Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Beavis and Butthead


As I sit here watching a can't-take-my-eyes-off-this-trainwreck marathon of MTV's 16 and Pregnant, I have to wonder what exactly is going on at MTV. First Date my Mom, and now this? What happened to the far-superior, significantly less lazy programming of my day? Back when I was a kid, MTV had a little intelligence, didn't it? And before you say something, yes, I'm old enough now to get all crotchety about this. Before you know it I'll be hiking my pants up to my eyelids and complaining about that damned newfangled rock music.

While I reminisce about my MTV glory days, I accidentally contradict my inital proclamation of the golden age of intellectually stimulating programming by entertaining the notion of the show Beavis and Butthead. I know, I know, I should be mentally conjuring something more promising for my things-were-better-in-my-day argument, but I can't help it. After all, I already wrote about Daria, who more than cornered the market on intelligent, sharp-witted MTV original programming. And since Daria spun off from Beavis and Butthead, I can only hope this reflects on the quality of Beavis and Butthead themselves. After all, that little delusion is certainly easier than admitting a teensy bit of hypocrisy.

Anyhow, the series featured its eponymous cartoon stars, deadbeat high schoolers with a shared penchant for extreme obnoxiousness.


Despite their young age, for some reason we never really encounter any sort of parental figures. Beavis and Butthead were pretty single-minded, er triple-minded. Their lives revolve around the pursuit of chicks, nachos, and hardcore heavy metal. After all, what good would heavy metal be without a side of chicks and nachos?

That was pretty much it. Oh wait, did I mention that Beavis had a ridiculous alter-ago named The Great Cornholio? Because that part is sort of important. Whenever Beavis got all hopped up on caffeine and sugar, he morphed into El Cornholio and began seizing up and speaking in tongues. That's normal, right? He raises his arms Evita-style, puts his shirt over his head, and in a vaguely Spanish accent declares boldly, "I am Cornolio!" Sometimes just for kicks he'd also discuss the need for TP for his bung-hole. Oh, and he comes from Lake Titicaca. Heh.

Observe, a montage:



If you sat through that full two minutes and 17 seconds, bravo. You have an extremely high threshold for pain and under-the-skin irritants. Kudos.

Butthead (first name Butt, last name Head) was more of a charmer with his signature, "Hey baby". Who could resist that alluring cad? Between the braces and that adorable "heh heh, heh heh" laugh, I can't settle on a best feature.

And...that's about it. They have a neighbor and a teacher or two who sporadically show up as supporting characters, but generally it's just the two of them wreaking widespread havoc. They occasionally are employed at fast food joint Burger World, though their general incompetence in a long-running theme. Behold, their general slackerish incompetence:



As you can probably gather, the appeal of these characters was baffling. For some reason, the show ran an astounding seven seasons. SEVEN. Meanwhile, gems like Freaks and Geeks run for one. Riddle me that one, nineties kids. Riddle me that. I'm sorry to say I'm a bit ashamed of our collective inability to appreciate witty shows in favor of cackling over a couple of oversize-headed kids in Metallica and ACDC t-shirts. For shame, children of the 90s. For shame.

Beavis and Butthead wasn't all stupid, of course. Beneath the veneer of rudeness and outright obnoxiousness lay a thinly concealed layer of social commentary and witty observations. Of course, B&B themselves were too oblivious to make these observations themselves. Rather, the social criticism was tied to the fabric of the show, emphasizing the stupidity, laziness, and anti-intelligence of youth culture. It was a pretty multi-faceted approach at social commentary, though it probably didn't do much for viewers in terms of elevating youth culture. If nothing else, it probably taught many of them to light stuff on fire and delight in general idiotic mayhem. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I think that qualifies as missing the point.

It wasn't all fun and games for MTV, though. A young child burned down his family's mobile home, purportedly influenced by Beavis's maniacal obsession with lighting things on fire. It was certainly tragic, though you have to wonder where the boy's parents were during this whole thing. As with other controversial shows, movies, and games, parents often expressed outrage that these characters were being portrayed as an idealized example.

They weren't, of course. It was a pretty thin argument. MTV began running a caveat before the show, saying:

Beavis and Butt-head are not role models. They're not even human. They're cartoons. Some of the things they do could cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: Don't try this at home.

At the end of the day, that was the moral of the story. They weren't humans. They were cartoons. They weren't people to aspire to emulate, they were fictional characters and moronic ones at that.

Beavis and Butthead got the full-length feature treatment in Beavis and Butthead Do America, where they continued to terrorize the nation with their unapologetic stupidity:



The movie boasts a surprising 72% positive rating at rottentomatoes.com, suggesting that perhaps their juvenile sense of humor was enjoyed by more people than would care to admit it. Like any guilty pleasure, B&B provided us with laughter for things that we knew deep down we probably should not find funny. But we did. Because it was funny. Beavis and Butthead may have been a pair of music video-ragging idiot savants, but they were a lot more perceptive than people gave them credit for. Inadvertently, that is. The show was ripe with contradictions, but then again, so is real life. Heh heh. Heh heh.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved Beavis and Butthead. They were soooo stupid, but so hilarious at the same time. I loved the Halloween episode. Butthead just poured cheese on himself so he could be nachos. It cracked me up.

Anonymous said...

Haha I remember that all my friends always watched Beavis and Butthead...always talking about it. But I myself could never really crack a smile/laugh whenever I sat down and actually watched the show. I was pretty bored by it actually.

Jaime said...

I wasn't allowed to watch Bevis and Butthead when I was a kid. My mother outlawed it from our television. How rude! In fact, she wanted to block MTV altogether. But, as with Daria, I snuck and watched it when she wasn't around.

Sadako said...

I didn't like this show either. But it gave us Daria and that I love. Also, I do love Mike Judge (creator) and King of the Hill.

Anonymous said...

I was never allowed to watch this show, but I loved the video game! Then, I got over even trying to watch it.

Andhari said...

You're right about MTV these days. Please I don't need to see more eps on Paris Hilton looking for a new bff to torture. My friends used to love Beavus & Butthead.

Thomas said...

I always thought that Beavis and Butthead grew up to be sleazy lawyers.

Mr. Condescending said...

oh i liked watching that show hah. Its just that the music videos seemed to ruin it when they would play during it. My favorite episode was where they had $1, and they didn't know what to spend it on...so they saw a gallon of gas for a $1, but nothing to put it in. They buy a scratch off ticket and win $1000, then buy a $999 riding lawn mower so they can put the $1 in gas into it!

ReRe said...

we got banned from watching this show after Lil Bro started setting "fire, fire" to everything.

LWLH said...

My mom wouldn't let me watch this as a child, I'd only see it if I was staying over a friend's house.

Sarah Alway said...

I was never really a fan of this show, but I LOVED Ren & Stimpy. Which is kind of weird...

Anonymous said...

Um. John Kricfalusi created Ren and Stimpy.

Cathy said...

One of my favorite TV episode was during the Halloween special, Beavis dressed up as a giant by wearing underpants on his head and Butt-head becoming nachos by pouring hot cheese-sauce over his head. The show was really amazing!

Anonymous said...

First of all, Ren and Stimpy was created by John Kricfalusi; Mike Judge had absolutely nothing to do with it at any time whatsoever. So if we're talking about stupidity, let's start there.

As for the main thrust of your argument--such as it is--Beavis and Butt-Head, the characters, are stupid. "Beavis and Butt-Head," the show, was not. If this escaped you--well, again, if you want to talk about stupidity....

Unknown said...

Comon. Bevis . Was. The. Best. Daria. WA. For. The. Girlsbevis And. Butthead. Was. A. Boys. Show. Unless you..was. a. Sick. Grill. And. Loved it.
Ha ha. Might I. Saw I used to. S
Okey a. Pharmacy. Blunt. And. Watch. Them.

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