Beavis und Butt-Head

MTV original animation programming about two teens (the titled characters) who go through life obliviously. They care nothing about school or really anything for that matter. They do however constantly show interest in "scoring" (losing their virginity), drinking alcohol, smoking, stealing and an endless list of other possible miscreant activity. Church groups and many adults shunned the show while the majority of those in the huge 15 to 30 age group demographic loved and embraced the program wholeheartedly. A civil war between viewers would then of course start, with the youths of the country winning or did they (the fact that the show pretty much stopped after the theatrical movie makes you wonder if the program didn't go too far with the wrong people)? I personally love the series even today. Creator Mike Judge (who does most all the voices of the insane characters) actually does what his title says: he was creative. The creativity of the series (which ran from 1993-1997 on cable's MTV) is outstanding. Stuff like "Beavis and Butt-Head" is simply to entertain and make its audience feel good about itself (I mean no one could be as moronic as these characters are, could they?). You have to look at the material through a looking-glass to understand the pressures, situations and feelings that many adolescents have in this day and age. Even though the series is not really thought-provoking per se, it still strikes a cord because it pokes fun at sometimes very serious matters. I think this is the reason why some refused to ever embrace the show. If "The Simpsons" knocked on the conventional programming door in 1989, then "Beavis and Butt-Head" definitely tore that door down in 1993. And of course more wonderful animated programming like "King of the Hill" (also by Judge) and "Family Guy" would follow. Is "Beavis and Butt-Head" art? I don't know, but to be honest I have never really cared if it is or not. 5 stars out of 5.

In a normal point of view Beavis and Butt-Head was one of the most controversial shows that ever aired on T.V. In fact when it premiered, it was the most controversial show on the air. But then again, they made us laugh with their stupidty, and at their idiotic antics! Yes they were sexist, and didn't care for no one but themselves but this show was still funny anyways! I myself a loyal fan of B&B will usually pop in a Videocassete tape of episodes on my VCR and laugh till my sides ache!

This show is cool! Heh, Heh, Heh!

Okay, I admit it. I am a closet Beavis & Butthead fan. Well, actually, not all that closeted, but when I tell people I enjoy the show, sometimes they just don't get it. Some of them say, "But it's just stupid! It's just two morons laughing and being crude all the time!"

Well, I thought so too, before I ever watched the show. I had heard of them; I would occasionally see B & B pop up on an MTV awards show and receive lots of laughter and applause - the laughter and applause of recognition. I knew they were popular but I didn't "get it." Then, part of the way through the first episode I watched, I "got it." The reason Beavis & Butthead is so funny is that it does an extremely dead-on accurate job of portraying a very real aspect of teenage males that had been completely overlooked in a lot of previous television.

I can even remember the exact moment I "got it": Beavis and Butthead were watching a video by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and adding their usual commentary, and when the video ended and the name of the band appeared on the screen, Butthead read their name out loud. And when I heard the tone of voice he used, it hit me. It's that sarcastic, detached, "I'm so cool" kind of voice that teenage boys use constantly - even for such a banality as a simple declarative statement about a band's name.

And of course, what makes B & B's sarcastic detached cockiness all the more ironic is that they have extremely passive and uneventful lives: they spend all their time "hanging out" and doing the same stupid stuff, yet they somehow (well, Butthead especially) consider themselves qualified to put on this jaded cynical act. Everything they do is as observers. They see sex and rock music on TV, they think and talk about sex and rock music all the time, and they've never had sex or played rock music. And the irony never hits them. They're somehow this weird combination of innocence and jadedness at the same time, and this, combined with their passive observer nature, makes Beavis and Butthead an extremely dead-on accurate portrayal of adolescent males.

Of course Beavis and Butthead are exaggerations of teenage males, but nevertheless I find them a rather refreshing change from the portrayals of teenagers in shows such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Dawson's Creek, who seem as articulate, poised, and self-confident as a bunch of sophisticated 28-year-olds, and who do not ring true to me at all.

Beavis and Butt-Head is often times misconstrued as a terribly immature, offensive, and vulgar show. While those claims do have reason behind them, often times the people saying these things have not given this show a fair analysis, taking it simply for what it appears to be. But Beavis and Butt-Head goes much deeper than a lot of people give it credit for. On one level it is about two stupid teenagers who have nothing better to do than laugh, and so it serves as a critique to the general apathy of that early 90s generation. But at the same time, Beavis and Butt-Head can be seen as a positive spin on that indifferent generation. Although they wreak havoc and destroy all that is good, Beavis and Butt-Head endure as good people (in some sense) because they are completely confident in themselves, they do not really have bad feelings towards anyone, and even though we might consider their lives to be meager and pathetic, they are really happy with what they have, they do not think less of themselves, and they (in their own ways) try to improve themselves (like trying to pick up chicks). This might be a bit of a stretch, but I almost view them as the 90s version of Lenny and George from "Of Mice and Men." These are just two guys who are trying to figure out life and laughing the whole way through. Is there anything wrong with that? Methinks not. So, watch these fools, and watch them well, you will not regret it.

The end of Beavis and Butthead was like the end of a cultural era. Grunge and those early 90 fads were dying out, to make way for the crass commercialism and ultra materialism of the youth generations that would follow, essentially helping to wipe out not only what made music culture great, but also what made MTV great. Beavis and Butthead was part of that cool past of part of a totally idiotic, carefree culture.

Beavis and Butthead, for those who too young to know about it, was an animated series created by Mike Judge, of the now popular FOX television series, King of the Hill, which is actually based on one of the characters from Beavis & Butthead (the neighbor Anderson, who was the primitive form of Hank Hill). The brief episodes, usually two packed in a half-hour, followed the mishaps of two ugly braindead teenagers. Their primary pasttimes were raising hell, making dirty jokes, and just laughing. The main characters usually included Buzz Cut, the anal muscular gym teacher; Van Dreesen, the pansy hippy teacher who's plans to get Beavis & Butthead to do something good usually backfired; their ultra-sheltered neighbor, Stuart; and the depressed, Daria (aka "Diarreha") who later developed into a spin-off series called "Daria".

Beavis & Butthead were so stupid and so clueless as to the disasters that usually went on around them, which is why the situations were so funny. You can't really expect to take a show like this seriously. It was just the stupid antics that made it great. Plus, because it was on MTV, it was a vehicle for music videos which were particularly key because they were often rare videos. And Beavis & Butthead did their MST3K-type of commentary as you watched sometimes full videos that acted as an intermission to their short episodes. All around, despite poor drawings, this show is still a classic and even created it's own subculture of marveled stupidity. But, I still enjoyed it.

And in retrospect, it's probably a lot better, considering a lot of the crap that is on television now to entertain teens--especially MTV. Even if you do get to see the reruns, they usually cut out the videos now to make way for extra commercial time (MTV sucks!). But, they did release episodes on tape. I don't know if they've made it to DVD.