by Christopher Jou ’12

The MTV television show "Beavis and Butt-Head".

What is “Beavis and Butt-Head” doing back after 15 years of being off the air? I’m not sure why either, but let’s see why it doesn’t really need to be back. For those of you who are unaware of what “Beavis and Butt-Head” is, it was a show in the 90s featuring delinquent metal–heads, Beavis and Butt-Head, on their nonsensical adventures through their town and crude insights in front of the television. Created by Mike Judge, famous for “King of the Hill” and “Idiocracy”, the show emphasized the banality of MTV’s programming while being banal itself. But how could this show possibly work in this modern age? Sure, MTV, as always, has plenty of reality television to make fun of, such as “Jersey Shore” and “16 and Pregnant,” but the reason we enjoy the shows is because we can easily see the banality of the content ourselves.  We don’t need a show to point it out to us.

Additionally, the show feels like an anachronism in this day and age with the town of Highland showing no trace of cell phones, hi-definitions televisions and or the internet. Having these would have opened up many more avenues to explore and comment on, but for whatever reason, it was wrongly ignored. “Beavis and Butt-Head” will probably do well with those who want to reminisce, but for the Z generation, which has no real interest in how people of the 80s lived; the point of the show will be entirely lost on them. For the snarkier generation that has arisen from the Z generation, perhaps a reboot of Daria would be more apt.