Beavis et Butt-Head

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.

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.

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.