Beavis and Butt-Head

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.

During the early '90's, my favorite shows were Ren and Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, and the best of them all, Beavis and Butt-head. This show was like South Park, only it matched the culture of the early '90's. Beavis and Butt-head make me laugh so hard that I could have a heart attack. Everything from the way they laugh to the dirty comments that they make from one to another is part of what makes the show so funny.

The best moments of the show were the moments where they would be watching music videos on their television and making comments in the back ground.

There was a wide variety of unique characters in the show, such as their arrogant and overly strict gym teacher who wants to always get them in trouble, their hippie teacher who always tries to teach them about work, their elderly neighbor Tom Anderson who always has his vacations ruined by Beavis and Butt-head, their younger neighbor Stewart who always tries to hang out with them, and a student in their class named Darrea(huh huh, Diarrea). Darrea also had her own spin off show that was released during the year this show was canceled.

I always loved this show, but unfortunately, it started to go down hill when it had to be edited. After an incident where two trailer park kids were playing with matches and burned down their trailer, the show was blamed for causing this incident and had to be edited a lot. The episodes in the last season weren't as great either.

This is a great show, and it is way better than the cartoons that are released today(with the exception of South Park, I love that show). Fortunately, there are DVD's of Beavis and Butt-head from Time Life. If you ever get a chance to see this show, see it and find out what the hype was once all about.

I liked Beavis and Butthead when I watched it in 1993-1994. The show was much smarter than was advertised. For one thing, it realized that sex and sexuality is at the base for many more human actions than is generally realized and accepted. The format and execution may have been childish but the concepts and ideas were fairly advanced. In that way, Beavis and Butthead was a much more psychological show than a lot of the other garbage that has floated around in TV history. The fire comments, the animal abuse, etc, is the part of the show that is unfortunate. Without such things, however, there would be no Beavis and Butthead. Still, the show does not attempt to hide that these activities are sick and is a much more honest show in that respect than many others. Beavis and Butthead was a necessary show for tackling topics, no matter how stupid, that are rarely touched upon in society. In that way, it provided (GASP!) a service. The characters around Beavis and Butthead were funnier than Beavis and Butthead themselves, such as Anderson and Buzzcut. For anyone who has ever done or wanted to do anything retarded (haven't we all been there?), Beavis and Butthead is for you. Personally, I've been Beavis and Butthead level stupid at times, myself, and I really enjoyed the show.

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.

You'd think that this show would be so stupid, and it is, but you get your laughs out of it. Sometimes, you need that immature side. And you have to just admit when something is funny. I would watch this show with my sister when we were younger, and I just wanted to be like her. It was the grundge era, *shudder*, so, I thought it was cool. And now I watch it on my own, and I still get my kicks. Beavis and Butt-head rocks.