looked like a 250-pound baked potato!”
• Bob got himself a rather nice high-powered telescope there to spy on girls
• “Apparently, underachievement is the only area in which you excel.”
• “You are a barnacle on the Great Ship of Knowledge and the time is coming for you to be scraped off.”
• This college is throwing a full-on renaissance festival
• “I have shoes that are smarter than her!”
• That is one gigantic Tarzan ripe swing
• “What we have here is the world’s biggest parrot.”
• Crazy to see Jan from The Office with blonde hair and a perm
• Bob throwing the books in the courtroom
• “No mooka!”
• Bob barely sharing his food with Alex made me laugh
• Mooka the Rat!
• “I’m Jewish, he’s Neanderthal, our children would grow up to be stupid doctors.”
• “The least you could do was comb your… face.”
• You can’t undress Bob, even with a committee
• Bob constantly stealing the doctors’ stuff
• That’s one way to problem solve the peg-in-hole game
• “We’re betrothed. It’s a very strange story, but since you insist, I’ll tell it. Many years ago, in exchange for food my parents promised that I’d wed the local land-owner’s firstborn gorilla.”
• Say “go” to Bob, and you’re going to get wrestled
• Balls bounce, bananas don’t
• Bob’s dog is better than Diane’s dog
• CHOCOLATE!
• Showers are harder when you won’t get undressed
• Well, he didn’t throw the ball at least
• “916 for good time!”
• “What part of body is this?” “Oh boy.”
• He can have any part of the chicken he wants. “Two faces.”
• “Bob already read book. Lust Unchained. Bob read for you.”
• “Ravaged.”
• “How many times have I told you not to look in my books?” “Nine.”
• “It’s a house!” “Ohh, for very small people.”
• The ball of money
• “Tired of wearing clothes that fit comfortably over Xerox machine.”
• “Bob once made nookie with Buick Skylark.”
• Bob pulling Diane up onto the stage
• “You spell especially seductive this evening.”
• “Wanted a pony. Or a hippo.”
• “Bob trying to get to girls dorm when bicycles try to kill him!”
• Bob’s great catch with this legs
• “I owe you an apology.” “Well, where is it?”