beavis & butthead are dead

And you say television is predictable?

Who would have guessed a few years ago that one of TV’s rages of the ‘90s would be two homely, repulsive, eternally flatulent, irredeemably moronic teenagers who can barely read, have reached the apex of their lives working in a greasy burger joint and spend most of their time rapt before a set watching rock videos and fantasizing about “scoring”? As in having rip-roaring sex ’round the clock.

Mike Judge could have titled his animated MTV creations “Incredibly Dumb and Even Dumber,” in giving seed to a pair of weaselly, self-mutilating dips who would become at once the antichrists of mainstream television and pop culture’s reigning icons of boorishness.

Instead he named them Beavis and Butt-head.

He fastened these squinty human zits to their ratty couch in front of a rabbit-eared TV in their crummy digs. He gave them reptilian faces beneath their pompadours, and also pea brains and things to say like “cool,” “this sucks” and “heh-heh-heh” and “huh-huh-huh,” in strident voices that he supplied himself. 1

Created by twisted Texan Mike Judge, the B boys accomplished much in their short lives: They chainsawed a grasshopper, spray-painted a dog, incinerated a birthday cake, and watched lots of Metallica videos. They also blessed us with bits of wisdom, such as ”Did you know when you’re eating a rump roast, you’re eating a cow’s butt?” 2

I was only able to catch the episode once, the weekend after it had originally aired back in November of 1997. I remember not being impressed by the episode, I expected that they were going to die in a freak explosion because they did something stupid at their fast food job. Not because they missed three weeks of school because nothing was on TV, and when the school finally called to check up on them, Beavis just tells the secretary that they died.

I just remembered another reason why I wasn’t wowed by this send off – there were no videos to be made fun of. That’s the bread and butter of B&B! I mean, Godley and Creme’s “Cry”? Tom Jones? Pizzicato Five? Crowbar? Ween?! FUNK DAT?!?

Watch the episode here.

Spoiler alert: Principal McVickers dies.

“Hey Beavis, did you see McVickers? He was like ‘bluuugh!’, and then Buzzcut made out with him!”

“We should go to school early tomorrow, in case, you know, someone else dies.”

“Dumbass, we’re rich, we don’t have to go to school ever again!”

“Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! That’s pretty damn cool.”

1. Rosenberg, Howard, “Butt-head, we hardly knew ye,” Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1997. http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/26/entertainment/ca-57733 .

2. Jacobs, A.J., “The end of Beavis and Butt-head,” Entertainment Weekly, August 15, 1997. http://ew.com/article/1997/08/15/end-beavis-and-butt-head/

Tag: beavis & butthead are dead

332. Beavis & Butthead are dead (November 28, 1997)