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Beavis and Butt-head
Beavis and Butt-head
Format	Animated television series
Created by	Mike Judge
Voices of	Mike Judge Tracy Grandstaff
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	200 (93 shows, 4 specials, 2 pilots) (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	3-6 minutes with no music videos, 5-11 minutes with music videos, 12-21 minutes for specials.
Broadcast
Original channel	MTV
Original run	March 8, 1993 – November 28, 1997
External links
Official website

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 to 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 do not 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 made into an animated feature film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America.

Contents 1 Characters 1.1 Minor characters 1.2 Recurring themes 2 Holiday specials 3 Featured music videos 3.1 Video critiques 3.2 Positive critiques 3.3 Other antics 4 Critical assessments and controversy 4.1 Fire! Fire! 5 Films 6 Related media 7 Spin-offs 8 Videos and DVDs 9 Books 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Characters

The two characters' lives revolve around TV, nachos, heavy metal music, their utterly fruitless efforts in trying to "score with chicks", making money, and other stuff that's "cool". 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 grey 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!"

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.[1]
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".[1]
Tom Anderson	Voiced by Mike Judge. The nearsighted, elderly neighbor of Beavis and Butt-head. He often hires them to do chores, which results in them destroying his yard, home, or personal belongings. Due to his poor eyesight and mild senility, he never seems to recognize the two and he never remembers their names (in one episode, the two wore horn rimmed glasses in an absurd disguise, to which Anderson did not notice). He served in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War. His character is a big influence on the look and voice of the character Hank Hill from Judge's following series, King of the Hill, as both were based on the same person from Judge's youth.
David Van Driessen	Voiced by Mike Judge. A teacher at Highland High School, and arguably the only person who cares about Beavis and Butt-head. Van Driessen is a devoted hippie with a forgiving nature and gentle demeanor. His repeated attempts to teach the duo useful life lessons typically end in disaster, as they almost always deduce the wrong message. He often plays songs on his acoustic guitar, which typically end in him being severely hurt, and in some cases almost killed. He has been shown teaching classes on biology, art, animation, economics, health, history, and literature, among others. He also owns a substantial 8-track tape collection, which is ruined in one episode by Beavis and Butt-Head. His voice and personality are similar to and may serve as a basis of sort for the character of Gerald Goode in Judge's latest animated series The Goode Family.
Coach Bradley Buzzcut	Voiced by Mike Judge. Another of the duo's high school teachers, and the antithesis of Van Driessen. Angry, impatient and short-tempered, Buzzcut is a Vietnam veteran who served in the Marine Corps and, with the possible exception of Principal McVicker, hates the duo more than any other character. He is shown substitute teaching regular classes, but usually teaches physical education. It has been implied that he has on occasion committed assault and battery against the duo, but he once defended them from an angry guest lecturer (Mr. Candy, previously known as Mr. Manners) by saying "This is my class. I do the ass kicking around here!"
Principal McVicker	Voiced by Mike Judge. Principal of Highland High and, arguably, Beavis and Butt-head's arch-nemesis. The two have unintentionally ruined his life and have driven him to the edge of insanity, actually driving him insane in Breakdown. Many episodes begin with Beavis and Butt-head in his office. They refer to him as "McDicker." He is known for constantly trembling and stuttering out of anxiety over Beavis and Butt-head, their antics, and his inevitably futile attempts to punish them. In the series finale Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead, upon hearing the news of Beavis's and Butt-head's "deaths" he stops trembling and stuttering for the first time. When they show up to their own memorial services very much alive, he apparently suffers a heart attack and presumably dies.
Daria Morgendorffer	Voiced by Tracy Grandstaff. Daria is a sarcastic, vaguely alt-rockerish, nerdy girl who attends Highland High with Beavis and Butt-head, and she is one of the few people who sees the two for what they truly are. 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 more than most do. The duo nicknamed her "Diarrhea" but once said she was cool after she asked President Clinton a poignant question during a school assembly. She eventually went on to star in her own spin-off series, Daria.
Todd Ianuzzi	Voiced by Rottilio Michieli. Todd is a hoodlum who is rude, arrogant, and violent. Beavis and Butt-head look up to him and aspire to join 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. He often refers to Beavis and Butt-head as "girls." On the episode Steamroller, It was said that Todd had dropped out of school 2 years before.
Stewart Stevenson	Voiced by Adam Welsh. A nerdy, short kid who looks up to Beavis and Butt-head and believes they are his best friends. He typically wears a Winger shirt (notable because Beavis and Butt-head consider Winger to be a "wuss band"). Beavis and Butt-head actually think little of Stewart; essentially, they relate to him like Todd relates to them.

[edit] Minor characters

[edit] Recurring themes

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (June 2009)

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!", "I need T.P. for my bunghole!", "Are you threatening me?", and "Do not underestimate the power of the almighty 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".

[edit] Holiday specials

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.

[edit] Featured music videos

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.^[1]

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.

[edit] 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!").

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 Napalm Death vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway's voice "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 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 or Marilyn Manson) and often evinced disgust or fear towards notions of male homosexuality.

[edit] 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. AC/DC was another band they enjoyed, with Butt-Head even wearing an AC/DC t-shirt. Sometimes when they were excited about something, the two would hum the opening riffs to Back in Black. 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 of Morbid Angel 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.

[edit] 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."

In Judas Priest's video for their song "Painkiller", they mostly headbanged and played air guitar through the whole song, though Beavis did imitate Rob Halford's singing style and Butt-head said "I feel like killing myself... I feel like killing you!" and said "They're guilty. See you in hell, Rob Halford" in the end of the video, which was probably sarcasm. This referred to the controversy of the boy in Reno, Nevada, who killed himself while listening to Judas Priest. Judas Priest was sued, because they, according to the prosecution, had subliminal messages in their songs. Judas Priest won the trial, and so Butt-head probably made a sarcastic comment to that.

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"), Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses, and Dave Mustaine from Megadeth, complimenting 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, the duo was watching Marilyn Manson's music video for "The Long Hard Road Out of Hell" and originally confused Manson for Cher. Beavis then confused Marilyn Manson for Charles Manson before Butt-head corrected Beavis ("No dumbass, it's Marilyn Manson!"). Butt-head also confused the band with the Manson Family, believing the people in the music video "do it with each other and then they like go out and kill people before the duo commented on how they were disturbed by Manson [2]. 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 [3]. 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.

[edit] 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."^[2]

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."^[3]

In December 2006, TV Guide ranked the duo's distinct laughing at #66 on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases.^[4]

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".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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.^[5] The mother later claimed that her son had watched one of the fire-related segments shortly before he burned down the home.^[5]

As a result, the references were excised from further broadcasts, replaced by idiotic 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..." and pausing before "fire" (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.^[6] 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 a 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." This scene was reused when Beavis and Butt-head promoted the film 'Extract.'

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.^[7] 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.^[7] 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 made a disclaimer, reminding viewers that:

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

This disclaimer also appears before the opening of their Sega Genesis and Super NES game. The original disclaimer was changed to a new one that stated:

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.

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 originally calling them "Butthole and Joe", and believing the two to be Oriental. In a later episode, Tom Anderson used the Hollings mispronunciation once, President Clinton called 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.)^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Films

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."

[edit] Related media

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• A CD, The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience, was released featuring many hard rock and heavy metal bands, such as Megadeth, Primus, Nirvana and White Zombie. Moreover, Beavis and Butt-head do a duet with Cher on "I Got You Babe"^[9] and a track by themselves called "Come to Butt-head." The track with Cher also resulted in a music video directed by Tamra Davis and Yvette Kaplan.
• In 1995 an adventure game based on the series was released called Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity on the PC,^[10] with a PlayStation port being released in Japan. A CD-i port was planned but was canceled due to falling sales of the console. Atari also designed an arcade game in 1996, but it was never released.
• Marvel Comics published a Beavis and Butt-head comic book series,^[11] which was later successfully republished by Marvel UK, where it ran for several years, repeating the original strip and creating new editorial material.
• Many video games,^[12] including Beavis and Butt-head, Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity, Beavis and Butt-head: Bunghole in One, Calling All Dorks, Little Thingies, Wiener Takes All, and Beavis and Butt-head Do U.^[13]
• For AC/DC's 1996 tour, they had an intro film made with Beavis and Butt-head attempting to score with girls who are going backstage to meet the band. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, one of them bangs on the door, and a cartoon version of Angus Young whistles for the Ballbreaker woman to chase them away. It was used for all the shows, and was eventually released officially on AC/DC's DVD box set Plug Me In.^{[citation needed]}
• A 1995 pornographic film exists called Beaver and Butt-face where two actors portray Beavis and Butt-head look-alikes complete with make-up.

Beavis and Butt-head have appeared on a number of shows besides their own.

• In 1994, to promote their upcoming movie, Beavis and Butt-head appeared on Late Show with David Letterman. Prior to this, creator Mike Judge was a guest on the same show, and presented a brief segment in which Beavis & Butt-head were drawn with the physical characteristics of Paul Shaffer and Letterman, respectively. The short was later used in the episode "Late Night With Butt-head."
• Also to promote their upcoming movie, Beavis and Butt-head appeared on Saturday Night Live in an interview during the "Weekend Update with Norm MacDonald" segment. During this interview, as this episode aired during the Christmas season, Beavis and Butt-head are dressed as a reindeer and Santa respectively, like they appear during one of their Christmas specials.
• Butt-head had a cameo on the MTV Oddities series The Head, as a courier with a video tape. Upon being kicked in the rear by an F.B.I. agent, he said, "That sucked."
• Also in 1994, the duo appeared (voices only) in the movie Airheads, starring Brendan Fraser, during the scene where disc jockey Ian the Shark (Joe Mantegna) was taking calls from listeners. Beavis and Butt-head appeared on the air and made the comment that the Lone Rangers (the central characters' rock band) sucked.
• In the 1995 film Clueless, Alicia Silverstone's character is watching the show before Paul Rudd's character mocks it and clicks to a news channel.
• In 1996 they appeared in the intro clip of the AC/DC BALLBREAKER TOUR. In this mini-clip they faced the guitarist of the band, Angus Young.
• In the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Dr. Evil, after offering his ultimatum, means to end the video communication with the United Nations with a remote control, but instead turns to an episode of Beavis and Butt-head in which Beavis says to Butt-head, "Check it out Butt-head, this chick has three boobs," to which Butt-head replies, "How many butts does she have?"
• On the sitcom Friends, Joey and Chandler, in the episode where they have gotten new Barcaloungers and stayed in them to eat and watch TV for days on end, are seen laughing stupidly at a Beavis and Butt-head episode, which is of course the sort of thing B&B did most of the time on MTV.
• On the show Step By Step, Dana and Karen are forced to go out with two friends of Richie, who are exact copies of Beavis and Butt-head (dressing and acting like them) in a Halloween episode.
• On two episodes of Full House, in the season 7 episode "The Last Dance," Kimmy refers to Joey and Danny as Beavis and Boat-head. In the season 8 episode "Stephanie's Wild Ride," D.J. refers to the two 16-year-old boys that Stephanie rides with, saying, "You got in the car with Beavis & Butt-head."
• Several years later, the characters were presenters during the 1997 Academy Awards telecast. They presented the Oscar for Best Sound Editing.
• Beavis and Butt-head have also appeared in several MTV Video Music Awards telecasts, most recently in 2005.
• In the computer game Police Quest: Open Season, you are told at the impound lot that the password is Beavis and Butt-head.
• In 2008, Beavis and Butt-head also appeared during the MTV "Jackass 24 Take Over." In the clip, Beavis and Butt-head were watching Steve-O's music video for "Poke That Puss" and commenting on it. Beavis suggested that they might like this video better if they were black, and in a dream sequence, Butt-Head dreamed that he was black ("Black-head"), drinking a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor, with Beavis (as "Cephus") making pseudo-intellectual comments on racial equality and such. Butt-head ultimately decided that the video proved that Steve-O sucks regardless of skin color.
• Beavis and Butt-head appear in the episode "Fandemonium 2000" of Celebrity Deathmatch; Beavis wins the match by chopping Butt-head to pieces with a knife and tongs that were replacements for his arms, lost earlier while in his Cornholio persona.
• In the PBS show Arthur, "Peabrain and Nuthead" are two characters in a couple of episodes that resemble Beavis and Butt-head in the form of nuts. Some kids in the show that are known to be bullies enjoy watching "Peabrain and Nuthead" while parents disapprove of it. In another episode, the characters Arthur and Buster are depicted as Beavis and Butt-head in the front of a fashion show during a sequence of the show's commonplace imaginary situations in the episode "The Contest".
• In the sketch show Robot Chicken, in the episode "Vegetable Fun Fest," Beavis and Butt-Head join the Teen Titans in their battle against evil. However it goes horribly wrong when they don't do their "ass-signment" and don't use the "knob" that powers up the suits they are using to fight a radioactive monster.
• The Tiny Toon Adventures "Spring Break Special" features a scene in which parody versions of Beavis and Butt-Head (named Beaver and Big-head) appear. The same episode also features parodies of The Ren and Stimpy Show (a rooster and squirrel named Rank and Stinky try to hitch a ride with the Tiny Toons).
• In the Earthworm Jim episode "Darwin's Nightmare," Bob the Killer Goldfish devolves Earthworm Jim and Peter Puppy, and they become stupid neanderthals. In a nod to Beavis and Butt-head, they laugh at the term "butt" while a few quick guitar riffs play.
• Beavis and Butt-head made a cameo appearance on an episode of King of the Hill as spectators at a softball game.^{[citation needed]}
• Beavis and Butt-Head resurfaced in late August, 2009, presenting a clip from Mike Judge's latest film Extract, during Jason Bateman's appearance on Late Show with David Letterman to promote the film.

In a scene towards the end of Dumb and Dumber, the kidnapper calls Harry and Lloyd "Beavis and Butt-head."

[edit] Spin-offs

In 1997, a spin-off show based on their classmate Daria Morgendorffer, Daria, was created. Mike Judge was not credited as a producer of this series and has said he was not involved with it at all, except to give permission for the use of the character. 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, she 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 and titular duo are only referred to once, as, "two boys" who make life hard for Daria.

Although not true spin-offs, two other animated shows created by Mike Judge have been very loosely based on Beavis and Butt-head characters. King of the Hill main character Hank Hill shares a similar voice and idiosyncrasies with Tom Anderson. Likewise, Gerald Goode of The Goode Family shares a voice and some similarities with David Van Driessen.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Videos and DVDs

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The first official home video releases of Beavis and Butt-head were two VHS tapes entitled There Goes The Neighborhood and Work Sucks!, distributed by Sony Music Video and MTV Home Video in 1994. Each tape contained approximately eight episodes, each selected from the first four seasons. Although most of the episodes were presented complete (but without music video segments), a handful of episodes from Seasons 2 and 3 were edited for content similar to their broadcast runs. Nine more VHS compilations were released from 1995 to 1999 (Troubled Youth, The Final Judgment, Law-Abiding Citizens, Hard Cash, Butt-O-Ween, Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas, Innocence Lost, Chicks 'n' Stuff, Feel Our Pain) for a total of 11, containing episodes from every season of the show except the first.

The Contents of the Work Sucks! and There Goes The Neighborhood 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 (other than the feature-film).

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 six of the VHS editions was released in December 2002. The remaining five VHS programs were also released on DVD soon afterwards but were not equally advertised (if at all) and are subsequently rarer.

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, 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.

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 four of the UK-exclusive VHS tapes. However, its release was cancelled at the last moment at the demand of Judge, who owned approval rights for video releases of the series. 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 Judge, the History set was made up of episodes that he had previously rejected for home video release and had been prepared without his knowledge or consent.^[14]

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 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 Time-Life set.

23 of the 40 episodes included on the Mike Judge Collection were advertised to have been director's cuts containing "previously censored material." However, the majority of the "Director's Cut" episodes are 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 Mike Judge stated in a Houston Chronicle article on the release that he had corrected certain animation mistakes on the DVD that he had found to be troublesome.^{[citation needed]} The following (known to date) edits were all made in Vol. 1 to correct "animation mistakes" according to Mike Judge:

• Lawn & Garden: The part where Butt-head holds the chainsaw and screams "Welcome to the jungle...you're gonna die" while headbanging has been removed.
• 1-900-BEAVIS: The lines, "She said something," "I think I just inoculated," and "Hey, maybe we'll hear some butt wind," have been removed.
• Madame Blavatsky: Beavis and Butt-head's fighting scene at the end is cut short; also, Madam Blavatsky's line, when she says, "The end of the world," has been edited.
• Late Night With Butt-head: The first minute and a half of this episode has been removed; instead, it starts with Beavis and Butt-head pitching the idea for their talk show. Letterman's cameo voice appearance has been removed. Also, Beavis and Butt-head celebrating with an air guitar chant after successfully pitching their show has been removed.
• Right On: A scene where Beavis and Butt-head are doing their air guitar chant, after they found out they will be on the Gus Baker show has been removed. Also, at the very end, the part where Butt-head tells Beavis that it wouldn't hurt to wipe once in while has been removed.
• Date Bait: Scene where Beavis and Butt-head are on the couch with a cold and Butt-head doing the "Handbanging-Sneeze" (also showing the Metal sign) has been removed.
• Figure Drawing: The teacher's comment, about teaching a class on aromatherapy, is removed. Three or four lines (after Beavis and Butt-head rearrange the letters on the sign) have also been cut. Several other dialogue cuts were made throughout.
• Teen Talk: A scene where Beavis and Butt-head do their air guitar chant, after Lolita and Tanqueray ask if they want to make out behind the risers, has been removed.
• Held Back: In the scene where Beavis and Butt-head are in third grade, and won't fit in the chairs, the lines, "This desk is giving me a stiffie," and, "I don't even have room for a stiffie," have been removed.
• Safe House: A scene with Beavis, Butt-head and Todd watching a funny "World of Bikini Sports" segment has been removed, when the bikini girl tells the sports anchor to take his hands off her ass.
• Tainted Meat: The middle section of the news broadcast, talking about "a fierce new parasite," has been removed. It, much like the deleted scene in "Manners Suck" (see below), was included as an Easter Egg on Disc 2.
• Manners Suck: The ending, where Beavis and Butt-head are in the stalls politely defecating, is removed. It was, however, included as an Easter Egg on Disc 1.
• Dream On: The duo sings and makes up their own Brady Bunch theme song lyrics.

The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 was released on June 13, 2006. This compilation features 40 additional episodes, 13 music videos, and 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 DVD release of Mike Judge Collection, Volume 3. Also included are segments from the Beavis and Butt-head "Butt Bowl" specials, traditionally aired during halftime of the Super Bowl; parodies of Calvin Klein advertisements are also featured. In Volume 2, edits on previous VHS/DVD releases of the episode "Bungholio - Lord of the Harvest" (then called "Butt-o-Ween") have not been reinstated. The edit deleted a scene where the boys are trying out Halloween costumes in their bathroom and Beavis appears dressed up like Stewart, i.e. wearing a Winger T-shirt saying "Look...I'm a Wuss".

The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 3 was released on August 1, 2006. 42 episodes are featured, as well as 15 music video segments. Bonus features include the original, uncut "Frog Baseball" episode, and many (if not all) of the Christmas-related clips. Despite the criticism received over severe episode censorship in Vol. 1, edits were again made on at least two episodes - a scene where Beavis and Butt-head cut their teacher's chair in half was removed from "Woodshop," and a short line from Beavis from "Impotence."

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

[edit] Books

• Johnson, Sam; Chris Marcil. Glenn Eichler. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: This Book Sucks. MTV Books, Callaway, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-89034-4. 
• Johnson, Sam; Chris Marcil, Guy Maxtone-Graham, Kristofor Brown, David Felton, Glenn Eichler, Mike Judge. Glenn Eichler. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Ensucklopedia. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-52149-7. 
• Doyle, Larry. Glenn Eichler. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: This Sucks, Change It!. MTV Books, Pocket Books, Melcher Media. ISBN 0-671-53633-8. 
• Doyle, Larry. Glenn Eichler. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Huh Huh For Hollywood. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-00655-X. 
• Kristofor Brown, ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Doodle (doodie) Book. Boston America Corp. ISBN 1-889647-00-4. 
• MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: 3-D Poster Book. Boston America Corp. 
• Brown, Kristofor. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Big Book of Important Stuff to Make Life Cool.. Boston America Corp. ISBN 1-889647-15-2. 
• MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Doodle (doodie) Book #2. Boston America Corp. ISBN 1-889647-28-4. 
• MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Sticky Things. Boston America Corp. ISBN 1-889647-16-0. 
• Judge, Mike; Joe Stillman. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: The Official Script Book. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-00658-4. 
• Grabianski, Greg; Aimee Keillor. Kristofor Brown. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: The Butt-Files. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-01426-9. 
• Brown, Kristofor. Dave Stern]. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Travel Log. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-01533-8. 
• Rheingold, Andy; Scott Sonneborn. Kristofor Brown. ed. MTV'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Chicken Soup for the Butt. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02598-8. 
• 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.
• Sun, Douglas. [August 1998] “'Change It! This Sucks!': Beavis and Butt-head, Idiot Savants of Cultural Criticism.” in David E.E. Sloane (Ed.) New Directions in American Humor. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-0910-1

[edit] See also

• List of Beavis and Butt-head episodes
• List of minor characters in Beavis and Butt-head
• Daria, an MTV spin-off revolving around Daria Morgendorffer.
• King of the Hill
• The Ren and Stimpy Show

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Beavis and Butt-head

• Beavis and Butt-head VIP-Hole at MTV.com
• Beavis and Butt-head at EpisodeWorld.com
• Beavis and Butt-head at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The 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
• Beavis and Butt-head episode guide
• Beavis and Butt-Head at the Internet Movie Database
• Beavis and Butt-Head at TV.com
• Beavis and Butt-head introduce the Mike Judge film Extract

v • d • e Beavis and Butt-head Characters Beavis · Butt-head · Mr. Anderson · David Van Driessen · Coach Buzzcut · Principal McVicker · Todd · Stewart · Cornholio · Minor characters Media Episodes · Beavis and Butt-head (video game) · Beavis and Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection · Beavis and Butt-head Do America · The Beavis and Butt-head Experience Other Burger World · Mike Judge · Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation

v • d • e Mike Judge Films Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996) • Office Space (1999) • Idiocracy (2006) • Extract (2009) Television series Beavis and Butt-head (1993-1997)  • King of the Hill (1997-2009)  • The Goode Family (2009) Short films The Honky Problem  • Office Space (Milton/SNL shorts)

v • d • e Daria Characters Daria Morgendorffer · Jane Lane · Quinn Morgendorffer · Helen Morgendorffer · Jake Morgendorffer · Trent Lane Telemovies "Is It Fall Yet?" · "Is It College Yet?" Related articles Episodes · Beavis and Butt-head · Glenn Eichler · MTV · The N