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Ten Slobs We Love from the Movies

In this week's review of The Hangover III, "Entitled Fraternity Dicks Return to The Hangover Part III," Chris Packham writes: "In the slobs-versus-snobs comedies of the 1970s and '80s, the snooty rich kids were always the antagonists, bullying the nerds and cheating at cross-camp field days." But the tables have turned, writes Packham: "Now the snobs have seized the cultural momentum and basically won the American economy."

"What Warner Brothers marketing is now calling the "Wolf Pack Trilogy" is funny but unlovable, asking the audience not just to laugh at all this meanness but actively to identify with it."

Here are ten slobs we love, guys who would be bullied by the "four pampered rich-boys" of The Hangover III.

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The "Wolf Pack Trilogy" is funny but unlovable, asking the audience not just to laugh at all this meanness but actively to identify with it.

10. John Blutarsky in Animal House
The role that made John Belushi an icon to college freshmen for a few decades.

9. The Rancor Keeper in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
In this galactic 1983 buddy comedy, the giant Rancor -- all claws and fangs -- and his lovable, rotund, shirtless keeper (played by Paul Brooke) are forever separated by feather-haired bro Luke Skywalker, after the Jedi killed it in Jabba's lair. While some view Skywalker as the "hero," it's clear this was an early George Lucas spin job.

8. Cousin Eddie in Christmas Vacation
Randy Quaid's character may live in an RV year-round, own a violent Rottweiler and wear a dickey in this 1989 comedy, but compared to world's-biggest-jerk Chevy Chase, it's hard to root against Cousin Eddie.

7. Michael Moore in Everything
Doing his best Mike Wallace impression, but with more sweating and stair-climbing, all while doing a voiceover of himself doing this stuff, Michael Moore's an easy target of the Right, but none of that makes him not someone we root for on the big screen.

6. Bill Murray in Meatballs
Think the jocks are going to beat you year after year, first in school, then in life? "That's just the attitude we don't need!" proclaims Murray's Tripper in this 1979 movie. Think you can't overcome the odds? Just start a chant that goes, "IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!" That's sure to crush any doubt. And more than 30 years later, we're still rooting for Murray, although at this point, we're just rooting for him to show up at our house party or to randomly tend bar at our favorite watering hole.

5. James "Droz" Andrews in PCU
Jeremy Piven was king of the slobs, back when being a slacker was just about the coolest attitude to adopt (1993). Now we'd likely see Piven's "Droz" be on the opposite side of the slobs vs. snobs debate, much like Bradley Cooper, or really, in Piven's role as Ari on Entourage. But as slackers and slobs go, Piven's character made it cool to chain-smoke and be a balding college student.

4. Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czervik in Caddyshack
A textbook case of the elite vs. the rest of us, this 1980 comedy with Rodney Dangerfield as Al Czervik, a member of the new rich, who represents the best of both worlds: a rich slob. As Al Czervik, Dangerfield's really just playing himself.

3. Uncle Buck
As Buck "Uncle Buck" Russell in 1989's Uncle Buck, John Candy's character is thrown into domestic life when a family emergency leaves him as a last resort. Buck faces a number of challenges while switching from the single life to taking care of his nephews and nieces.

2. Chris Farley as Chris Farley
In Tommy Boy (1995) and Black Sheep (1996), sure Farley plays a pampered character who's seen the good life thanks to the work of a relative. But in both movies, Farley's faces circumstances that make you root for the hapless slob.