Most ambitious animation, including Pixar movies, tries this trick of telling jokes for one generation layered with references for another. Photograph: Paramount+īeavis and Butt-Head was always much smarter than its characters, but it resonated with young people because it pulled this off without trying to appeal to their parents.
The film Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is among the new Paramount+ offerings. Its new version includes the title characters as teenagers, but also a few episodes depicting them in middle age, and they all hit comic notes with moseying cadences you can’t find elsewhere.
While the reality and music-documentary genres have grown plentiful enough to make those shows seem unnecessary, Beavis and Butt-Head remains singular. There’s a reunion of the original two casts of The Real World (takeaway: time heals few wounds) and a revival of Behind the Music. This is part of a broader corporate strategy playing on the nostalgic impulses of those of us raised on a steady diet of MTV and VH1. (”Are you threatening me?”, “Fire! Fire!”) It’s why the new Paramount+ streaming service made a major investment in his dormant animated creation, putting old seasons online while rolling out a solid new movie, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, and an even better rebooted series that captures just enough of the original delirious spirit to make you want to imitate the old catchphrases. Mike Judge, who created the cartoon along with directing cult movies like Idiocracy and Office Space, is a master of the moronic. Sometimes life (and thus comedy) is stupid. Can I explain why Beavis pulling his T-shirt over his blond bouffant and declaring himself the Great Cornholio made me laugh louder than anything Bart Simpson has ever done? No, but it’s true. This was no provocation but a considered take – one I don’t regret.
Yet if you talked to me back then, I would have told you with sniggering teenage confidence that the critically ignored Beavis and Butt-Head, a crudely drawn cartoon about two idiots chuckling over music videos, was clearly better.
Beavis and Butt-Head didn’t make the cut. Beloved by critics and comedy nerds, it was producing classic episodes like Marge vs the Monorail (written by Conan O’Brien), building a reputation that earned it second place on a recent Rolling Stone list of the 100 greatest shows in history. When Beavis and Butt-Head premiered in spring 1993, The Simpsons was finishing up what many now consider not just its greatest season, but perhaps the greatest ever.
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