Beavis and Butt-Head Is Back! What's New? What's Old?
Ready for more Beavis and Butt-Head? MTV hopes so, as the cable network is re-launching the animated series from Mike Judge nearly two decades after its original debut. But will the show, which thrived in the '90s — when the M in MTV still stood for music — work today? Judge and MTV President Van Toffler, a self-described B and B fanatic, think so. Here's how they plan to bring the chuckling chuckleheads into the 21st century.
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WHAT'S NEW?
The 1990s Beavis and Butt-Head, of course, relied heavily on the dumbass pair mocking MTV's slate of music videos — the relative dearth of which these days posed an interesting problem for Judge. As a result, in the new version, B. and B. will make fun of other MTV programming, a solution that Toffler finds apropos. "I think MTV has been self-deprecating since its inception," he told reporters at this year's fall TV previews. But won't Judge feel weird about biting the hand that feeds him? "I don't think so," he says. "I mean, look at what they have on!"
First up, the natural fit: Jersey Shore, a show on which Judge says he's hooked. "It really clicked [as a source of comedy]; it was just pay dirt," he says. They'll also target the cast of 16 & Pregnant, UFC fights and popular viral videos from YouTube.
Beavis and Butt-Head to return to MTV
In the premiere episode (Thursday at 10/9c on MTV), the pair sees Twilight and they decide to "get chicks" by becoming supernatural creatures themselves. So they ask a homeless guy with hepatitis (who they think is a werewolf) to bite them. So yes, the critical-thinking skills are intact. The show also still thrives on simplicity. In another short, Beavis smells an onion from his chili dog while watching a tear-jerking scene from The Bachelor. Butt-Head notices Beavis' onion-fueled tears, thinks he has been moved by the romance reality show and ridicules him for days.
But the best jokes are the duo's impromptu voice-overs for Snooki and being total horndogs. While watching a music video for a dance track that consists of nothing but girls operating power tools, Butt-Head muses: "They're erecting a structure... in my pants." Comedy gold.
WHAT'S OLD?
Fans of the original series, fear not: Beavis and Butt-Head are the same emotionally stunted man-children you remember from their 1993-1997 run on MTV. In fact, it'll mostly seem like no time has passed at all. "I didn't want to do a big, conscious forcing of modern stuff on them, only when it makes sense," Judge says.
Heh-heh. That's cool.
Beavis and Butt-Head airs Thursdays at 10/9c. Will you tune in?
