Beavis and Butt-Head

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Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-head, as seen on the show's opening sequence.
Genre	Animated television series
Running time	18-20 minutes
Creator(s)	Mike Judge
Voices of	Mike Judge Tracy Grandstaff Adam Welsh
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	MTV
Original run	March 8, 1993–November 28, 1997
No. of episodes	199 (65 shows)
IMDb profile

Beavis and Butt-Head was an American animated television series that originally aired on the cable television channel MTV from 1993 to 1997. It is considered a definitive 1990s show. It is rated TV-14 in the United States.

Each show contains short cartoons centering on a pair of post-pubescent teenagers by the names of Beavis and Butt-Head who live in the town of Highland, Texas. These cartoons are broken up by short breaks in which Beavis and Butt-Head watch music videos and comment on them, often in a humorous fashion.

Contents 1 Origins 2 The characters 2.1 Minor characters 2.2 Recurring themes 2.3 Locations 3 Episodes 4 Holiday specials 5 Music videos 6 Controversial content 7 Beavis and Butt-head Do America 8 The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience album 9 Other appearances 10 References in pop culture 11 Spin-offs 12 Videos and DVDs 13 Books 14 Social influence 15 Trivia 16 The Future of Beavis and Butt-head 17 See also 18 Notes 19 External links

[edit] Origins

Beavis and Butt-head were created in 1989 when Mike Judge was working on several independent animated films. The two characters were based on a slacker student that Judge knew in high school.^{[citation needed]} The two characters made their debut in a 1992 low-budget short film "Frog Baseball". The 40 second animated film was featured in Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation that same year. MTV had then become interested in Mike Judge after seeing his popular 1991 short film, Office Space (later made into a feature film). MTV hired Judge to work on animated segments for their new TV series, Liquid Television. The two animated shorts Judge created for the show were two pilot episodes for the show Beavis and Butt-head. The animated segments became the most popular animated segments of Liquid Television's entire airing. That would lead to the TV series.

Mike Judge has said that he imagined Beavis and Butt-Head as slacker students at the real-life Highland High School on Coal Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he lived. Specifically, he first created Butt-head as his idea of the archetypal slacker high school student, incorporating the look, name, and voice of a friend who invited anyone to kick him in the rear-end, calling himself "Iron-butt."

When attempting to conceive of the look for a companion to Butt-Head, it is rumoured that Judge combined the look of a nerdy classmate he knew from high school and his own bad artistic rendering of Barry Manilow. He named him "Beavis" (after a local kid called Bobby Beavis), and modeled the voice after his own interpretation of what a typical "frybrained teenager" would sound like, incorporating the raspy laugh of the aforementioned classmate.

[edit] The characters

Beavis and Butt-Head are high school students whose lifestyles revolve around TV, nachos, Fruity Whips, shopping malls, heavy metal music, and trying to "score with chicks". Beavis wears a blue Metallica T-shirt (in some earlier episodes, a Slayer T-shirt), while Butt-Head wears a gray AC/DC T-shirt, but in one episode he wears a Metallica shirt due to an animation error (on some merchandising items these were changed to shirts saying "Skull," and "Death Rock" due to trademark and licensing legalities). Both Beavis and Butt-Head constantly snicker.

Their full names are never mentioned on the show. In an episode of the TV show, he mentions having a cousin named Richard Head, a play off the term "Dick Head." Additionally, when listening to Nitzer Ebb's song Godhead in the episode Heroes Beavis says: "Hey, Butt-Head, this guy has the same last name as you!" in reference to the song's title. In another episode, he forges his mom's signature on a permission slip as "Mrs. Butt-Head."

Picture	Name	Description
	Beavis	Has an underbite and a fixated stare on his face which almost always looks to the side. Beavis grunts when he laughs and has a nasal voice. The more excitable of the two; he is oblivious of the obvious, is obsessed with fire, and has a more passive demeanor that contrasts with Butt-head's more dominant personality. Beavis also has an alter-ego named Cornholio which usually surfaces after consuming large quantities of caffeine or sugar.
	Butt-Head	Wears dental braces and has squinted eyes. His top gums are often exposed and he speaks nasally with a deep voice and a slight lisp, repeatedly punctuating his speech with "uhh…". Calmer, cockier, and marginally more intelligent than Beavis, Butt-head is oblivious of subtleties, but is usually 100% confident in everything he says and does — no matter how ridiculous or frivolous it is. The designated "leader" of the duo, he also derives pleasure from being regularly abusive to Beavis. In most episodes, when there is a problem, he says, "This sucks!" and then Beavis tells him what the problem really is.
	Tom Anderson	The near-sighted, elderly neighbour of Beavis and Butt-Head. Most often, he hires them to do odd jobs, which results in them destroying his yard, home, or personal belongings. Due to his poor eyesight and mild senility, he never recognizes the two when they return for more chaos. He often refers to the duo (unintentionally) as "Beaver" and "Buff-coat". He served in World War II and in the Korean War as part of the Navy. Bears a nearly identical voice to the character Hank Hill, from Judge's following series, King of the Hill.
	David Van Driessen	A teacher at Highland High School, and arguably the only person who cares about Beavis and Butt-Head. Van Driessen is a hippie with a forgiving nature and gentle demeanour. His attempts to teach Beavis and Butt-Head useful life lessons typically ends in disaster, as they almost always deduce the wrong message. He has been shown teaching classes on Biology, Art, Animation, Economics, Health, History, Literature, etc.
	Bradley Buzzcut (Mr. Buzzcut)	Another of the duo's high school teachers, and the antithesis of Van Driessen. Loud-mouthed, angry and volatile; Buzzcut is a former Marine and, with the possible exception of Principal McVicker, hates the duo more than any other character. He is often charged with administering discipline. Like Mr. Van Driessen, he teaches a number of classes, including P.E., Health, and Math.
	Principal McVicker	Principal of Highland High and, arguably, Beavis and Butt-Head's arch-nemesis. The two have unintentionally ruined his life, and have driven him so far to the edge of sanity that he has a drawer of stress medication, drinks while at school, occasionally wets his pants and in one episode was put in a mental institution. He often stutters, stammers and shakes, and regularly schemes with Buzzcut to come up with ways to either humiliate and/or eradicate the pair from their lives. Many episodes begin with Beavis and Butt-Head in his office. They refer to him as "McDicker." He is possibly deceased, due to a heart attack during the final episode.
	Daria Morgendorffer	Daria is a sarcastic, vaguely alt-rockerish, nerdy girl who attends Highland High with Beavis and Butt-Head, and is one of the few people who sees the two for what they truly are. She doesn't naively believe that they just need to be reached, or disciplined — nor does she get frustrated by their idiocy. While not above taking jabs at them for their lack of intelligence, she also offers help and advice from time to time, and probably respects them a little more than most do. The duo nicknamed her "Diarrhea." She eventually went on to star in her own spin-off series, Daria.
	Todd Ianuzzi	Todd is a twenty-something hoodlum who is rude, arrogant, and violent. Beavis and Butt-Head look up to him and aspire to be included in what they think of as his "gang". Todd despises the two, but will take advantage of them when he needs something: such as money, or a place to hide from other gangs or the police. Todd always wears mirrored sunglasses. He has a tattoo on his right bicep of a flaming skull wearing an eye-patch clutching a knife between its teeth with a message around it reading "Life Sucks". He drives a primer patched green Plymouth Duster, often onto lawns, through garbage cans and over Beavis and Butt-Head's bikes. He wears a mechanic's shirt with the sleeves torn off and his name on it. His blond hair is cut in a mullet hairstyle. Todd's surname was revealed in the book Beavis and Butt-head: This Book Sucks, by Mike Judge.
	Stewart Stevenson	A nerdy, short kid who looks up to Beavis and Butt-Head and thinks they are his best friends. In actuality, Beavis and Butt-Head think little of Stewart, are only willing to hang out with him on their own terms, and don't usually appreciate it when he imposes himself on them. Stewart bows to peer pressure very easily, and usually suffers the brunt of consequence for what Beavis and Butt-Head initiated. He wears a shirt with the logo for Winger on the front (apparently replaced with a Poison shirt in the alternate timeline depicted in "It's a Miserable Life").In a couple episodes,Stewart can be seen wearing a shirt with the word "Unicorn" written in white letters (same as his Winger shirt) on the front of it.

[edit] Minor characters

See List of minor characters in Beavis and Butt-Head article for descriptions of many characters who played less prominent roles than those mentioned above.

[edit] Recurring themes

The series has a number of recurring elements.

• They cause havoc at their place of employment, Burger World. Beavis and Butt-Head spend little time working, and when they try to work, they are often too incompetent to even take a customer's order. They often enjoy frying things other than food such as earthworms, dead mice, and their own fingers. They like hurling hamburgers and milkshakes at the ceiling fan above the cash registers. The boys have also unintentionally had brief stints as secretaries and telemarketers.

• 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. At the end of the final episode, Beavis and Butt-head's antics exasperate McVicker to the point where he suffers a heart attack. It is unknown if he died or not.

• One of their most prominent goals in life is to "score" with chicks. Throughout the series neither of them meets with any success. They occasionally spend Friday nights at the local Maxi-Mart, attempting to flirt with any female they encounter, until the manager runs them off. They have come close on a few occasions, though they are too stupid to take advantage of the situation. They often completely misinterpret the signals or advances of women, and seem unable to distinguish between a woman who genuinely expresses interest and those who find them irritating.

• Beavis transforms into his alter ego, the Great Cornholio. His transformation is indicated by pulling the back of his T-shirt over the top of his head, holding both arms up, pacing back and forth, and proclaiming largely nonsensical utterances in an exaggerated Spanish-sounding accent, such as "I am the Great Cornholio!", "I need TP for my bunghole!" and, "Are you threatening me?" This transformation is prompted when Beavis rapidly consumes a large amount of sugar, caffeine, or other stimulants. In one episode, the duo wanders into a bohemian coffeehouse, where an open-mic poetry slam is in session. Beavis takes a turn at the mic after ingesting a large amount of cappuccino, and the audience hails his antics as performance art. In another episode he transforms into Cornholio while at Burger World, as an INS official visits for a surprise inspection, searching for illegal aliens. Beavis' pseudo-Hispanic ramblings prompt the INS officer into thinking he is from México, and Beavis is deported. Beavis also assumes the Great Cornholio persona for the climactic scenes of Beavis and Butt-head Do America. In a scene archetypical of the Great Cornholio's manic genius, he finds himself alone in the White House, confronting a portrait of Richard Nixon in his famous 2-armed "V for Victory" pose. His response epitomises a first impression of President Nixon, "Are you threatening me!?" There is also the time when he goes into the girls bathroom and shouts " I am Cornholio, i need TP for my bunghole, come out with your pants down!"

• They cause trouble for neighbor Tom Anderson. They have sold most of his possessions, destroyed his house, 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.

[edit] Locations

There are several prime locations featured in the series. All these locations are located within the fictional town of Highland.

• Living room: Located at Butt-head's house, much of the action, and all of the video segments, take place or begin here, with the two sitting on the couch, watching TV.

• Highland High School: Probably the most visited location in the series. Based on a real Highland High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Burger World: The fast-food restaurant where Beavis and Butt-Head assume grill and drive-through/front register duties. It is regularly damaged or completely demolished by the duo. Aside from the manager, it seems that Beavis and Butt-head are the only employees. Burger World is an obvious satirical combination of Burger King and McDonalds, as the Burger World sign is an inverted "golden arches" which forms a "W".

• Tom Anderson's house: Anderson's house, a typical middle-class suburban home, is continually vandalized and wrecked by Beavis and Butt-Head.

• Maxi-Mart: A convenience store. In contradiction to the continuity of the series, it has been shown as being called "Qwik-Mart" in a few episodes. Maxi Mart is one place where the duo often visit to try and pick up chicks. This usually results in the manager running them off.

• Open field: A grassy field, backdropped by a large water tower, where Beavis and Butt-Head carry out destructive experiments or set things on fire.

• Mall: A preferred loitering spot for the duo. It was seen as being called Turbo Mall 2000 and Highland Mall, and it also seemed to grow bigger as the series progressed. It has been shown to contain a pet store, a lingerie store, and an army recruiters office. During a music video, Beavis also mentions "that rock and roll store in the mall", although this location is never shown.

• Stewart's House: Beavis and Butt-Head occasionally visit Stewart's house. Their visits often entail damaging something in the house.

• Mexico: During one episode, Beavis is accidentally deported while in his alter ego. Also, in one of the pilot episodes Beavis and Butt-head help to smuggle some drugs from Mexico to the United States.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Beavis and Butt-Head episodes

[edit] Holiday specials

Four holiday specials were produced -- one for Halloween, two for Christmas and one for Thanksgiving.

The Halloween special involved them attempting to trick-or-treat, in ridiculous costumes. Butt-Head pours melted cheese on his head and becomes "nachos", while Beavis wears a pair of underwear on his head and is a "'nad". After eating all of Tom Anderson's beggars' candy, Beavis turns into his alter ego the Great Cornholio, at which point he starts freaking out on Anderson's lawn, and wanders away from Butt-Head and goes on another hyperactive rampage, threatening trick-or-treaters for their candy and, in the case of some Halloween pranksters, their toilet paper. Butt-head attempts to follow Beavis, where they meet up with Todd when he nearly runs over Beavis. Todd threatens Cornholio, but the bluster and seeming confidence of Beavis' alter ego is enough to get Todd to back down and throw Butt-Head into the trunk instead, takes him to the country and deserted by Todd and his gang, where he is confronted by a crazy farmer. Beavis continues his hyperactive rampage, ending up at the crazy farmer's place. Eventually Beavis wakes up after his sugar high to find himself hanging in the farmer's barn. At the end of the episode it is implied that he is killed by a now blue-skinned Butt-Head and the farmer who are both wielding chainsaws.

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 consisted of two segments that parodied popular Christmas stories. The first was a parody of A Christmas Carol, featuring Beavis as Ebenezer Scrooge. The second was a send up of It's A Wonderful Life, with an angel named Charlie trying to convince Butt-Head to kill himself for the good of all mankind (it starts out with people like Principal McVicker, Mr. Buzzcut, and Tom Anderson praying for the duo's death). The special also contained short segments where Butt-Head dressed as Santa Claus and read letters from viewers, while Beavis was dressed as a reindeer who Butt-Head occasionally struck with a bullwhip. The running joke during these segments was that in every letter written by a girl, she wanted Beavis, which made Butt-Head angrier and led him to hit Beavis even more with the bullwhip.

All of the letters read by Santa Butt-Head were actually sent in by MTV viewers, as several months before the special aired, MTV had a commercial encouraging viewers to write letters to Santa Butt-Head, and provided an address to which they could be sent.

The MTV Thanksgiving Special "Beavis & Butt-Head Do Thanksgiving" aired on 27 November 1997 and featured Kurt Loder as the show's host, half-reluctantly and half-resigned trying to teach the two cartoon characters the meaning of Thanksgiving as they report live from the Macy's Parade in New York, where they take more interest in people's butts and porn-shops than anything else. Amongst others, the special features appearances by Adam Sandler, LL Cool J, Jay-Z, R.E.M., Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Tori Amos, Beastie Boys. Also featured are 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 unfortunately only aired once and its inclusion in the Mike Judge Collection DVD set only shows it in a heavily censored format without music videos.

[edit] Music videos

For a full list of musical artists on Beavis and Butt-Head, see List of musicians appearing on Beavis and Butt-Head.

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, or simply engage in nonsensical dialogue.

They showed a particular disdain for many generic '80s hair bands (with the exception of Guns N' Roses). Upon seeing a video by Def Leppard, Butt-Head remarks that "Spinal Tap really sucks lately". Their epitome of "wuss bands" was Winger, which Stewart was a big fan of. During a Poison video, Beavis made a remark about the band being chicks. Butt-head replied with, "Poison's not chicks! Nelson's chicks!" They've also continuously said that Grim Reaper sucks. Although they never watched any of his videos on the show, they stated (on the Gus Baker show), during a conversation about the quality of music videos, that Meat Loaf particularly sucked.

Sometimes the pair responded to a song's lyrics, as with Men Without Hats' Safety Dance: "Why does that guy keep saying he can dance? He can't dance!" At other times, they responded to the visuals; while watching a Grace Jones video, Beavis objected, "This isn't Manute Bol!" "Yeah, Manute Bol sings better than this," Butt-Head replied. They had no tolerance for new wave or electronic music (except for industrial music); as Butt-head says, "I heard 'Depeche Mode' is French for 'we're wusses'!" They seemed to like the imagery associated with goth rock, but not the music itself (evidenced during a video by Alien Sex Fiend, when they hit the mute button but continued to watch the video).

Bands they liked were also mocked. They were disappointed by an AC/DC video, despite the fact that they were fans of the group. Midway through viewing Judas Priest's cheesy "Breaking The Law" video, Butt-Head remarks, "I like Priest and everything, but this sucks!" (despite the fact that they sing "Breaking The Law" numerous times throughout the series) A video by KISS received the backhanded compliment, "These guys are cool for a bunch of mimes." During the video for "This Love" by Pantera, they joked about how "Pantera's" (actually referring to frontman Phil Anselmo) dad must have kicked his ass when he was a kid.

At times, the criticism reflects their young age and ignorance of music history. Upon seeing a video by Black Sabbath, they decide that the band's vocalist can't be Ozzy Osbourne, because "Ozzy's an old fart!" (the video was recorded in the early 1970s, but the pair thinks it is new). Butt-Head mistakes their raw sound for grunge and inquires if they are from Seattle, Beavis replies "No, they're American," even though Seattle is located in the United States and Black Sabbath is from England. Similarly, the pair described Paul Simon as "that old dude from Africa who used to be in the Beatles." However, at other times they seemed almost respectful and willing to learn about music. A Led Zeppelin video was dismissed with the remark, "This sounds like folk music." "Yeah," came the reply, "but it gets cool later." After Butt-head purposely misidentifies another video by Stone Temple Pilots, Beavis objects, "That's not Pearl Jam, dumbass!" (Scott Weiland's voice resembles Eddie Vedder's at times.) A smug Butt-Head shows a teacher's approval: "I'm glad to see you're learning, Beavis."

Beavis and Butt-Head rarely expressed complete enjoyment about any video. 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. Hum appeared to be responsible for their favourite video even when they mistakenly thought the song "Stars" was over long before the actual end of the song. Beavis became hyper with joy saying "Yeah!, Megadeth!" while watching the video "Sweating Bullets" and Butt-Head told Beavis that Dave Mustaine's singing voice was similar to Beavis's speaking voice. During the video for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Dang, Butt-Head laughed so hysterically with both humor and joy to the point of almost losing his breath, the punchline being that he and Beavis were (or thought they were) high on nutmeg. White Zombie, Type O Negative, Onyx, the Violent Femmes, the Beastie Boys, Coolio, Suicidal Tendencies, Sonic Youth and Pantera were also among the few groups for whom Beavis and Butt-Head expressed appreciation, and the two groups that earn their fondest reviews are GWAR and the Butthole Surfers. Beavis voiced his estimation that every video should be like a GWAR video.

The video which the duo declared to be officially the 'best ever' was Ministry's 'Just One Fix'. During William S. Burroughs' appearance in that video, Beavis declares 'Even the old guy is cool!' Ironically, a large number of fans of the group Army of Lovers attest to having discovered the group from the appearance of a video of theirs on Beavis and Butt-Head, in which both of the boys expressed frustration with the frequent shifts between scenes they deeply enjoyed and scenes they found disturbing. Beavis and Butt-Head treat Lemmy Kilmister, of Motörhead fame, like a V.I.P. whenever he appears. One occasion of this was when Lemmy walked into a Ramones video and Beavis says to Butt-Head, "Whoa! Butt-head, look! It's Lemmy! What's he doing there?!" Butt-Head responded, "He's Lemmy. He can walk into any damn video he wants." They also once expressed if not love, a deep respect for "Weird Al" Yankovic. During the Stray Cats video for "Rock This Town", a man who bears a resemblance to Yankovic appears, making Beavis scream in delight "Hey, It's Weird Al!" and Butt-Head concurring "Cool, Weird Al!". As the Yankovic lookalike is dancing with a woman, Butt-head declares "He's gonna get some, cuz he's Weird Al!"

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, while Beavis actually vomitted. The ultimate put-down was to simply look at each other, each with a look of horror and then switch the channel without saying a word. Only Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and Milli Vanilli were considered so egregious as to deserve this fate. (Although in a later episode, they did watch another Vanilla Ice video, giving it the full round of criticism.)

The pianist Yanni was also met with negative "reviews" by the two, so much so that during their viewing of the video Reflections of Passion, Butt-head jokingly informs Beavis that Yanni is Beavis' father causing a generic horror movie tone to play in the background and Beavis to scream in sheer terror. He is also mocked in the book, Chicken soup for the butt, where his name is spelt as "Yawni" and Butt-head claims that it means "boring" in Italian.

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, to the duo's memorable dances, which ranged from a few simple arm motions, to one dance where Butt-Head jumps back and forth across the room, or Beavis humping the couch in parody of the dancing in Janet Jackson's music video, You want this. A particularly memorable moment of their famous dance sessions can be seen during the viewing of the video for Step Down by the hardcore group Sick of it All, where the names of Beavis & Butt-head's dance moves are named on the screen in a blatant parody the video itself.

Sometimes they have mistaken or compared rather obscure songs/videos to better known ones. An example of this is Nudeswirl's "F-Sharp", which Beavis mistook for "Paradise City".

[edit] Controversial content

Mike Judge created the Beavis and Butt-Head characters for an animated short for the Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. This short, named "Frog Baseball", was aired on MTV's independent animation showcase Liquid Television, and featured the two playing baseball with a living frog as the ball.

The duo lent popularity to slang terms including "assmunch", "woodrow", "stiffy", "asswipe", "bunghole", "buttwipe", "butt dumpling", "butt burglar", "dumbass", "fartknocker", "fartwipe", "choad", "dillhole", "dillweed", "schlong", and other assorted insults.

Early episodes gave them a juvenile obsession with fire and dangerous behaviour. The show was blamed for child deaths as the result of fire and dangerous stunts, particularly the one in Ohio in 1993 in which a five year old boy set fire to his mother's mobile home killing his two year old sister. The houseowners blamed the show (despite not having a cable TV subscription) which sparked the ire of media watchdog groups.^{[citation needed]} As a result, the references were excised from further broadcastings, being replaced to some extent with simply silly stunts, bad pick-up lines, etc. References to fire were cut from earlier episodes in reruns. Other episodes MTV opted to not rerun (Examples include "Stewart's House" and "Way Down Mexico Way").

One could interpret some future jokes within the show as jobs to the controversy, despite the fact that fascination with fire had already been an established character trait. One prominant potential jab is the episode "Lightning Strikes" where Beavis and Butt-Head watch a PBS special on Benjamin Franklin's legendary electricity experiment during a thunderstorm, and try to capture electricity with their own kite. Needless to say, both are injured and a censorship advocate named Betsy Weiner approaches them, and tries to use their plight to blame Howard Stern and Rock videos.

In February 1994, watchdog group "Morality in Media" blamed the death of an 8-year-old girl struck by a bowling ball thrown from an overpass onto a Jersey City, New Jersey highway near the Holland Tunnel on an episode in which Beavis and Butt-head loaded a bowling ball with explosives and dropped it from a rooftop. The 18-year-old man arrested for the crime did not have access to cable. The show was eventually cleared of blame. ^{[citation needed]}

The original disclaimer in the first and second seasons shown before each episode was:

Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completly [sic] made up by this Texas guy who we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, ugly, thoughtless, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason the little wienerheads make us laugh.

Early episodes with the controversial content intact are rare, and are traded on home-made tapes made from the original broadcasts. In an interview included with the recent Mike Judge Collection DVD set, Judge says he is unsure if some of the earlier episodes still exist in their uncensored form.

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 game.

Beavis and Butt-Head, along with Ren and Stimpy, The Simpsons and South Park, pushed the boundaries of cartoons away from clean material for small children. They were famously lambasted by Democratic senator Fritz Hollings as "Buffcoat and Beaver" which would subsequently become a running gag on the show of adults mis-pronouncing their names (i.e. Rush Limbaugh's parody "Gus Baker" in the episode "Right On"). Such an example is a reporter calling them "Brevis and Headbutt". Critics, though split upon the cultural merits of the cartoon, often compared the dialogue to that of Samuel Beckett. Social commentary was a recurrent theme throughout the series.

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 Beavis and Butt-Head as "idiots", Judge has responded that a show about straight-A students just wouldn't be funny. However, Daria, who academically excelled, then proceeded to star in her own critically acclaimed series though the show was marketed towards a different audience with a decidedly different sense of humor.

[edit] Beavis and Butt-head Do America

Beavis and Butt-head Do America was released in 1996. 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). The film's plot follows Beavis and Butt-Head on a journey to retrieve their stolen television set. They travel across the United States and become involved in a biological weapon smuggling scheme that they remain unaware of throughout the film. The journey takes them to Washington, D.C. where they meet President Clinton (voiced by Dale Reeves). Tom Anderson, David Van Driessen and Principal McVicker have cameos.

In the film, Beavis and Butt-Head befriend two characters who look like older versions of themselves. A scene that follows shows the ATF, running 'samples' left by Beavis and Butt-Head in Mr. Anderson's camper through a national prison sperm bank, establishing these characters as possible fathers of the duo (the show alluded to Beavis and Butt-Head being illegitimate and having never known their fathers). In the next scene, one of the older look-alike characters (voiced by Letterman) tells Beavis and Butt-Head a story about how "he scored with these two chicks" fifteen years ago when they were in Beavis & Butt-Head's hometown of Highland as roadies for Mötley Crüe. He then dismisses the other look-alike's claim of having sex with either woman, and is met with no rebuttal. This scene leads to some debate as to whether or not it is revealed that Beavis and Butt-Head are actually biological half-brothers, and that the two have lived their entire lives unaware of this fact. Nevertheless, Beavis and Butt-Head appear oblivious to these clues that point out that they have finally met their father(s).

Despite the initial claims of many skeptics, the film was quite popular, and was quite well received by critics. Siskel and Ebert gave the movie "two thumbs up." The film cemented its cult classic status with the announcement by Paramount of a 10th Anniversary DVD of the film due for release September 2006.

[edit] The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience album

A CD appeared, named The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience featuring many hard rock and heavy metal bands, such as Megadeth, Nirvana and White Zombie. Moreover, Beavis and Butt-Head do a duet with Cher on "I Got You Babe" and a track by themselves named "Come to Butt-head". The track with Cher also resulted in a music video, which hints strongly at the end that Butt-Head "scored" with Cher (after telling Beavis to leave).

[edit] Other appearances

• Beavis and Butt-Head made an "appearance" on the Late Show with David Letterman. Prior to this, creator Mike Judge was a guest on the same show, and showed Dave a brief short in which Beavis & Butt-Head were drawn with the physical characteristics of Paul Shaffer and Letterman. The short was later used in the episode "Late Night With Butthead".
• The characters were presenters during the 1997 Academy Awards telecast.
• Beavis and Butt-Head have also appeared in a comic book series released by Marvel Comics, and many video games, like Virtual Stupidity, Bunghole in One and Beavis and Butt-head Do U.
• They appear in voice only in the live-action film Airheads. When a radio DJ is taking call-ins, Beavis and Butt-Head call and hurl a torent of abuse at the The Lone Rangers with the band members, Rex, Chazz and Pip responding with similar insults to the pair. Mike Judge supplied the voices himself for the movie.
• On a Christmas-themed episode of Saturday Night Live, the characters appeared on the show's Weekend Update sketch and conversed with Norm MacDonald. Situated outside of Rockefeller Center, Butt-Head was dressed to resemble Santa Claus while Beavis donned a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer costume.
• In the 1999 Hugh Grant film Notting Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head's image is seen on a stained glass window.
• Butt-Head made a brief cameo in the MTV animated series The Head.
• On an episode of the MTV animated series "The Maxx" Maxx is watching the episode "The Great Cornholio."
• Beavis & Butt-Head appeared on the MTV series Celebrity Deathmatch, in which both boys fought each other. When they enter the ring, they appear hand-drawn but, later on, they take up their own 3D clay figures. Beavis wins the fight when he becomes Cornholio. Their voices were not performed by Mike Judge.
• On the Adult Swim sketch show Robot Chicken, a featured parody of the Cartoon Network animated series Teen Titans has Beavis and Butt-Head joining the team. Their attitude lands them and the team in trouble. They make a rather risqué comment regarding Starfire's unusual skin pigmentation and insult Raven's gothic nature. They also sing the theme song from the Batman television series when Robin is around. Mike Judge did not voice the duo in this parody and was cut from the Robot Chicken season 1 DVD due to legal problems, but it is still shown on television in reruns. At the 2006 comic-con, Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green announced that the sketch would be included on the season 2 DVD.
• On the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Beavis and Butt-Head appeared in a couple of Viewers Choice award skits, pleading to "Vote to put Beavis and Butt-head back on MTV!" (even though that was not a choice). The duo have made appearances at other VMAs during the series' run.
• In an episode of the TV show Friends, Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing dedicate themselves to not leaving two overstuffed recliners situated in front of a large TV, they are shown at one point watching Beavis and Butt-Head and inadvertently imitating them.
• Beavis and Butt-Head also appear in an episode of Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse, where Colin Powell is depicted fielding questions from teens on a MTV talk show. As he becomes increasingly irritated by the teenagers he begins to imagine that the whole audience has morphed into dozens of chuckling Beavis and Butt-Heads.
• Beavis and Butt-Head appear in the movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, when Dr. Evil has threatened the United Nations and attempts to end transmission, but has trouble ending it, so he accidentally switches to an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Beavis shouts "Check it out Butt-Head, this chick has 3 boobs!" Butt-Head replies "How many butts does she have?"
• In the movie "Empire Records" a drawing of Butt-Head can be seen on the white board multiple times in the stores back room.

[edit] References in pop culture

• In the episode of The Simpsons called D'oh-in in the Wind, a scene shows Abe Simpson and Jasper Beardley sitting on a bench and laughing just like Beavis and Butt-head would do, each holding a bottle of the vegetable juice made by Homer Simpson.
• In two episodes of the ABC sitcom Step by Step, there are two male actors who resemble Beavis and Butt-Head and act in the same manner, even wearing AC/DC and Metallica t-shirts.

[edit] Spin-offs

A spin-off show based on their classmate Daria Morgendorffer, Daria, was also created. Mike Judge was not credited as a producer of this series and said he was not involved with it at all except to give permission for the use of the character. It is said that he has never even seen more than three minutes of the show. The Daria character had been created for Beavis and Butt-Head by Glenn Eichler, who became a producer for Daria. In the first episode of Daria, Daria and her family move from Beavis and Butt-Head's hometown of Highland to Lawndale. None of the other characters from Beavis and Butt-Head ever appear on Daria, although the title of episode 412, "Fire!", may be a reference to B&B.

King of the Hill was created by Mike Judge and at least owes its start to the success of Beavis and Butt-Head. Lending credence to its status as a spinoff, the main character, Hank Hill, sounds just like, looks and acts rather similar to Mr. Anderson. Indeed, the show was preceded by rumors, before Beavis and Butt-Head stopped airing, that Judge was going to do a spin-off show about Mr. Anderson.

[edit] Videos and DVDs

The first official home video releases of Beavis and Butt-Head were two VHS tapes entitled There Goes The Neighbourhood and Work Sucks!, distributed by Sony Music Video and MTV Home Video in 1994. The VHS tapes contained approximately 8 episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head, drawn from the first 4 seasons. Although most of the episodes were presented complete (but without Music Video segments-see below), a handful of episodes from Seasons 2 and 3 were edited for content similar to their broadcast runs. 9 More VHS compilations were released from 1995 to 1999 for a total of 11, containing episodes from every season of the show except the first. Several more VHS compilations were also released exclusively in the United Kingdom ,between 1997 and 2002 in addition to PAL versions of the 11 American tapes. Some UK-only compilations include a three-part series entitled "History of Beavis" which contained the all of the Season 1 episodes and would later be the basis for the 2002 "History of Beavis and Butt-Head" DVD set (see below) as well as a "Too Dumb For TV" compilation dedicated to some of the banned episodes such as "Stewart's House" and "Way Down Mexico Way". A fourth volume of "History of Beavis" was scheduled, but pulled from release at the last minute. Unlike the American tapes, some of the UK-only tapes contained music videos.

The Contents of the Work Sucks! and There Goes The Neighbourhood VHS compilations were combined into a single LaserDisc compilation entitled Beavis and Butt-head: The Essential Collection, which was also released by Sony Music Video in 1994. This was the sole release of Beavis and Butt-Head in the laserdisc format

All VHS collections of episodes are out of print. They were compiled into two sets of three multi-episode Time-Life DVD releases called The Best of Beavis and Butt-Head, which are also no longer available. A set of three DVDs from Time-Life containing the same content as 6 of the VHS editions was released in December 2002. The remaining 5 VHS programs were also released on DVD soon afterwards but were not equally advertised (if at all) and are subsequently rarer.

A two-disc DVD set titled The History of Beavis and Butt-Head was scheduled for release in September 2002 containing the program content of 4 of the UK-Exclusive VHS tapes, but was cancelled at the last moment. Many copies were mistakenly put on store shelves on the scheduled release date, only to be immediately recalled. The set started selling on eBay at very high prices, sometimes over $300 USD. According to creator Mike Judge, the History set was made up of episodes that Judge had previously rejected for home video release and was prepared without his knowledge or consent. Judge said in an interview, "it was basically all the worst episodes, with some exceptions." Judge owns approval rights for video releases of the series, and the History DVD set was recalled at his demand.

On November 8, 2005, MTV and Paramount Home Entertainment released a three-disc DVD compilation titled Beavis and Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 1. The DVD set includes approximately 40 episodes and 11 music video segments from the original shows. All prior VHS and DVD releases have lacked these segments except for the VHS release of Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas, and the last disc of the second and last Time-Life set, presumably due to the difficulty involved in acquiring music rights for the videos. This last disc, entitled Hard Cash, appeared to have made room for four music videos since it contained half the episodes (one VHS worth) of most of the other volumes (typically the combination of content formerly occupying two VHS tapes).

23 of the 40 episodes included on the Mike Judge Collection were advertised to have been director's cuts containing "previously censored material". However, shortly prior to the DVDs' retail date, a member of the DVD Talk Forums discovered that the majority of the "Director's Cut" episodes were actually missing footage from their original broadcast versions, although two episodes ("Home Improvement" and "Lawn and Garden") did indeed have excised footage reinstated. The reason for these edits is unknown, although it has been speculated that the edits in question were made to adjust timing issues in the individual episodes. Lending credence to the speculation is a Houston Chronicle article on the DVDs in which Mike Judge states that he corrected certain animation mistakes on the DVD that he found to be troublesome. The edited episodes nonetheless angered many fans of the show, which led to the set being unfavourably compared to the similarly edited Ren and Stimpy DVDs and George Lucas' updated Star Wars DVDs on many websites and on Amazon.com. However, it should be noted that many of the affected episodes were previously released on the Time-Life and History DVDs complete and unedited.

The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 was released on June 13, 2006; The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 3 was released on August 1, 2006. According to TVShowsonDVD.com, the sets will also contain 40 episodes (including 17 DVD debuts), 13 Music Videos, "previously unaired segments", and other bonus features that have yet to be announced.

Contained on The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 (on disc 3, under "Previews"), is a Brokeback Mountain parody featuring Beavis and Butt-head, which uses a similar score and format as Brokeback's movie trailer. The parody functions as a commercial for the upcoming DVD release of Mike Judge Collection, Volume 3.

On January 26, 2006, MTV and Apple Computer released Beavis and Butt-head, Vol. 1 on iTunes Music Store.

[edit] Books

"Beavis and Butt-Head This Book Sucks".
"Beavis and Butt-Head Ensucklopedia". Published December 1994.
"Beavis and Butt-Head Huh Huh for Hollywood". Published November 1996.
"Beavis and Butt-Head The Butt-Files: Beavis and Butt-head's Guide To Sci-Fi And The Unknown". Published August 1997.
"Beavis and Butt-Head Travel Log". Published December 1997.
"Beavis and Butt-Head Chicken Soup for the Butt". Published November 1998.
"Beavis and Butt-Head Reading Sucks: The Collected Works of Beavis and Butt-Head". Published December 2005. This collection is a bundle of the four books listed above which are no longer in print separately.

[edit] Social influence

The show became the focus of criticism from social conservatives, such as Michael Medved, who depicted it as "the epitome of mindless and amoral entertainment," 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.

ESPN Classic's series Cheap Seats updated the B&B formula in 2003 with a sports theme, with Jason and Randy Sklar wisecracking on campy old sports broadcasts from the vantage point of their battered sofa. Cheap Seats is also widely seen as kin to Mystery Science Theater 3000 and has featured a cameo of their famous wisecracking robots. The robots' wisecracking predates B&B's TV run.

[edit] Trivia

• Over the course of the series, Beavis and Butt-Head would play air guitar and vocalize guitar riffs from songs including:
  • "There Goes The Neighborhood" by Body Count
  • "Iron Man" and "Electric Funeral" by Black Sabbath
  • "Powerslave" by Iron Maiden
  • "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith
  • "Heartbreaker" "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin
  • "Scum" by Napalm Death (at the beginning of The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience)
  • "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group
  • "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple
  • The theme songs from the TV series Green Acres and Jeopardy!
  • "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses
  • "Symphony of Destruction" by Megadeth
  • "Breaking The Law" by Judas Priest
• Beavis's birthday is October 15, 1979
• In the "Blood Drive" episode, Beavis wears a Slayer shirt instead of a Metallica one.
• Van Driessen was actually killed by a monster truck in the "Peace, Love, & Understanding" episode, only to be brought back to life as a teacher for the rest of the series.
• Items such as "SPIT" and "DR. POOP" have appeared on the Burger World drive-thru menu.
• In response to his car not starting, Coach Buzzcut yells "what is your major malfunction?!" in reference to Full Metal Jacket.
• The two unseen individuals administering the polygraph tests in the "Liar, Liar" episode are named Mr. O'Brien and Julia, in reference to George Orwell's 1984.
• In the "Pregnant Pause" and "Eating Contest" episodes, the picture of a fisherman on the beach that normally appears above the couch instead places the fisherman on a pier.
• The Stevensons live at 67 Maple St.
• Tom Anderson lives at 4120 Woodrow Ct.
• Beavis and Butt-Head's phone number is 555-2868
• Seen on a letter, the return address for Highland High School is simply listed as "Spring Street," with "Desert" listed in lieu of a state.
• Beavis and Butt-Head are drawn with significantly larger heads than the other characters.
• When "dancing" to music, Beavis adopts a fighting stance and performs punches and kicks at an amazing speed (for him). In the commentary on The Mike Judge Collection, Mike Judge mentions that at the height of the show's popularity, fans in metal venues were doing the "Beavis dance".
• R.E.M. and Faith No More have the distinction of having the most videos watched by the duo over the course of the series, with five. David Lee Roth ties this as well, with his solo videos and Van Halen's "Jump" video combined. Beastie Boys, Biohazard, Danzig, Pantera, The Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soundgarden, Talking Heads, and Van Halen each had four different videos appear on the show.^[1]
• Patrick Stewart, best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, is a big fan of the series, and even does impressions of the pair.

[edit] The Future of Beavis and Butt-head

Mike Judge has hinted that Beavis and Butt-Head might return in 2007 with five new episodes^{[citation needed]}, but nothing is planned as of December 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of Beavis and Butt-Head episodes
• List of musicians appearing on Beavis and Butt-Head
• List of Minor Characters on Beavis and Butt-head
• King of the Hill, the next animated television series created by Mike Judge.
• Office Space, a cult film by Judge.
• Idiocracy, another film by Judge
• Daria, an MTV spin-off revolving around Daria Morgendorffer.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ "Dan Pawlak". Beavis And Butt-head Episode Guide. Retrieved on 2006-08-18.

Beavis and Butt-Head
Characters:	Beavis | Butt-Head | Mr. Anderson | David Van Driessen | Coach Buzzcut | Principal McVicker | Daria | Todd | Stewart | Cornholio | Minor Characters | Featured musicians
Media:	List of episodes | Beavis and Butt-head (video game) | The Mike Judge Collection | Beavis and Butt-head Do America | The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience
Other:	Burger World | Frog Baseball | Daria | Mike Judge | Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

[edit] External links

• Beavis and Butt-head trading card information page at kenblair.com
• Beavis and Butt-head Wiki
• Beavis & Butt-head VIP-Hole at MTV.com
• Beavis and Butt-head Do America at the Internet Movie Database
• Beavis & Butt-head at EPisodeWorld.com
• Beavis and Butt-head at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Onion A.V. Club interview with Mike Judge in which the History of Beavis and Butt-head DVD recall is discussed
• Houston Chronicle article featuring Mike Judge