Although I haven’t watched it in years, I absolutely loved Beavis and Butt-head when it ruled MTV.
I love stupid comedy if it’s done brilliantly, like Howard Stern, and Beavis and Butthead were great at being stupid. It’s definitely cool that they’re coming back, much like I was excited when Cheech and Chong finally reunited, but will there still be interest in them today, or are they so mid-90’s by now?
As you may have read by now, Mike Judge is back at the helm of the cartoon, and the dynamic duo will be watching YouTube, and will also be commenting on shows like Jersey Show, where the jokes keep writing themselves repeatedly. Also, like the Simpsons, they won’t age.
The story on Beavis and Butt-head’s return in the Guardian was headlined, “Beavis and Butt-head are back…cool,” and Darragh McManus continued, “I’m thrilled the boys are returning to the small screen. A show this sublimely moronic is timeless.”
The AtlanticWire ran a gamut of opinions, from Justin Timberlake, who’s very excited B&B have returned, to a Time magazine critic who notes, “The series was such a signal comedy of its time and generation that it feels like it would be out of place.”
Having written extensively about the world of metal, what was especially intriguing for me was how a lot of hair bands blamed Beavis and Butt-head, along with the Seattle bands, for causing their whole scene to collapse.
Winger guitarist Reb Beach claimed in Guitar World, “I remember sitting on the [tour] bus and seeing this new TV show called Beavis and Butt-head with a 300-pound, zit covered kid wearing a Winger T-shirt. Our sales stopped cold.”
John Corabi, who sang for Motley Crue for several years after Vince Neil was fired, told me MTV pulled one of their clips because the editing moved too fast. Beavis and Butt-head had the same complaint.
And certainly at least one band benefited greatly from Beavis and Butt-head, White Zombie. Their major label debut, La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. One, had stalled at around 150,000, and when B&B played the hell out of their video for “Thunder Kiss ’65,” they finally got the album over the stumbling block, and it went platinum.
So can Beavis and Butt-head ultimately return to glory like they did in their prime? Depends on whether today’s generation will cotton to them or not, and whether the old fans will like what they’re doing today. If they’re as rib-ticklingly dumb as they used to be, I’m definitely in.
