Review – Beavis And Butt-Head

Beavis And Butt-Head – MTV – 10:00/9:00pm Thursday – USA

The window of time between when something exists and when people become nostalgic for that thing is getting smaller. Beavis And Butt-Head left the air in 1997 and have been revived fourteen years later by MTV because, well, it’s been over a decade and the public have an undying need for television shows and movies based on things they are already aware of, apparently. Surely it’s only a matter of time before Ren & Stimpy make their own triumphant return to television. I was ten when Beavis And Butt-Head first debuted and while I was aware of the characters, and distinctly remember at least one of my friends yelling “I am Cornholio!” on numerous occasions, I never got into Beavis And Butt-Head mostly because I never GOT Beavis And Butt-Head. Now that the series has returned I at least GET what creator Mike Judge is going for, but alas, I still don’t like the show.

The strange thing for me about Mike Judge and his work is that I find his live action films Office Space and Idiocracy to be two of the funniest movies ever made. I always make a point of watching Office Space at least once a year to remind myself not to let the corporate world get me down. Yet, despite absolutely loving one half of Judge’s oeuvre I find myself being left cold by his animated work. Whether it’s the short-lived The Goode Family or the long-running King Of The Hill I’ve never had much enthusiasm for Judge’s animation offerings. My one experience with Beavis And Butt-Head before this revival was their film Beavis And Butt-Head Do America, and let’s not get into how little I laughed at that.

So far this review has been more about me than it has been about Beavis And Butt-Head and my reason for that is because more than most television shows I have the feeling Beavis And Butt-Head elicits a particular gut reaction. The constant grunting and mumbling Beavis and Butt-Head do almost non-stop throughout the episode sounded to me like nails on a chalkboard. Any time I found myself chuckling along with the comedy, as I did during more than a few times, I was yanked right out of it by the characters snorting and chuckling. It was a reaction that I’ve not had with other television shows. It felt like I was doing everything I could to get on board and it just kept pushing me off, not wanting me to be a part of it.

The first episode included two short stories intercut with Beavis and Butt-Head making fun of various music videos and other MTV shows like Jersey Shore. The whole point of the show is that it makes fun of MTV’s audience whilst also appealing to MTV’s audience. The bits where they sat on the couch mocking Jersey Shore and other shows were all incredibly slight especially in an age where you can find this exact kind of mockery by checking your Twitter feed. On the other hand the short stories were pretty solid pieces of comedy writing. The first story found Beavis and Butt-Head wondering how they could score girls like the heroes of Twilight. They figure getting bitten by a werewolf would work, then mistake a homeless man in an alley for a werewolf, he bites them and they start ‘transforming’ but it’s just because they’ve contracted a variety of diseases including Hep C. The second story was simpler and funnier, Beavis cries during The Bachelor but only because he gets onion in his eye. Butt-Head makes fun of him for crying all day, then for the next week, then for the next month, until the day that he dies. End of story.

Both of these stories were funny, and I found the crying story especially amusing, except for that problem I mentioned earlier. I can’t watch this show without wanting to switch it off. I laugh, they grunt and snort and I’m out. While I’m ninety percent positive this is only a problem I have with this show and these characters, it’s still the reason that prevents me from endorsing this series. Yes, it’s funny, but goddamn it if it isn’t also horrible to try and spend this much time with these characters. This particular piece of 90s nostalgia restored for this new world will stay buried as far as I’m concerned, I guess I’ll just have to hang out for the eventual Rocko’s Modern Life revival.

Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Bad