A Non-review by Professor Popinjay
(1996)
I used to watch these two idiots. I used to impersonate these two idiots. One time a friend and I drove a guy nuts in a very long line to get on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland as we relentlessly quoted lines from the show. The guy turned around and asked “Alright, which one of you is Beavis and which one of you is butthead?”
We looked at him incredulously and acted like we didn’t know who he was talking about. We weren’t play-acting for this guy’s entertainment even though that’s exactly what we were doing. We were personifying what we thought youth at that time were expected to represent which just happened to be exactly like two idiots we saw on MTV named Beavis and Butthead. When millions of other idiots, just like my friend and I, saw Beavis and Butthead they did NOT say “we want to be just like them”, they said “These two idiots are us!”
The show always started with an announcement warning us that Beavis and Butthead are not role models, they’re not even human, they’re cartoons, and the things they do could get a person hurt, expelled, arrested, or even deported. In other words, don’t try this at home.
We’d then be presented with these two cartoon youths who would be putting fireworks into bowling ball finger holes or some other crazy irresponsible crap like that. I guess this is the stuff we weren’t supposed to do but shortly after B&B went off the air Jackass aired with Johnny Knoxville doing this kind of idiocy for real and then assaulting us with the worlds most irritating laugh.
It was only four short years before even most middle schoolers grew out of B&B, considering them funny but stupid and annoying to emulate. Then we just kind of forgot about them.
Do America came and went and didn’t really blow anyone’s skirt up. I recall some people talking about it but it just didn’t appeal to me anymore at that point.
Just recently my 13 year old discovered Beavis and Butthead. My first reaction was “Should I let them watch this?”
Then I thought back to when I was 13. My parents didn’t want me watching these guys. I suppose I can understand why in retrospect, but their reaction to it was based on scathing denouncements they read in the newspaper or saw on the news; often defamatory pieces blaming B&B for one societal atrocity or another. I always found such claims ridiculous but no adult in my life would hear it from me.
The things these cartoons did were no worse than things I’d seen on Tom & Jerry. Granted, much of B&B was imitatable by impressionable youngsters but this was on MTV late at night with multiple disclaimers and warnings. And as far as sex related content went, these two weren’t getting any. Maybe that’s why we related to them so well.
So I decided it was far better to watch Beavis & Butthead Do America with my kid than have them sneak and watch it without me. At least this way I could actually BE the Parental Guidance suggested by the PG-13 Rating.
Funny thing was, beyond laughing at these stupid guys, I didn’t feel much “guidance” was necessary. Yeah, the plot was implausible and went nowhere but that’s about as much as I’d expect. Frankly, I found it hilarious.
It starts with a 70’s Shaft-like cop show intro with music by Isaac Hayes. In fact the movie’s whole album is great sans the ska elements. Engelbert Humperdinck even sings Lesbian Seagull.
Listen to it here!
Bruce Willis and Demi Moore lend their voices to Muddy and Dallas Grimes who are all the funnier when you know it’s them playing these parts. They’re clearly having fun.
I could not believe Robert Stack was involved with this film. If Beavis and Butthead ever needed a straight man (comedically speaking) Stack is their exact antithesis. I sincerely believe Stack has never once told a joke in his life. Now here he was ordering mandatory cavity searches for every Tom, Dick, and Harry who crossed his path.
Why is it called a cavity search? It has nothing to do with dentistry. Please don’t answer that.
If you’ve always had a chip on your shoulder about Beavis and Butthead, I recommend watching this. I’m certain you’ll conclude that a lot of energy was wasted condemning them, when all the while we have each had at various times more than a brief window of foolishness in our lives just like Beavis and Butthead epitomize. And if not, you’re probably Robert Stack.
Poster art!!!
Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity 
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