Who remembers the early 1990's and Beavis and Butthead on M TV ?
Mr Ducky jogged my memory in a reply in another topic
Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. Judge's short film "Frog Baseball", starring the characters Beavis and Butt-head was featured on Liquid Television, a show featuring short animated and live action material that could be considered the precursor to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Cable television channel MTV signed Judge to create the series, and it aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997. It is rated TV-14 when reruns are aired in the United States. Reruns of the series are currently airing on MTV2 and Spike. To this day, the series has retained a large cult following due to its nostalgic quality to young adults who grew up in the 1990s.
The show centers on two socially inept, heavy metal-loving teenagers, Beavis and Butt-head (both voiced by Judge), who live in the fictional town of Highland, Texas. They attend high school, where their teachers are often at a loss as to how deal with them, although in many episodes, the two skip school. They occasionally work part-time at Burger World, and sometimes other side-jobs when people mistake their odd behavior as outgoing and assertive. Comedy is derived from their utter lack of conventional values such as work ethic. They are extremely obnoxious, misogynistic, and rude to almost every other character in the show and even to each other. They don't seem to realize this, however and seem to function on an instinctual level. They survive their often hazardous misadventures without serious consequences, though others around them don't fare as well. Mixed within each episode are segments in which Beavis and Butt-head watch music videos and provide humorous and bizarre commentary, improvised by Judge.
In 1996, the series was spun off into an animated feature film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America.
[edit] Characters
The two characters' lives revolve around TV, nachos, heavy metal music, and their utterly fruitless efforts in trying to "score with chicks" and make money. Since their parents are never to be seen, it is implied they were "raised" by the TV.
Beavis typically wears a blue Metallica T-shirt (in some earlier episodes, a Slayer T-shirt), while Butt-head is usually seen wearing a gray AC/DC T-shirt. (On some merchandising items these shirts were changed to read "Skull" and "Death Rock" due to trademark and licensing issues.)
Their family names are never mentioned on the show individually, but in Beavis and Butt-head Do America, Butt-head comments that his first name is Butt and his surname is Head. Though the parents of the two are never seen in the series, Butt Head regularly uses "your momma jokes" to belittle Beavis and other references to family members, including uncles and grandparents, are made by both. The film features a scene where they meet two middle-aged adult males who bear a strong resemblance to the duo, and it is implied they are most likely their fathers when the two men say they scored with "two sluts from Highland" (Beavis and Butt-head's hometown). The larger man insists he was the only one to "score" with "both of 'em!", corroborating Butt-Head's claim in the episode, "Scientific Stuff", that the duo share the same biological father. The "family bush" in the first Beavis & Butt-head book, This Book Sucks, shows that the two boys have the same father, whom they never met.
Beavis : Voiced by Mike Judge. Has an underbite and a fixated stare on his face, which is almost always shown in profile. Beavis grunts when he laughs, has a more guttural voice and has a penchant for picking his nose. He is the more excitable of the two, though he is oblivious to what should be obvious he is also prone to moments of insight (another source of humor) and is nicer and more optimistic than Butt-head. He often suffers physically in the show, either by Butt-head or various other characters or situations. He usually takes the beating and screams in pain before quickly reverting back to his trademark laugh. Before controversy erupted (see below) he exhibited an obsession with fire and his trademark phrase was "FIRE! FIRE!" which he would render with a maniacal gaze in his eye. One episode showed that he has voices in his head telling him to engage in destructive activities; however, generally he has a passive demeanor in contrast to Butt-head's more dominant personality.
Beavis also has an alter ego named The Great Cornholio, who usually surfaces after he consumes large quantities of caffeine and/or sugar. Beavis pulls his shirt over his head and starts shouting in a mock-Spanish accent. This is a favorite among fans and was even made into a techno song. His trademark Cornholio phrase is "I need T.P. for my bung-hole" and nonsensical raving.
According to creator Mike Judge Beavis was named after Bobby Beavis, a boy who lived in the same neighborhood, during Judge's time in college. Judge stated that he gave the name "Beavis" to the character, and that the real person Beavis was nothing like the character Beavis.
Butt-head : Voiced by Mike Judge. Wears dental braces has squinty eyes and a drooping nose with prominent nostrils. His top gums are often exposed due to a small upper lip, and he speaks nasally with a deep voice and a slight lisp. He begins almost every statement with "Uhhhhhh..." and ends with his short trademark laugh "Uh huh huh huh". Calmer, though cockier, Butt-head is oblivious to subtlety of any sort and is usually 100% confident in everything he says and does, no matter how ridiculous or frivolous it is. That is unless it has to do with females. In which case he either wavers or comes on too strong. His trademark phrase when approaching women is "hey baby". As the more dominant personality of the duo, it seems he derives pleasure from regularly abusing Beavis.
Creator Mike Judge has stated got the idea for the name "Butt-head" from two people he knew during his childhood called "Iron Butt" (who would encourage people to kick him in the butt to demonstrate his strength) and "Butt-head".
The series has a number of recurring elements.
They cause havoc at their place of employment, Burger World, a fast-food joint modeled on McDonald's. Beavis and Butt-head spend little time genuinely working, and when they try to work they are usually too incompetent to carry out the task. They have been known to serve bugs and dead mice with orders. In Oil Change the duo are told to change the cooking oil but mistakenly use motor oil instead, starting a fire. Once Beavis caused an outbreak of food poisoning when he served burgers infected with a pathogen from genital itching he was enduring. The boys have also had brief stints as secretaries, telemarketers and radio personalities.
They cause trouble at school. They are usually pitted against their teachers and other school officials. Principal McVicker is visibly agitated by the duo's antics, as is Coach Buzzcut.
One of their most prominent goals in life is to "score" with chicks. Neither of them has any success. They occasionally spend Friday nights at Maxi-Mart, attempting to flirt with any female they encounter until the manager runs them off. Butt-head almost always approaches a woman by saying "Hey baby," which is met with disgust. They have come close on a few occasions, although they are too stupid to take advantage of the situation. In Vidiots they went to a video dating service where the woman behind the counter was completely enamored with Beavis (who gave the fake name Geraldo) while Butt-head recorded a video saying he was a "pleasure machine". Afterward they forgot about Geraldo and "pleasure machine" and ignored calls and visits from women who wanted to date them. In Another Friday Night the duo were mistaken for armed robbers when attempting to sell food for two attractive women at the Maxi-Mart while waiting for the manager to return to his till. The police come, and the duo subsequently ask for food to be delivered to the women. The women begin dancing with Beavis until the owner throws the duo out of his store.
Beavis occasionally transforms into his alter ego, The Great Cornholio, after consuming large quantities of sugar, caffeine and other stimulants. His transformation is indicated by pulling the back of his T-shirt over the top of his head, and proclaiming largely nonsensical utterances in an exaggerated Spanish-sounding accent, such as "I am the Great Cornholio!", "Are you threatening me?", and "I need T.P. for my bunghole!" As Cornholio, Beavis once became a star beat poet (Buttniks), but he also got deported to Mexico after being mistaken for an illegal immigrant at Burger World (Vaya Con Cornholio).
They cause trouble for neighbor Tom Anderson. They have sold most of his possessions, destroyed his house, put his poodle in the washing machine and even gotten him arrested by the ATF. Because his poor vision results in him being unable to consistently recognize them, he continues to hire the two for odd jobs.
They try to hang out with thug Todd and be in his gang. They admire him. Todd dislikes them and takes advantage of them and even beats them up if they tick him off. Likewise, Beavis and Butt-head are often scornful to Stewart when he tries to befriend them.
They love to eat nachos and other junk food snacks.
They frequently point out double entendres. Much of the show's humor derives from their propensity to derive some crude or sexual reference from virtually any situation or verbiage. For example, in Beavis and Butt-head Do America, Mr. Van Driessen says "We don't need TV to entertain us", from which the boys extract the word anus. Butt-head is usually the one who points these out, saying, "Huh-huh...you said (whatever crude or sexual reference applies)."
In earlier episodes, they would sometimes try to find ways to obtain hallucinogenic or mind-altering substances or engage in an activity that would simulate the effect. An example of this can be seen in Sick, in which they attempt to obtain the leading prescription cough syrup after seeing an advertisement that says it is nearly 70% alcohol.
The duo occasionally get involved with trends and fads such as self help gurus, cults, moneymaking schemes, and various forms of therapy and discipline visited upon them by school officials, all of which inevitably result in disaster. They are also repeatedly placed in positions of responsibility—with predictable consequences—when other, supposedly smarter, characters mistake them for "new hires".
Four holiday specials were produced—one for Halloween, two for Christmas and one for Thanksgiving.
The Halloween special, entitled "Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest (Butt-O-Ween)", involved them attempting to trick-or-treat in ridiculous costumes--i.e. Beavis dressed up as a giant "nad" by wearing underpants on his head and Butt-head becoming nachos by pouring hot cheese-sauce over his head. (At one point, Beavis wore a Winger shirt and claims he is going out as a wuss. This scene was removed from all later airings of the Halloween episode and also all VHS and DVD releases.) When Beavis eats all of Tom Anderson's candy, his Cornholio persona emerges and embarks on a rampage to acquire more from other trick-or-treaters, while Butt-head is taken on a "ride" to the countryside in Todd's trunk, where he encounters a strangely pale old farmer. When Beavis finally comes down from his sugar high, he is hanging on a meathook in the farmer's barn, where the old man and a similarly pale Butt-head seemingly attack him with chainsaws as the episode fades to blood red.
The first Christmas special featured the pair sitting in front of the television providing crude commentary on various aspects of Christmas, and commentating on Christmas-themed music videos from various artists.
The second Christmas special was simply entitled "Beavis and Butt-head Christmas Special", or alternately "Beavis and Butt-head Do Christmas". It consisted of two segments that parodied A Christmas Carol directed by Tony Kluck and It's a Wonderful Life directed by former DreamWorks Animation director Mike deSeve, as well as Christmas-themed music videos and several segments in which Butt-head answered fan mail dressed as Santa Claus while whipping a reindeer-costumed Beavis.
The MTV Thanksgiving Special "Beavis and Butt-head Do Thanksgiving" aired on November 27, 1997, the day before the series finale Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead written by Andy Rheingold and Scott Sonneborn The bit featured Kurt Loder as the show's host, half-reluctantly and half-resigned, trying to teach the two characters the meaning of Thanksgiving as they report live from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, where they take more interest in people's butts and porn-shops than anything else. Amongst others, the special featured appearances by Adam Sandler, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, R.E.M., Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Tori Amos, and the Beastie Boys. Also featured were two music videos ("Long Hard Road Out of Hell" by Marilyn Manson and "Criminal" by Fiona Apple) not included in any of the show's regular episodes. The Thanksgiving special only aired once, and its inclusion in the Mike Judge Collection DVD set shows it in a heavily edited format without the music videos or the celebrity appearances.
One of the most well-known aspects of the series was the inclusion of music videos, which occurred between animated segments. The duo would watch and make humorous observations (about the band, a song's lyrics, and/or a video's visuals), or simply engage in nonsensical dialogs. Mike Judge improvised the video comments, and they were never scripted. Almost all the animations of Beavis and Butt-Head during the videos were re-used from earlier episodes.
At times, the criticism reflected their young age and ignorance of music history. Upon seeing a video for "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, they decided that the band's vocalist couldn't be Ozzy Osbourne, because "Ozzy's an old fart!" Butt-Head said "That's not Ozzy--that's his son!" Beavis mistook their raw sound for grunge and inquired if they were from Seattle; Butt-head replied "No, they're American," even though Seattle is located in Washington, one of the United States, and Black Sabbath's members were from England. During one episode, Butt-head remarked, "You know those asswipes The Beatles? Those guys ruined music." Similarly, the pair described Paul Simon as "that old dude from Africa who used to be in the Beatles," and Butt-head once observed of Frank Sinatra, "I think he used to be in the Eagles." However, at other times they seemed almost respectful and willing to learn about music.
Video critiques
When confronted with a song/video they did not like, they usually watched it anyway, commenting on how bad it was. However, if they could not stand it, their solution was to change the channel. Mostly, they came across a better video, but there have been instances where they found a video they perceived as worse than the previous one. One particularly memorable moment was when they were watching Frank Zappa's video, "You are what you is", and changed the channel during the video to come across The Europeans' "We Are Animals" video, which they perceived as even worse. Eventually, they forgot why they were watching it, and changed back to the Frank Zappa video, much to their chagrin ("This is still on? That pisses me off!").
The two react in horror to a Milli Vanilli video.They showed a particular disdain for many generic 1980's "hair bands" (with the exception of Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Van Halen and a few select others). Their epitome of "wuss bands" was Winger, of which Stewart was a big fan. They had no tolerance for new wave or electronic music (except for industrial music, and Devo's "Whip It"). Korn's song Blind, an example of Nu metal, was criticized for lacking originality (although they did claim they sounded "kinda cool"). The duo were also very critical of death metal, particularly the vocal style of the genre, mocking it, and claiming that "it sounds like it would come out of Godzilla's butt".
Bands who received considerably large amounts of criticism during the tenure of the show included Poison, Death, and Grim Reaper.
Beavis and Butt-head had especially severe reactions when confronted with videos they found particularly awful. As soon as Butt-head realized he was watching a Michael Bolton video, he announced that he had soiled his pants, although he later stated he was joking. The duo then commented on how he can "make any kind of music suck". Beavis took this further by stating if Bolton did gangster rap, he would do a terrible job [1]. The famous pianist Yanni also earned a very harsh critique from the boys. Sometimes, while giving a harsh review for a video, the duo gives a review to another band or musician despite the video not belonging to them in the first place; this was the fate for Ace of Base while the boys were watching "Here We Go" by Stakka Bo. When confronted with Milli Vanilli's "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", the pair looked at one another in horror and changed the channel without speaking a word; this was effectively amongst the harshest commentary they ever gave a music video. The Europeans's video for "The Animal Song" was the most critically trashed by the duo, as Butt-head claimed, "This sucks more than anything I have ever seen." Another video that could make this claim was King Diamond's "The Family Ghost," of which Butt-head claimed, "This could be the worst crap I've ever seen in my life." Another controversial video critique was of Winger Where Butt-Head states "Wow, this is some horrible stupid crap". Lead singer Kip Winger later sued Mike Judge for defamation of character, the problem was resolved when Judge promised never to insult Winger again. He managed to slip through the cracks by having a Winger shirt worn by Stewart, to show that only dorky kids like him. Another video they gave bad criticism to was Poison's video "I Want Action," which Butt-Head said, "This is so horrible. I can't even begin to talk about how much this sucks!"
Even bands they liked were not spared. They were disappointed by an AC/DC video despite being fans of the group. Also, during a Metallica video, Butt-head comments, telling Lars Ulrich, "Sit down, Lars, and drum like you're supposed to!" Judas Priest's video for "Breaking The Law" also drew a negative reaction ("I like Priest and everything, but this sucks!"), despite the fact that Beavis and Butt-head sang the song itself numerous times throughout the series. Soundgarden's Spoonman also got a negative review, despite the pair being fans of the band. Beavis was annoyed that Soundgarden did not appear in the video, and Butt-head interpreted the lyric "all my friends are brown and red" as stating that the singer hated his friends, referring to them as "turds".
Beavis and Butt-head also shared a disdainful dislike of many bands from England, even dismissing legendary rock bands just upon their birthplace; While watching a Pink Floyd video, he claimed that they were "Just another bunch of wussies from England." Other bands, such as The Shamen and Blur, were mocked for their British accents. The duo also made fun of performers who were effeminate or androgynous (such as Boy George.) and often evinced disgust or fear towards notions of male homosexuality.
Positive critiques
Beavis and Butt-head rarely expressed complete enjoyment about any video; but a few bands did draw more favorable attention from the two than others. Their preference was heavy metal and 90's hard rock. They also had a deep admiration for Ozzy Osbourne and sang the Iron Man tune when they were excited about something or to celebrate. They also used Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water tune to a lesser extent to express excitement. They also liked funk, rock and rap. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain is said to have been ecstatic at having the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" praised by Beavis and Butt-head, and deemed it a great compliment. Indeed, even when drummer Dave Grohl's next band, Foo Fighters, was reviewed (the song was I'll Stick Around), the two were positive about the song because Grohl "was the drummer from that band, Nirvana" (though they repeatedly mispronounced their name as "Nivarna"). Aerosmith, Sonic Youth, White Zombie, Type O Negative, Onyx, the Ramones, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, the Violent Femmes, Anthrax, PJ Harvey, Crowbar, Beastie Boys, Coolio, Danzig, Suicidal Tendencies, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Fishbone, 24-7 Spyz, The Didjits, Clutch, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Dr. Dre, Iggy Pop and Deee-Lite were also among the groups for whom Beavis and Butt-head expressed appreciation, and the two groups that earned their fondest reviews were GWAR and the Butthole Surfers. Beavis is shown to get extremely excited before the "Sabotage" video of the Beastie Boys, and knows all the fictional credits. Butt-head continuously tells him to "shut up", although he is also a fan of video as shown by his famous "YES!" as the video began. Beavis voiced his estimation that every video should be like a GWAR video. Beavis and Butt-head lauded Bananarama's video for "Venus, saying "these chicks should marry GWAR" and that "they would have offspring that would be the coolest people who ever lived." Butt-head once complimented Lou Reed after watching the video for No Money Down (dubbed "the coolest of all videos" by the boys) by stating that Lou belonged in GWAR. Butt-head stated that "if you wanna rule, you gotta be cool, like, all the time, like, even when you're taking a dump and stuff, like GWAR." Beavis has even claimed that Metallica was not as cool as GWAR, despite the fact that he wore a Metallica T-shirt. The video which the duo declared to be officially the "best ever" was Ministry's Just One Fix. The crass uber-metal video, The Damned by Wendy O. Williams and The Plasmatics received obvious praise from the duo since it featured all the themes of their interest (loud metal music, a semi-naked woman, destruction and explosions). Interestingly the duo had mixed feelings about a rock band The Jesus Lizard, when Beavis exclaimed in response to a video, "If you're gonna suck, you might as well try to kick ass, like, Jesus Lizard, they suck, but they kick ass." Alice Cooper was another artist the duo regularly liked; they were very fond of "Lost in America," claiming they could relate to many of the song's lyrics. Beavis also thought he saw Alice Cooper in a Girlschool (An all-female band) video, to which Beavis then stated, "You couldn't put Alice Cooper in an all-chick band because the chicks would be all over him."
The band often gave humorous critiques when they watched death metal videos. When they viewed "Plague Rages" by Napalm Death, they thought Mark Greenway's voice sounded like it would "come out of his butt" or "Godzilla's butt". When a dead horse was featured in the video, the duo mentioned the time they jumped on the stomach on a dead horse and saw a lot of "gunk come out of its butt". They speculated what would happen if they pulled the same stunt on Godzilla. Butt-head also thought David Vincent sounded like a bear on the video for "God of Emptiness". While watching the video for King Missile's song Detatchable Penis, the duo laughed so hard and loud that the song was unintelligible.
Beavis and Butt-head seemed to be fans of most of the Seattle Grunge bands of the era; including Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Soundgarden (but notably, they never viewed any Pearl Jam videos). Four videos by Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were featured on the show with notable praise from the duo, two Nirvana videos were also featured. Members of the Alice in Chains (most notably Sean Kinney) were fans of the show, and were flattered that the band received such a direct thumbs up from the show.[citation needed] Despite not understanding the lyrics to the Melvins "Hooch", they enjoyed it nonetheless. They even gave comical interpretations of what they thought the lyrics were such as "Done right like a belgy!", "Exit is my raging member, banging on a TV!", and "Like a steaming photographing on a wire relay in a state of!".
Both Beavis and Butt-head seemed excited in the Smashing Pumpkins's video "Today" when they saw the people "making out," when the band painted the ice cream truck, and when the band started throwing things at Billy Corgan, the lead singer. They even praised Radiohead, a band that is usually not regarded as the duo's type of music; "Creep" got a positive review because of its heavy guitar riffs, while they claimed they liked to mellow out to Fake Plastic Trees (they usually hated soft songs). Beavis was also excited over the Replacements video "Bastards of Young", which ends with a stereo being destroyed. The duo showed favor towards the video for Milla Jovovich's "The Gentleman Who Fell", from her album The Divine Comedy, though it may have been due to the fact that Jovovich appeared in various stages of undress throughout the video. One of the strangest and most unexpected positive reviews they ever gave was for "Jive Talkin'" by the Bee Gees, which they mistook for the Black Crowes (in the end, they realized they were not the Black Crowes, but danced to the song anyway). Motörhead is also a band that they seemed to love, but they only seemed to compliment Lemmy. In fact, on a Ramones video where Lemmy makes an appearance, Beavis asked what Lemmy was doing there and Butt-head responded by saying, "He's Lemmy, dumbass. He can go into any damn video he wants."
Despite heavy metal and hard rock being their favorite forms of music, Beavis and Butt-head have a fondness for hip hop, especially gangsta rap. Rap groups and performers such as Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C., Sir Mix-a-Lot and Dr. Dre received positive responses from the boys. This can be noted with Beavis's occasional mimicking of "gangsta" jargon ("We jus' kickin' it...in tha hang-outs," "I'm a G, a straight "G" (Butt-head responded, "Yeah, you're a "G" for "Gonad"), "Droppin' plates on your ass, biatch" (when commenting on the aforementioned Michael Bolton video). Beavis even went as far as to say, "You know when Coolio says, 'I can see myself in the pistol smoke?' He stole that from Snoop Dogg!"
Funk was likely another genre they liked. They were seen dancing to various funk songs, and especially liked some bands that incorporated elements of funk into their music.
One of their oddest reviews was that of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's video for "Dang", where they endlessly praised it seemingly only because it was a music video—in particular, Butt-head could be heard gasping for breath due to laughing uncontrollably. It was, however, implied at the very end of the review that they were both high on nutmeg, with Beavis remarking “Hey Butt-head, you got any more nutmeg?”
Although Beavis and Butt-head share the same musical tastes, there were some rare occasions where opinions largely conflicted. An obvious example can be seen during the video review for Something for the Pain by Bon Jovi (a musician whom the duo refer to as a "wuss band") in which Beavis claimed to enjoy the song causing Butt-head to smack him repeatedly, claiming to do it for "Beavis' own good." However, Beavis insisted on enjoying the song and singing along to the main lyrics, and eventually retaliated against Butt-head by kicking him in the testicles--twice—and praising Bon Jovi by spitting, "You can't tell me what sucks! I like this, so blow it up your ass!" A less dramatic example can be seen during R.E.M.'s video for Shiny Happy People, where Beavis sings along to the lyrics provoking another repeated smacking by Butt-head. Also, during the video for Rush's Stick it Out, Beavis seemed to like them, even going so far as sing a bit of The Spirit of Radio, but Butt-head dismissed guitarist Alex Lifeson as a wuss. In another episode, during the review for Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Butt-head repeatedly claims that Metallica sucks, much to Beavis's annoyance. However, in an earlier review, Butt-head shares Beavis's love of Metallica. This can imply that by the time they were watching the former, Butt-head had either grown to dislike the band, or was just criticizing them to annoy Beavis.
The duo also had a liking of vocalist Mike Patton and his band Faith No More, however were unimpressed with the lyrics to Easy noting that there is nothing easy about sunday morning, and that sunday afternoon is no picnic either. It can be assumed that the pair may have attempted to give some videos the ultimate compliment. The ultimate compliment would likely have been parallel to the ultimate put-down (see previous) and would have consisted of them simply being silent for the video's duration. An example of this happened very early on in the series when they watched a video by the Butthole Surfers and remained completely silent throughout (only giving quips of praise at the very beginning and end of the video, respectively). Another example is where they were watching the video California by Wax, made by Spike Jonze, which featured a man running around on fire. Butt-head praised the video, but Beavis, being a pyromaniac (and Mike Judge having been instructed by the MTV higher-ups to not say the word "fire"), chose to stare at the video and say nothing. Butt-head got annoyed by this, and tried to snap Beavis out of his seemingly catatonic state. Another example was the Ramones's I Wanna Be Sedated, where they did not praise the band verbally other than Beavis saying "YES!" when the video starts, but headbanged for the video's duration (along with occasionally humming the main riff). In other reviews, during particularly good videos, Butt-head has told Beavis to shut up because he wanted to see the video. Beavis once told Butt-head to shut up when Butt-head would not stop talking during a Rancid video. After Butt-head menacingly told Beavis to never ever tell him to shut up again, Beavis kicked Butt-head in the testicles, told him to shut up again, and left the room to get some food.
Other antics
The duo would occasionally engage in physical humor during the videos. These antics ranged from simple comic violence, such as slapping, punching, and kicking one another; one common act is when Beavis kicks Butt-head in the groin, after which a red-faced Butt-head lets out a pained groan. The most common acts are the duo's several memorable dances, which ranged from a few simple arm motions, to the dances listed below. Other antics included Butt-head masturbating, a card game, the pair sleeping, and Beavis getting seizures. A particularly memorable moment of their famous dance sessions can be seen during the viewing of the video for Step Down by the hardcore punk group Sick of It All, where the names of Beavis and Butt-head's dance moves are named on the screen in a blatant parody of the video itself. The dance moves included:
Headbanging while making the sign of the beast/playing air guitar.
Air drumming
Jumping off the couch in imitation of stage diving
"The Dillhole" - Butt-head makes pelvic thrusts while Beavis punches and kicks in the air.
"The Bunghole" - Butt-head shakes his butt while Beavis jumps up and down with a gyrating motion.
"The Fartknocker Double Inverted Nad Twist" - Butt-head jumps back and forth across the room while Beavis sways his arms.
"The Monkey Boy" - Beavis humped the couch while Butt-head just stares at him in shock. (note that this was not included in the Step Down video, but Beavis' reply when Butt-head was curious about what he was doing was "Doin' my monkey boy")
Swaying their heads in unison to the beat of softer or slower songs.
As well as dancing, they also sang during some music video reviews. This ranged from imitating the instrumentation, singing along with the lyrics, or even mocking the singing style of some singers (Butt-head particularly liked to imitate death metal vocalists). If they were not familiar with a song, but knew the band, they would sing one of the band's more famous songs (on one occasion Beavis noticed that they were watching a Primus video and sang a part of "My Name Is Mud"). If they were not familiar with the song or band at all, they would sing something that sounded similar to the song. One instance occurred when a video for "F-Sharp" by Nudeswirl came on, and Beavis started singing "Paradise City" by Guns 'n Roses. Butt-head also sang along with Biz Markie during the song "Just a Friend."
One example of singing was showcased in the music video for MC 900 Ft. Jesus' video for "If I Only Had a Brain", where Beavis sang along with the bassline for the song, and refused to break concentration. Butt-head was annoyed by this, but he achieved nothing by talking to or even hitting Beavis. Fed up, he began to sing along with the bassline as well.
They showed some signs of intelligence when it came to some bands and artists, despite the fact that they did not know much about even their favorite bands. On one occasion, they claimed that "Pantera" had an abusive upbringing, but they meant lead singer Phil Anselmo, not the whole band. They knew practically nothing about the band Hole, and thought that Hole was the name of the lead singer. However, they could recognize James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich from Metallica, Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bono and The Edge from U2 (although they referred to Bono as "Boner") and Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses also Dave Mustaine from Megadeth Complementing him by saying "Dave Mustaine rules". During a Foo Fighters video review, Butt-head recognizes the lead singer as Dave Grohl, referring to him as "that dude from Nirvarna." Beavis thought Butt-head was referring to deceased Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and said "Butt-head, I don't think that dude's with us anymore, you shouldn't say that." Butt-head patiently explained to Beavis that Grohl was the drummer with Nirvana and was playing guitar for the Foo Fighters.
Sometimes they mistook some bands for others. They believed they were watching a Red Hot Chili Peppers video when they were really watching a Faith No More video (though this is probably a jab at Chili Peppers' frontman Anthony Kiedis accusing Mike Patton of ripping his style off). In another review, they were watching a video by a band called Sausage (a side project of Primus' Les Claypool). Beavis thought this band was actually Primus (ironically, he was close to correct, since Sausage was composed of the original members of Primus), while Butt-head believed they were a fictional band called the Seminiferous Tubloidial Buttnoids.
There were times where critiques of the videos were minimal or even nonexistent, an example being KMFDM's song "A Drug Against War", with the duo only commenting on certain details of the music video [2]. Some videos were praised or disparaged only once, usually at the start, after which they began discussing a subject in the video (such as with Green Day's "Basket Case" video, where they began talking about the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Some videos received no critiques at all, positive or negative. It can be assumed that they deliberately ignored some videos, citing Butt-head's comment during a Ween video ("Quit talking about this video and do something funny!") and some episodes in which they played a card game, slept, or even left the room rather than watch the video.
On several occasions, the two mistook bandmates for other celebrities, such as The Clash guitarist Mick Jones as Jerry Seinfeld, a member of Japanese pop band Pizzicato Five as Ernie from "My Three Sons", members of Color Me Badd as Kenny G, and both Yanni and John Oates as Geraldo Rivera. They also sometimes made crude puns on the names of celebrities (believing the names they said were really the celebrities' names) who came to mind during a video they were watching; some of these included Connie Chung as Connie Schlong, Bette Midler as Butt Midler and Steffi Graf as Stiffie Graf. They even mistook Rosie O'Donnell, in the video "(Meet) The Flinstones" by The B-52's, for Roseanne and called her Buttseanne.
Bands and videos were not the only subjects of which they were critical. They also engaged in conversation about films, television shows, certain people and other pop culture references. Sometimes they praised the subject, but were more often derisive.
Critical assessments and controversy
Over its run, Beavis and Butt-head drew a notable amount of both positive and negative reactions from the public with its combination of lewd humor and implied criticism of society. It became the focus of criticism from social conservatives, such as Michael Medved, while others, such as David Letterman, and the conservative magazine National Review, defended it as a cleverly subversive vehicle for social criticism and a particularly creative and intelligent comedy. Either way, the show captured the imaginations of many young television viewers in the United States and abroad and is often considered a classic piece of 1990s youth culture and the MTV generation.
In 1997 Dan Tobin of The Boston Phoenix commented on the series' humor, stating that it transformed "stupidity into a crusade, forcing us to acknowledge how little it really takes to make us laugh."
In 1997 Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix described the 1997 Beavis and Butt-head state as "reduced to self-parody of their self-parody."
In December 2006, TV Guide ranked the duo's distinct laughing at #66 on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases.
Actor Patrick Stewart, in an interview with Conan O'Brien, professed his affection for the show, stating "it will go down in history as one of the great cultural icons of the 20th century".
Fire! Fire!
Early episodes gave them a juvenile obsession with fire and dangerous behavior (summed up with Beavis' chant of "Fire! Fire!"). The show was blamed for a two-year-old's death which occurred in Moraine, Ohio in October 1993 in which a five-year-old boy set fire to his mother's mobile home, killing his two year old sister. The mother later claimed that her son had watched one of the fire-related segments shortly before he burned down the home.
As a result, the references were excised from further broadcasts, replaced by silly stunts, bad pick-up lines, etc. The creators took delight in sometimes making Beavis scream things that sounded very similar to his previous "Fire! Fire!" (such as "Fryer! Fryer!" when he and Butt-head are working the late shift at Burger World) and also having him almost say the forbidden word (such as one time when he sang "Liar, liar, pants on...WHOA!" (in the "Liar! Liar!" episode). There was also a music video where a man runs on fire in slow motion. Beavis is hypnotized by it and can barely say "Fire".References to fire were cut from earlier episodes - even the original tapes were altered permanently. Other episodes MTV opted not to rerun included "Stewart's House" and "Way Down Mexico Way." Early episodes with the controversial content intact are rare, and are traded on homemade video recordings made from the original broadcasts. In an interview included with the recent Mike Judge Collection DVD set, Judge denied being certain if some of the earlier episodes still existed in their uncensored form. When the Beavis & Butt-head Movie "Do America" came out, Beavis finally got the chance to yell out "FIRE" in excitement when this cool biker (voiced by David Letterman) farts towards the campfire resulting in a huge fire explosion. Plus when Beavis & Butt-head made a cameo during The MTV Music Awards around 2002, Beavis & Butt-head are in ropes in a fancy living room. Beavis uses an air blower to keep the fire going. He quietly utters out "Fire".
In February 1994, watchdog group Morality in Media claimed that the death of 8-month-old Natalia Rivera, struck by a bowling ball thrown from an overpass onto a Jersey City, New Jersey highway near the Holland Tunnel by 18-year-old Calvin J. Settle, was partially inspired by Beavis and Butt-head. The group said that Settle was influenced by the episode entitled "Ball Breakers," in which Beavis and Butt-head loaded a bowling ball with explosives and dropped it from a rooftop. Though Morality in Media believed that the show inspired Settle's actions, the case's prosecutors did not.
In one episode, the show parodied blaming actions on youth culture. When asked by a reporter why they were flying a kite in a rainstorm, the duo explained that they were inspired by a documentary about Benjamin Franklin. Not satisfied, the reporter continued asking them leading questions until they mentioned that they had watched some rock music videos earlier in the day. The following scene is the reporter on TV blaming the music videos on the duo's actions.
MTV also responded by broadcasting the program after 11:00 P.M., and changing the original disclaimer to a new one, reminding viewers that:
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.
This disclaimer also appears before the opening of their Sega Genesis and Super NES game.
They were famously lambasted by Democratic senator Fritz Hollings as "Buffcoat and Beaver." This would subsequently become a running gag on the show where adults mispronounced their names (Tom Anderson actually using the Hollings mispronunciation once, President Clinton calling them "Beamis and Bum-head" in one episode, as well as in the movie, where an old lady consistently calls them "Travis" and "Bob-head").
Beavis and Butt-head have been compared to idiot savants because of their creative and subversively intelligent observations of music videos. This part of the show was mostly improvised by Mike Judge and is considered by many to be the show's highlight. With regard to criticisms of the two as "idiots," Judge responded that a show about straight-A students would not be funny. (Ironically, the spin-off Daria, about the straight-A-getting foil to the duo, enjoys a loyal cult following to this day.
Films
Main article: Beavis and Butt-head Do America
In 1996, a full-length movie featuring the duo entitled Beavis and Butt-head Do America was released in theatres. The movie features the voices of Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Cloris Leachman, Robert Stack, Eric Bogosian, Richard Linklater, Greg Kinnear (in an uncredited role), and David Letterman (credited as Earl Hofert). It gained mostly positive reviews from film critics and a "two thumbs up" from Siskel and Ebert. The film earned over $60 million at the domestic box office, a strong return for a film that cost only $5 million to produce.
At one point, a film in pre-production called "Beavis and Butt-head: Another Movie" was listed on the Internet Movie Database, but nothing apparently ever came of it.
Also, in recent interviews, Judge claims that he is interested in producing a live-action movie. He said that previously he despised the idea, but now he thinks "maybe there's something there."[8] During an interview for Collider on August 25, 2009, Judge told them, "I like to keep the door open on Beavis and Butt-Head, because it's my favourite thing that I've ever done. It's the thing I'm most proud of." However, he also added, "Another movie... the problem is it takes a year and half, two years, two and a half years - maybe - to do that right. And that's a pretty strong level of commitment. I'm going to look at that again. That comes up every three years." One of his ideas is bringing back the characters as old men, instead of teenagers. "I kind of think of them as being either 15 or in their 60s," he said. "I wouldn't mind doing something with them as these two dirty old men sitting on the couch." Judge added that he wouldn't completely ignore the time that has passed in between. "At one point I thought Butt-Head might do okay on some really low-level sales job. Beavis might be landscaping."
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