Beavis and Butt-Head are coming back!
July 22, 2011 5:38 PM   Subscribe

In these dark days, only two men, er... guys... er, whatever they are, can save us. And they have answered the call! Beavis and Butt-head are returning!
posted by Chocolate Pickle (102 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Uhhhhhh huh huh huh huh this rules
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 5:45 PM on July 22, 2011 [4 favorites]


If i found them intolerable when I was 16 has something changed?
posted by nathancaswell at 5:46 PM on July 22, 2011 [7 favorites]


Since MTV dosen't play videos anymore, they're going to have a rather limited range of stuff to riff on.
posted by jonmc at 5:46 PM on July 22, 2011 [6 favorites]


hehheh, cool.
posted by Foam Pants at 5:47 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


If i found them intolerable when I was 16 has something changed?

No. You still have no taste.
posted by jonmc at 5:48 PM on July 22, 2011 [69 favorites]


I'm going on the record as saying this is a bad idea.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:51 PM on July 22, 2011 [3 favorites]


Since MTV dosen't play videos anymore, they're going to have a rather limited range of stuff to riff on.

Their treatment of Jersey Shore was pretty funny.
posted by birdherder at 5:52 PM on July 22, 2011


If i found them intolerable when I was 16 has something changed?

hehe,ehe, hehe ... he said hang
posted by mannequito at 5:53 PM on July 22, 2011


this doesn't suck.

this rules.
posted by dancestoblue at 5:55 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


This makes me irrationally happy. As did the "I think she answers the phone that way" joke about Snooki.
posted by GamblingBlues at 5:56 PM on July 22, 2011 [4 favorites]


Uhhhhhhh...they don't suck, Rabid Ron.
posted by adamdschneider at 5:57 PM on July 22, 2011


Watched Beavis and Butt-head Do America with my 9 year old son last night. I knew I would be a bad parent.
posted by punkfloyd at 5:58 PM on July 22, 2011 [7 favorites]


Is this a god dam?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 5:59 PM on July 22, 2011 [4 favorites]


Beavis and Butthead are my guilty pleasure. I am so pleased they're coming back!

Any word about Daria cameos?
posted by TooFewShoes at 5:59 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Since MTV dosen't play videos anymore, they're going to have a rather limited range of stuff to riff on.

Let me show you something.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:59 PM on July 22, 2011 [5 favorites]


Gawd, that was awful.
posted by wallabear at 5:59 PM on July 22, 2011


Daria? You mean Diarrhea-Cha-Cha-Cha? She was annoying and so was her show.
posted by jonmc at 6:03 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Ugh.
posted by menschlich at 6:06 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


FTA: "Koren animators"
he heh ehh eeh eh eh eheh eeeeh eh heh. *SMACK*
Shuttup dumbass.
posted by isopraxis at 6:09 PM on July 22, 2011


SCORE
posted by cmoj at 6:11 PM on July 22, 2011


God help the human race. We continue to seek out mediocrity and celebrate stupidity. That is all.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 6:13 PM on July 22, 2011 [3 favorites]


If you think B&B is about celebrating stupidity, then you haven't understood anything Mike Judge has done ever.
posted by cmoj at 6:15 PM on July 22, 2011 [39 favorites]


ARE YOU THREATENING ME???

/ I need TeePee for my bunghole!
posted by pla at 6:15 PM on July 22, 2011 [6 favorites]


God help the human race. We continue to seek out mediocrity and celebrate stupidity. That is all.

If that's what you thought that show was about, then I submit that you are the stupid one, sir.
posted by jonmc at 6:16 PM on July 22, 2011 [16 favorites]


You can't polish a turd Beavis.
posted by Sailormom at 6:17 PM on July 22, 2011


God help the human race.

uhh. uh huhhuhhuh. Why do you have to be all, like, serious and stuff all the time? It's just, like, television or something.
posted by xbonesgt at 6:18 PM on July 22, 2011


God help the human race. We continue to seek out mediocrity and celebrate stupidity. That is all.

Stupid is as stupid posts.
posted by isopraxis at 6:20 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


Is this available somewhere viewable outside north america?
posted by onya at 6:22 PM on July 22, 2011


Punkfloyd, you aren't a bad parent. You see, I saw B&B:D.A in the theaters when I was nine and look where I am today.

Oh god! What have I done with my life!
posted by Godwin Interjection at 6:23 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


"...are you a "Maneater", Beavis?..."
posted by ersatzkat at 6:23 PM on July 22, 2011


I'm holding out for Ren and Stimpy, godammit.
posted by 1000monkeys at 6:25 PM on July 22, 2011 [7 favorites]


Seekerofsplendor
The video in the link shows the groundwork of an episode that is going to skewer the hell out of religion and blind worship. Mediocrity is indeed all around us, but not here. I won't make a judgment, I'll just presume you are uninformed. Mike Judge, even though he occasionally misses the mark, is one of our finest satirists.
posted by CarlRossi at 6:25 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


No, Idiocracy was actually his vision of a utopian paradise. The guy has been totally misinterpreted as an artist.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:27 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Eh, if you don't like Beavis & Butthead, you can find your 'humor' in the New Yorker, where as another animated show puts it "nobody has an anus."
posted by jonmc at 6:27 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


There was a time when "satire" did not simply mean "this is a story about an asshole doing assholy things that the audience, primarily composed of assholes, will delight in; but because I don't want to take responsibility for my vile epic of assholetry, I dub it 'satire;'" and Beavis and Butt-Head is of that time.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:28 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


TooFewShoes: Any word about Daria cameos?

Yay!

jonmc: Daria? You mean Diarrhea-Cha-Cha-Cha? She was annoying and so was her show.

Boo!

I watched B&B, but I much prefer Daria.
posted by zombieApoc at 6:30 PM on July 22, 2011 [7 favorites]


I'm holding out for Ren and Stimpy, godammit.

They did. It was an abomination.
posted by griphus at 6:31 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


They have support groups for that, now.
posted by jonmc at 6:31 PM on July 22, 2011


But the assholes are the people collecting toilet paper, not the idiots. Are you saying that the character of 'the idiot' is new? And that the only satire in the world is wit? Consider The Birds. Scatological satire is nothing new and 'things' were not better once upon a time.
posted by CarlRossi at 6:37 PM on July 22, 2011


Carl, I think you take me -- and, possibly, Beavis and Butt-Head -- entirely too seriously. I don't really think that satire has gone away, although I do think the term has been lately abused by people who don't really understand what it means and think it's generally a catch-all excuse for writing something mean-spirited that's intended to appeal to lowest impulses of jerks and bullies. I don't think that's what Judge was doing in Beavis and Butt-Head, or in any of his other work.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:44 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


B&B computer colored? Bleh. They don't look nearly zitty enough.

Also, jonmc, Daria rocked. Integral-to-my-adolescence rocked. There was a real honesty there about high school culture for smart girls. The relationship between Daria and Jane was tremendously well done.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:49 PM on July 22, 2011 [6 favorites]


Heh. Heh. "Ew dot com." Heh.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:50 PM on July 22, 2011


I told you so.
posted by Eideteker at 6:51 PM on July 22, 2011




Since MTV dosen't play videos anymore, they're going to have a rather limited range of stuff to riff on.

Oh, I dunno. They may not be playing music videos, but it seems like MTV has plenty of content for Beavis & Butthead to make fun of, as the FPP video suggests with their Jersey Shore clips.
posted by hippybear at 7:02 PM on July 22, 2011


Wow, have we found jonmc's most favorite shot ever here?
posted by cavalier at 7:23 PM on July 22, 2011


shotw -- maybe I should lay off this (hic).
posted by cavalier at 7:24 PM on July 22, 2011


I'm angry at numbers. There's like, too many of them.
posted by Flunkie at 7:25 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Jersey Shore" celebrates stupidity and assholishness in a way that Beavis and Butthead never did.

I remember the short films Mike Judge made for MTV's "Liquid Television" animation showcase. Lots of humor out of quiet desperation, and "Frog Baseball", the first appearance of the B&B characters was my least favorite. But those morons grew on me, as they went through life spreading anarchy like idiot savant Marx Brothers. They had too many "Three Stooges" moments (and I always hated the Stooges) made tolerable that they were way too slow to do a choreographed exchange of eye-gouges. Still, they were never my favorites, and when I first heard about "King of the Hill", I was delighted that Judge would be doing something more like his other Liquid TV clips. Mike Judge has learned a lot (and said a lot) in the intervening years, and the clip showed to me that this is going to rise to a higher level.

But as for the Jersey Shore clip, this was the first time ever that I watched more than ten seconds of Snooki & friends without clicking away, and the B&B commentary could not raise it from still being totally nausea-inducing. There are still music videos being made... I hope they use them.

As for Daria, she was the polar opposite of B&B, cursed intelligence as opposed to blissful ignorance, and I can understand why so many people love one and hate the other. Daria got on my nerves in a totally different way, but I liked it better... slightly.

But if you're talking about a cartoon MTV really NEEDS to revive, I give you two words: THE MAXX.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:41 PM on July 22, 2011 [5 favorites]


It wasn't couch fishing, but it will do. Back when B&B was on the air, their commentary on videos was the part that we were bored with. I think now it'd be my favorite.
posted by Hactar at 7:49 PM on July 22, 2011


kittens
Perhaps I did take you too seriously, for that I apologize. I don't take B&B too seriously either. I only mean to point out that the show is smarter than it appears and its audience is diverse. I meant no personal attack.
posted by CarlRossi at 7:50 PM on July 22, 2011


Daria had such a super excellent theme song.
posted by mintcake! at 7:51 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


If i found them intolerable when I was 16 has something changed?

heeeeeeeeeh. pffffffttttttpppppfpfffffftttttt....

I think that the problem with this comment is it is highly derivative of many popular posters who misunderstand the real target of the satire within the genre. Although when viewed on its own merits, it does have an oddly similar manner of humor. However what it has in ironic humor it lacks in originality. One can't help but be reminded of such members as PeterMcDermott, hermitosis and other members that bear the mantle of so called "Beavis Hatin'". One is even reminded of Lorie Anderson when she wore curlers. Hehehmhm! This post speaks less to the heart and more to the sphincter. In closing, I think nathancaswell would do well to learn more from

(Butt-Head slaps me silly)

Ahhhh!! Heh! Oww! Heh! Whoa! What happened?

Butt-Head: You got all dizzy and started talking like a dumbass.

Whoa, really? Wow!
posted by chambers at 7:51 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Has anyone told Kip Winger yet?
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 8:05 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


But if you're talking about a cartoon MTV really NEEDS to revive, I give you two words: THE MAXX.

"A bud becomes a rose when the pain of remaining the same becomes greater than the fear of change."
posted by Mike Mongo at 8:06 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


When it first aired, I (as a teenager) dismissed B&B as being a lowbrow celebration of stupidity. I held this opinion up until recently, when I saw Idiocracy for the first time. I didn't know much about the movie beforehand, and afterwards I decided I needed to find more stuff this Mike Judge fellow has done. B&B - really, I thought? Then: ohhhhhh.
posted by chmmr at 8:09 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


God help the human race. We continue to seek out mediocrity and celebrate stupidity. That is all.

If that's what you thought that show was about, then I submit that you are the stupid one, sir.


jonmc, without doing so in a way which would ruin it or take away any of the wonder joy or excellence, can you share in words what the show was about for one of us who is stupid*?

*That would be I.
posted by Mike Mongo at 8:10 PM on July 22, 2011


I love Beavis and Butthead. I am so glad they are coming back. That preview clip was all sorts of fantastic.

Does anyone else remember that Beavis and Butthead PC game? I got it for Christmas - I must have been, like, 14? 15? So it would have been 1995 or so.

Ah, youth. Everything old is new again.
posted by kbanas at 8:17 PM on July 22, 2011


Beavis triggered my love for comic characters who channel the unleashed id: Coach McGuirk, Gob Bluth, Master Shake and their kin. But among these luminaries, Beavis represents the pinnacle—the ur-id, if you will. As he returns, I throw open the door to my home in welcome.

But only after carefully securing all sharp-edged objects, rolls of bathroom tissue, and possible ignition sources.
posted by Lazlo at 8:18 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


Okay, B&B fans, can you explain why you liked it so much? When it came out, I never gave it a chance. I was probably too young to catch any subtleties it might have had, anyway. What made it awesome?

(I'd watch it to find out, but honestly that style of animation just irritates me to irrational levels, so I doubt I'd enjoy it.)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:32 PM on July 22, 2011


vid won't play for users in "my region."

which sounds like it would be somewhere like north korea.

but canada?
posted by ecourbanist at 8:46 PM on July 22, 2011


ecourbanist: I had the same problem. Try here.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 8:49 PM on July 22, 2011


can you explain why you liked it so much?

I tried before, and I'll stand by what I said, even if I did misattribute the "mayonnaise in the sun" reference.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:52 PM on July 22, 2011


What made it awesome?

If the animation style irritates you, check out the multitude of videos they mock on youtube. There is very little animation sequences in them, and it might be easier to get into it that way.

For me, without the video clips, the show is much harder to enjoy. They balance out the episode storyline, and keep the show running smoothly.

It's hard to just list off why the show has such a following, even after all these years. I taped almost all of them when they were on, and occasionally drag out a tape every now and then and I still dig it just as much now.

Beavis really is quite an interesting character. I posted a relevant thing about this just a year ago:

Beavis doesn't get the credit he deserves for being the very complex, nuanced character he evolved into after about the third season. Butthead has always been a fairly flat character, but Beavis has these wonderul moments of clarity that are just amazing. The tragic nature of his own ignorance means these moments are almost instantly lost to distraction and stupidity. He is a terminal fool at the cusp of awareness, eternally cursed to be at a pupal stage of enlightenment.

Heh... I said pupal.

posted by chambers at 8:53 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


Okay, B&B fans, can you explain why you liked it so much?
It was easy to loathe B&B on first exposure, especially if you were an adult parent of a pre-teen who caught in mainly in snippets as one's offspring was channel-surfing. A few seconds' worth of B&B seemed to offer pop culture's low-water mark of vulgarity and celebration of stupidity.

You needed to watch an entire episode or two to realize that Mike Judge was not laughing with Beavis and Butthead, but—well, at them often enough, but through them at all of the inanities and hypocrisies of the adult world that they floated through with derisive inattention.

I think I first "got" B&B in the brief moment where Beavis, sitting in a doctor's office, is seen leafing through Highlights for Children and then exclaiming "Goofus is cool!" A bit of minor genius, but genius at least.
posted by Creosote at 8:54 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


Gallant was kind of a snooty rich goody-two-shoes "I cleaned up without anybody telling me to!" jackass, you have to admit.
posted by cashman at 9:02 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


I want to love this reboot so much, you have no idea. Yet, Butt-Head's attitude in the Jersey Shore segment really nags at me. The Butt-Head of the 90s wouldn't have had that good of a grasp on the concept of herpes. And he would have thought a house with chicks who might do him was awesome.
posted by gnomeloaf at 9:05 PM on July 22, 2011


The Butt-Head of the 90s wouldn't have had that good of a grasp on the concept of herpes.

That stuck me as a little off, too, but the "that's how she answers the phone" line redeemed them tenfold.
posted by chambers at 9:08 PM on July 22, 2011


Okay, B&B fans, can you explain why you liked it so much?

Simple: It was irreverent and funny.
posted by incandissonance at 9:19 PM on July 22, 2011


Kutsuwamushi: "Okay, B&B fans, can you explain why you liked it so much?"

It was just so much fun. It's actually ridiculous ie I likely stand to be ridiculed (and have been, somewhat; when Emily moved in next door, she was amazed that we devolved into B & B talk all the damn time, and I'm currently 56, 52 when she moved in here) I stand to be ridiculed for loving that stupid show so much. But I did and I do.

Judge just nails guys, or damn sure has nailed a lot of the guys that I know and have known; lame-ass fart humor, lame-ass every-possible-orifice humor, stupid jokes, constant obsession with sex and/or sexualizing every-damn-thing, which I guess is just part/parcel of the obsession, driven by things we often don't understand, and often dumb as a sackful of hammers. In those two dopey characters, Judge nailed that part of EveryGuy.

I was programming when the show was on the air, and ALL of us guys -- except for a few real Poindexter dickbrains -- ALL of us loved it, ALL of us were going "heh heh" or "you said "ball" -- that was cool"" and I swear to you, Greg, one of the best programmers in the shop, and wide-awake, alert, tough as an old boot, he LOVED them and I mean LOVED, he had a poster framed and put it on the wall in his office, on and on. And we were none of us kids -- it was a mainframe shop, I'm one of the last ones who programmed on IBM architecture -- lots of us in our thirties, lots in our forties, some in their twenties but still, we likely weren't the target audience but it damn sure hit a bulls-eye.

Lazlo: " ... Beavis triggered my love for comic characters who channel the unleashed id ... "

And all that I wrote above Lazlo has pretty much nailed in this one sentence.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:22 PM on July 22, 2011 [5 favorites]


Beavis doesn't get the credit he deserves for being the very complex, nuanced character he evolved into after about the third season. Butthead has always been a fairly flat character, but Beavis has these wonderul moments of clarity that are just amazing. The tragic nature of his own ignorance means these moments are almost instantly lost to distraction and stupidity. He is a terminal fool at the cusp of awareness, eternally cursed to be at a pupal stage of enlightenment.
Beavis: Heh heh heh - remember that time we found that dead horse?

Butt-Head: Yeah, and we jumped on it and then all that gunk shot out its butt. Huh huh huh huh huh.

Beavis: Heh heh heh heh heh heh!

Butt-Head: Huh huh huh huh huh. That was cool.

Beavis: Heh heh heh heh heh! That was sad. Heh heh.
posted by Flunkie at 9:22 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


Okay, B&B fans, can you explain why you liked it so much?

It was pretty much a chronicle of my teenage years. Laughing at the dumbest things imaginable, doing ridiculous things for no apparent reason, watching insane amounts of MTV and riffing on it, talking about pooping and farts and fire. It came out right at the age when I was primed to find it hilarious.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 9:33 PM on July 22, 2011


My mother recently recounted how she was mildly concerned about my younger brother watching a show called "Beavis and Butthead". She is a woman who feels a bit goofy/uncomfortable saying the word "butthead", and wasn't sure what a show with this title was all about, so she investigated, sat and watched it by herself one night. And ended up, like so many folks, falling off the couch laughing.
posted by zoinks at 7:37 PM on July 15, 2010
posted by zoinks at 9:47 PM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]


If B&B appeals to people who laugh with the characters, as well as people who laugh at them, does that speak well or poorly of its execution?
posted by LogicalDash at 10:01 PM on July 22, 2011


LogicalDash: "If B&B appeals to people who laugh with the characters, as well as people who laugh at them, does that speak well or poorly of its execution?"

So maybe that's the deal then -- we laugh with and at it, at the same time. Which, it seems to me, speaks well of it -- it catches us being ourselves and we laugh at what dopes we are.
posted by dancestoblue at 10:11 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


If B&B appeals to people who laugh with the characters, as well as people who laugh at them, does that speak well or poorly of its execution?

I think that if the audience is laughing, then Mike Judge is happy. It doesn't really matter why they're laughing.

Anyway, who says those are mutually exclusive cases?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:36 PM on July 22, 2011


It's also viewable on YouTube
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 11:01 PM on July 22, 2011


It's 2011. We have new Beavis and Butthead. This means we get to do the previous 10 years over.

Seriously... we get to do the next ten years like we left off when Clinton was in office, the dot-coms were dragging slackers into middle class paychecks with the promise of interconnectedness...

Dude! This rules!

FROG BASEBALL!
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:03 PM on July 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


Dude!
posted by maxwelton at 11:25 PM on July 22, 2011


In late 2010, following the DVD release, Daria was licensed as a voice for Garmin and TomTom GPS systems; original putdowns and jokes were recorded. —wp
posted by ryanrs at 12:19 AM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


If B&B appeals to people who laugh with the characters, as well as people who laugh at them, does that speak well or poorly of its execution?

See also, "All in the Family" and every other satiric sitcom. Except "AKA Pablo" -- that was just crap.
posted by Gucky at 12:31 AM on July 23, 2011


Beavis: Remember that cartoon that had that big, fat dude in it and he used to go "Hey Hey Hey!"?
Butt-head: Oh yeah. And then they had that friend with his eyes cut out of his hat and he would go [In wobbling voice] Hey blblblbaby-let's go aroun-blblblblblblblblbl!
Beavis: Yeah. See, they used to have cool cartoons! Cartoons now just suck.


Also, Beavis still going to Sesame Street On Ice when it comes to town shows a beautiful pureness.

I'm so glad they are back. :)
posted by figment of my conation at 12:48 AM on July 23, 2011


Anyone who doesn't get B&B really should get ahold of Beavis And Butthead Do America, the movie that is so hilarious that it is stupid. Or is that so stupid that it's hilarious. I made (then) skeptical Mr hippybear go see it in the theater and he walked out as, well, I won't say a fan, but certainly more appreciative of their charm. He later purchased for me that book they had with the detachable soundboard television remote thing which I then kept near the couch and annoyed him with for months.
posted by hippybear at 3:05 AM on July 23, 2011


I always hated the Stooges

Well, now you've done it. Denying the Stooges is the one unforgivable sin. Hope you enjoy your eternity in H-E-double hockey stick, sport.
posted by steambadger at 5:17 AM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Beavis and Butt-head are returning!

And, that, folks, is the hollow sound of the bottom of the barrel being desperately scraped.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:31 AM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Well, I'll be horn-swaggled and dipped in turds!
posted by dr_dank at 5:44 AM on July 23, 2011



If i found them intolerable when I was 16 has something changed?

No. You still have no taste.
posted by jonmc at 5:48 PM on July 22 [40 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]


40 Great Cornholios
and I say that in reverence
posted by incandissonance at 6:15 AM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


I was in high school when this show was on the air, and I kid you not: all the boys with whom I went to school were like this. It could be great, it could be awful, but the show still hits a little too close to home for me to find it funny.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:11 AM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Like, how much and stuff?"

"Fifty."

"Woah! Fifty cents? Hey Beavis, give me 50 cents."

"Fifty" is the go-to instant answer to any query I get when the answer is a number.
posted by Brocktoon at 8:23 AM on July 23, 2011


that book they had with the detachable soundboard television remote thing

Oh my god. I used to have that too. The amount of times that Jeff Who Always Had The Pot absconded with the talking remote and tucked it up his sleeve.... I had to hide the fucking thing, eventually.

The thing that I loved about this show, and still love, is that it's the essence of being fourteen and stupid and thinking you're indestructible, stretched out to cartoon limits. In reality you'd elbow each other and make jokes about it, but ultimately decide against doing the potentially hazardious/dangerous/deadly thing, whatever it was. Not here. The show is about Beavis and Butt-Head constantly succumbing to that imp of the perverse and surviving it without injury or consequence. They did all the stuff we knew better than to do, and got away with it in ways we never could. And it was fucking funny, too.

"Ow, my spleen."
"Lower down, dude."
"Ow, my spleen!"
posted by cmyk at 9:07 AM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'm sure there is some meta value to this show, but I swear, if I never hear someone I know bust out with "IamcornhllioIneedTPformybunghole!" again it will be too fucking soon.
posted by Karmakaze at 9:45 AM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Actually, let me illustrate why I loved/could relate to it with an anecdote.

My friend Mike and I were hanging out in the basement and in our shenanigans managed to break the single light bulb that illuminated the place. We could still sort of see, but we obviously needed the light bulb base out of the socket to replace the light bulb.

I vaguely remembered reading something about using a potato, so I wandered into the kitchen and found a potato while Mike went and got some needlenose pliers to yank it out. Important: I didn't know what to actually do with a potato (cut it in half), all I knew was the potato was the solution to our problems.

He, on the other hand, knew that jamming metal into a light socket was stupid, so he went and got some gloves. Not like electrical gloves or even heavy work gloves. Like winter gloves. So after arguing about it and calling each other "dickweed" a lot, we decided to try it his way first while I stood there and observed, still holding a potato. No, we didn't turn off the breaker because we were idiots as, obviously, he was wearing winter gloves while jamming metal pliers into a light socket and I was holding a full-size potato observing like a medical student watching a surgery.

He almost got it to work, too, but somewhere along the way managed to shock the hell out of himself hard enough that his hands quit working and they hurt a lot, and in the surprise and shock and pain managed to fall down and start swearing and yelling that he couldn't feel his hands. Nothing is funnier than your friend getting hurt, especially if you're 14 years old and he didn't die, so I helped by laughing at him.

So when his dad comes in, he finds the two of us in a mostly-dark basement, one rolling on the floor and flailing his hands in winter gloves in the middle of June and obviously in some pain, the other standing over him laughing and holding an enormous potato for some reason. He called us both idiots, flipped off the breaker, took the potato, cut it in half, unscrewed the base of the broken bulb, replaces it with a new bulb, turns the power back on, and goes back upstairs muttering about what idiots we are, while we went back to watching MTV and making comments.

Maybe I relate a little too much, on thinking about it.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 10:35 AM on July 23, 2011 [16 favorites]


The winning formula of B&B was that in almost every relationship between two young males one is a Beavis and one is a Butthead. When you are adolescents, it's even more appealing because they like all the same simple pleasures you do, and you probably inadvertently talk like one of them.

also for me, their show was the first time I'd been exposed to KMFDM and Slayer, so there's that too.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:15 AM on July 23, 2011


Okay, B&B fans, can you explain why you liked it so much?

Being a 14-year-old boy is a form of hell. Girls will scarcely speak to you, you can't drive, you can't get even a rotten job (so you have no money); your taste is unformed (so, not knowing any better, you like terrible art). Life gets better, but first you have to endure being 14. There are reasons why nobody ever makes art in which a 14-year-old boy is the hero: it's an awful age.

I spent a full year of my life not just being a 14-year-old boy; no, to make matters worse, at the very same time I was surrounded by 14-year-old boys. Nearly everyone I knew was a 14-year-old boy. The experience of being 14 was horrible.

I'm not even much of a fan (for me, B&B was a few decades late): but I can recognize that Mike Judge nailed it.
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 12:57 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


There are reasons why nobody ever makes art in which a 14-year-old boy is the hero: it's an awful age.

Counterpoint: Anime.
posted by Godwin Interjection at 2:55 PM on July 23, 2011


The thing about most "trash TV" that indulges worst impulses of humanity is that it always has a certain minimal veneer of respectability, however transparent - a fig leaf that lets the audience enjoy it while pretending that there's some kind of edifying moral or artistic purpose. For example:

- Jerry Springer-style shows pretend to be talk shows that help people, sort out paternity issues or whatever
- Wrestling pretends to be a sport
- 80s cartoons revel in violence and explosions, and then add some kind of moral message about peer pressure or self-esteem at the end
- Sports Illustrated maintains its image of a respectable sports magazine by using the term "Swimsuit edition" - as if it was about showcasing this year's latest bikini styles for the interested readership, and only coincidentally requiring scantily-clad women.
- Reality shows pretend to be a kind of documentary, showing "real people in real situations."
- Celebrity gossip media pretend to be news

Sometimes reading show synopses in TV Guide is the best way to see this phenomenon. Many episodes of Jersey Shore are described as "shocking," as if to suggest that the show is a public service intended to warn us of the dangers of moral degeneracy. But who is really shocked? The reason they do this is not to allay the concerns of censors, since no-one is that stupid. The point is to allow you, the viewer, to take pleasure in violence, sadism and anti-social behavior by assuring you that it doesn't count as endorsing it. Before the action hero blows away the bad guy, the movie reminds us that he's really a jerk. Then you can enjoy your bloodlust by telling yourself it's actually a moral virtue.

The Beavis and Butthead pretense would be something like: "Two charmingly irreverent young men take on the world! They're rascals but deep down they have a heart of gold..." But that's not really plausible, the show itself doesn't allow that. Their actions are totally pointless and their victims are mostly innocent. It's not even the innocent-evil id of Itchy and Scratchy cartoons, where there is lots of violence, but in a child-like universe where there is no death and no consequences, so we can "blow off steam," safe in the knowledge that nothing is really happening.

In Beavis and Butthead, the people they encounter really are affected and there's no attempt to justify it or shield the viewer from it. Laughing at it momentarily turns you into a bad person and provokes the recognition that you too are capable of evil. This is the beginning of real moral responsibility that's beyond the hypocrisy of social conventions that let you enjoy violence in private as long as you denounce it in public. The main problem with Beavis and Butthead is that they are too stupid to know the "civilized" way to enjoy violence.
posted by AlsoMike at 3:54 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


the action hero blows away the bad guy

Huh huhuh.

blow off steam

Uh, dude. You might wanna get that checked out.

I love that this is a necessary part of serious Beavis and Butthead discussions
posted by cmoj at 4:17 PM on July 23, 2011


I loved that show and grew up in the age cohort of Beavis and Butthead.

The music video scenes, though, were annoying. The best parts were Beavis and Butthead's adventures. Hopefully the new show will focus on them.
posted by John Farrier at 5:32 PM on July 23, 2011


The winning formula of B&B was that in almost every relationship between two young males one is a Beavis and one is a Butthead.

That's depressing.
posted by LogicalDash at 8:12 PM on July 23, 2011


I thought for sure they wouldn't be able to capture the magic of the original.

This was hilarious!

Welcome back Beavis & Butthead. :)
posted by Malice at 8:35 PM on July 23, 2011


Also, rember the same creative force behind "King of the Hill", "Office Space" and "Idiocracy" is the same one behind "Beavis and Butthead" - if you don't get the joke, it's probably on you.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:52 PM on July 23, 2011


Oh man.

Cannot.
Wait.

Cornholio was never my favourite bit, but this just looks great. And there's SO MUCH GOOD REALITY TV for them to riff on now! This is really just fantastic - it's funny, I never really enjoyed the show on a regular basis, but absolutely LOVED the movie. The storyline stuff never clicked for me before the movie, but the music videos always knocked it out of the park for me. So a little reality show ripping will be fantastic. I hope they still do music videos though.
posted by antifuse at 6:31 AM on July 28, 2011


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