Beavis and Butt-Head Score In The Age of The Internet

MTV Entertainment Studios, Titmouse, inc.

I remember growing up during MTV's golden era. I can recount the times I've gone over to my aunt's house and Headbanger's Ball would be on, or my mom would be religiously watching The Osbournes. Even as I reached middle school, MTV's programming still centered around music videos - I would get up before my alarm and watch Headbanger's Ball before school, and race home to watch Total Request Live (rest in peace).

If there was one show on MTV that I was forbidden to watch at the time, it was Beavis and Butt-Head. Released on March 8, 1993, I would make my premiere 35 days later (really aging myself here, yikes). Any time I was caught watching it, even if I was flipping through the channels...I would get an ear full about it. I can fondly remember the other kids in elementary school going "Fire! Hehe...Fire!" only to realize where they've gotten that from years later. Good call, mom.

When I reached the age where my mom was okay-ish with me and my brother watching shows like Family Guy or South Park, my attention immediately went to good ol' Beavis and Butt-Head. At the time, like...during the mid-2000s the only time I'd catch B+BH was on MTV2 during the wee hours of the morning. I loved it - the situations these two goons would get into cracked me up, and I loved their commentary on music videos from some of the hottest artists at the time. I'd like to credit Beavis and Butt-Head for my appreciation of pop culture, and for partly influencing my sense of humor.

For the past few weeks, I've been watching clips from the show nonstop on YouTube and rented Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. The algorithm was working in my favor when I landed on the clip of their reboot on Paramount+. Is it a coincidence that I started seeing Beavis and Butt-Head clips floating around YouTube weeks prior to this clip dropping? Maybe, and would deserve another hot take on YouTube's crazy algorithm that shows you the content it KNOWS you're gonna watch. Another time...

After watching the clip, I was stoked. Streaming on August 4th, I'm eager to see how the 90s staple will fare with a newer, younger audience. A great call on Mike Judge's part was to swap out music videos for TikToks. As much as I hate to say it, the age of music videos is dead, a monument to a bygone era. I mean, the only thing that airs on MTV anymore are nonstop reruns of Ridiculousness or Catfish. I'll digress and leave my gropes with MTV for another time.

Apart from the swap of interludes, Beavis and Butt-Head still manage to capture the appeal it had during the 90s, and I love that Judge is perhaps experimenting with the types of situations these boys get into (in the clip, Beavis is talking to a hallucination...perhaps alluding to more supernatural occurrences). Really, I can't wait to see what this series has in store and if it can remain relevant in the age of the internet. In the words of Beavis and Butt-Head, "This is gonna be cool."