Back in the 1990s, America was prosperous. We weren’t in any wars, the economy was awesome, and the animated MTV sitcom Beavis and Butt-head ruled the airwaves.
A prime example of how good things were then? Politicians had to look deeply for things to criticize. Beavis and Butt-head gave them that ammunition.
Let’s face it: when times are good, politicians go looking for villains within our ranks. Back in the 1950s, when the economy was booming, everyone who didn’t agree with our government was a communist. McCarthyists began to finger comic books, among other cultural products, as dangerous products that could turn our youth into axe murderers and homosexuals. And when the oppressed youth of the 1950’s grew up? Well, they, in turn, became concerned that the youth of the 1990’s would become sadistic freaks with bad taste in music because of Beavis and Butt-head.
Beavis and Butt-head return to their couch.
Fourteen years ago, when Mike Judge decided to end Beavis and Butt-head to concentrate on King Of The Hill, it created a vacuum in the music world. Without these two ridiculous characters telling the world that this band or that singer sucked, we suddenly had a massive output of crap that, while it was just as bad as what preceded Beavis and Butt-head, now had no champions calling out crappy music for what it was. Before Beavis we had New Kids On The Block and Vanilla Ice. After Beavis we had Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, Britney Spears, and Ashlee Simpson.
We also saw MTV completely turn its back on music videos and become a reality show channel. In fact, during the 2000s the whole nation dumbed down. We even had a president who was by all accounts just as stupid as Beavis and Butt-head.
I watched the premiere of the new Beavis and Butt-head movie on October 27; it was like they had never left. The animation hasn’t improved that much, and the voices haven’t changed a bit. The plots are still simple, yet there is still something oddly clever about them.
By being as dumb as they are, Beavis and Butt-head tend to cut through the crap and say how it is—which is the troubling part. Now they provide commentary for Jersey Shore, a show that I’ve never watched but about which I now know a bit more thanks to Beavis and Butt-head.
These two actually come off as more intelligent and clever than the cast of Jersey Shore, which makes me think that over the past two decades we have become a much less intelligent society.
I can only hope that kids discovering Beavis and Butt-head for the first time will be elevated to a higher comprehension level about the world around them. To me the simple stupidity of Beavis and Butt-head is much better than the gaudy and moronic world of Jersey Shore. It’s probably because Mike Judge is a smart guy who is playing a part. Snookie and her pals are the same idiots when the cameras aren’t rolling.
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