Beavis and Butt-Head as Social Commentary: Why It Still Matters
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been watching (and re-watching a few times) some Beavis and Butt-Head VHS tapes I bought last year, which got me thinking about our current world and their place in it. As it turns out, a lot has changed during the lifespan of these cartoon miscreants we love to hate, but their relevance remains unchanged.
Beavis and Butt-Head has grown into a franchise in its own right from humble beginnings as a series of Liquid Television shorts airing on MTV in the early 90s, with merchandise, two full length feature films, and most recently the 2022 reboot of the series streaming on Paramount+. But to understand its continued popularity, we should dig deeper into the social psychology that has made the characters relatable for so many years.
I’m sure we’ve all encountered that one person in our day to day life that makes us want to facepalm and shake our heads amid stifled tears for the intellectual decline of our society. Those individuals whose obsession with “the flavor of the month,” preoccupation with juvenile pranks and bodily functions, and total disregard for any form of edification and intellectual thought make us wonder (and worry!) about where we are headed, but they hold a sort of fascination, and this is where we ought to place our focus in investigating this mystifying phenomenon.
The above video, taken from 2007’s Miss Teen USA pageant, perfectly illustrates that Beavis and Butt-Head are not just “stupid cartoon people made up by this Texas guy who we hardly even know.” (To quote one of the opening disclaimers.) They are very real in the sense that they represent the real intellectual dangers in our world today.
But why does this matter?
You may be asking what this has to do with today’s world, and my short answer is: everything!
The most frightening way that this has manifested is in the current political landscape, where we have actual elected officials who, like Beavis and Butt-Head, appear not to have any capacity for serious thought about world problems—which are inherently serious problems!
And why do these people get elected? Because there’s a Beavis and Butt-Head lurking at every polling place in the country. If that doesn’t scare the pants off of you, I don’t know what does!
This phenomenon doesn’t just affect the political landscape, but it has also had a lasting impact on the broader social landscape. There have always been those people who casually break laws and do other foolish things that can cause real harm both to themselves and to others, and even in the early days of Beavis and Butt-Head, there was an opening disclaimer addressing this, which I’ll quote below:
“Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models.
They’re not even human.
They’re cartoons.
Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported.
To put it another way: don’t try this at home.” (Source: Beavis and Butt-Head Disclaimer)
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What’s alarming today, however, is that, with the advent of TikTok, there have been many dangerous “challenges” that would appear to be a reverse disclaimer: “Look at what I’m doing! It’ll ruin your life, and it might even kill you, but I’m an influencer, and if I say it’s cool, you have to do it!”
And these are just a couple examples of why we need Beavis and Butt-Head in our lives now more than ever. As Mike Judge so aptly put it in the above quotation, they are not role models! And anyone who seeks to emulate such behavior is clearly part of the bigger problem.
Beavis and Butt-Head have held up a mirror to the dangerous antics of the real life miscreants, and this mirror will not and should not go away! It should keep sticking in our faces as an example of who not to be if we value our world and if we have even an ounce of self respect.
So, as the disclaimer says: don’t try this at home.