Beavis and Butthead Do America (1996)

Okay, here us out on this one!

Beavis and Butthead Do America is a genuine blast to watch. It’s silly and irreverent in all the ways you hope it would be.

While it’s not the searing indictment of American consumerism that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is. It’s a deeply GenX middle finger to “the establishment”. Although I’m pretty sure neither Beavis nor Butthead could tell you who was Vice President at the time (to be clear it was Al Gore).

While you may not respect the great Cornholio, you must respect his creator, Mike Judge.

Judge is by far one of the best voices working in comedy right now. boasting an incredible resume that includes creating King of the Hill and Silicon Valley, directing Office Space and the criminally underrated Idiocracy (which we will cover one day!).

Also his unforgettable role as Donnagon Giggles in Spy Kids 3D: Game Over.

All jokes aside, Judge may be the king of focusing on the absolute worst our day-to-day lives have to offer.

The soul-crushing cubicle job many of us are stuck in, the horribly mundane suburbs, and the cesspool that is Silicon Valley. He mocks them enough that we are comforted to not blow our brains out for another day.

This scene feels so antithetical to the visual style Judge had established over the show’s three years on television. For a long time, Judge tried to give the show a flat aesthetic, always showing every location from the same angle.

He said he did it because it’s how Charles Schultz did it with The Peanuts (seriously, that’s his reason).

So why does this scene exist and why does it look the way it does? Well when Judge was working on its production, MTV wanted him to add more music videos because that was a large part of the show. This was his way of compromising.

As for the look, all the imagery was based on drawings by director, musician, and real-life Rasputin ‘Rob Zombie’.

Who was already providing an original song for the film and donated his sketches for inspiration.

When Beavis starts speaking in tongues, that’s actually just dialogue played in reverse. He’s actually saying:

“I suggest everybody goes to college and study hard.”

Guess Tomorrow’s Film