Feeling old? Me too! Guess who isn’t? Television’s Mike Judge. He’s so hard up for money that he’s decided to reprise his roles as teenage scumbags, Beavis and Butthead.
No this isn’t an article from a decade ago, this is new! The previous reboot was canceled after the youth asked “who is this for?”
Thanks to streaming the rules have changed
Now we’re living in a brand new post COVID-19 world where crotchety old fucks like to think about being young so now they’ve rebooted it yet again, on a youth network but for old people.
This is not your Obama era reboot where people are cynical, nope, people are hopeless and dejected looking for any semblance of hope to tide them over til the next boring chapter of their empty lives.
They’re in luck because Mike Judge and MTV has you covered.
Let me tell you about some things I saw
The first episode takes place in an escape room, aren’t escape rooms funny!? It’s the new sitcom trope and everyone has to do it.
Beavis and Butthead are still rocking their AC/DC and Metallica shirts except instead of watching music videos making fun of rock stars, they’re now making fun of YouTube videos.
They’re essentially mocking us for not being lucky enough to have a hit show in the 90s that we could rest on our laurels and ride into our elderly age.
All the same
It’s nothing you haven’t seen before as every episode is the same since the 1990s except this lacks the authenticity of the 90s. Why? Since we know Mike Judge has gone on to make millions and he’s more Hollywood than ever.
A bloated, and disjointed series that again screams “who is this for?”
If you actually grew up with the show you probably got sick of it the day you turned 18 and your dad made you get a real job.
It’s not that I hate Mike Judge or even the characters but it left me with a bad aftertaste. The whole thing feels like a desperate cash grab when I don’t understand the logistics behind it.
Did inflation hit you right in your authenticity?
“The 90s called and they want their show back” – David Spade
The last teenager of the 1990s is closer to 40 than 14, and so if I hear any of you fuckers doing a Beavis or Butthead impression at the water cooler here in the office you’re getting a cane right to your face. I don’t care what HR says, I’m the pimp daddy of this here office and you will respect my culture.
The second episode veers back into the forbidden zone. Beavis is now obsessed with fire once again, speaking to him like the orb from Heavy Metal.
For those of you who were sperm inside your dad’s nuts back then the show got into trouble. What did they get in trouble for? Well for Beavis’ obsession with fire after real life arson was committed, and the media were pinned the issue on the fledgling show. This helped its notoriety and here we are so many years later and it’s like it never happened.
The fire is his god now, so naturally it asks him to run around the track 4 times for good exercise. Hah, get it, an idiot who is obsessed with fire doing something good for him! The fire speaks to him! Get it!? HE’S CRAZY! FIRE GOOD!
Oh and they review a country music video, back to the roots right?!
It’s so easy to hate country music now that every hack comedian has a bit about it and every milquetoast call center employee has their own rehearsed opinion how they don’t like pop country but they like the classics. Thanks Grand Theft Auto for forcing these weirdos to listen to classic hits while they murder prostitutes.
Done dirt cheap
The show’s animation looks cheap, and the lip syncing looked off every episode I watched. Not sure if this was a mess up or one of the many benefits of streaming.
The whole show comes off as way too cheap for Viacom owned MTV and net worth in the millions, Mike Judge. When he was up and coming and the network was up and coming it all made sense.
Today this aesthetic choice seems like buying pre-torn jeans and trying to fit in with the working class down at the tavern where dreams go to die.
It’s pandering worse than the worst country song you can go huhuhuhuhuhu heheheheh euhuhuhuhu ehehehehe to.
Why reboot it at all?
The show’s reboot is a reminder of everyone missing the point of the two miscreant idiots misunderstanding the world around them. I look forward to morons who never grew up trying to emulate them once again, we all know frog baseball was in vogue much like arson.
Back then the show felt dangerous, it felt like a renegade against censorship, and today it feels like more remember-when nostalgia to hammer you into buying cheap beer and cell phone plans at the behest of MTV’s advertisers.
The writing suffers from the humor dying a slow death by committee and is shackled to its past as much as it tries to rekindle it, this is not a good thing.
The third episode hits and it’s revealed these two guys are still in high school. Yes, still rocking the same band shirts and doing the same shit you were tired of decades ago. Yet they are not aged, nor did they update their band shirts to more current bands.
They should be old now like us but instead we’re dragged back to high school hi-jinks because silly nostalgia rabbit, MTV is for kids.
Again who is this for?
Oh they’re going after ASMR, yet another sitcom trope.
Those zany losers! Not ASMR fellas! It’s as annoying as it sounds and much like every ASMR video ever, it goes on for too fucking long.
It’s not good
I wanted to like this show but it confirmed my fears. We’re being played by our former role model, Mike Judge.
All I wanted was for Hank Hill to tell me the world was going to be OK but instead we get this meandering shit? If I see you around town I’m going to glare at you Mr. Judge.
These glares will translate into you wanting make a better creative product. You will fire all your yes men and the world will return back to the 90s. All the wrinkles and grey hairs on my fat face will go away and my mom and dad will love me again!
Did they pay anyone for these YouTube videos they’ve made an integral part of their show?
Or is it a case of a media conglomerate paying non-union workers in exposure and free t-shirts?
Either way this show isn’t going to bring me any more joy than the original did when I was a teenager laughing at their stupid antics.
Today their whole ‘three stooges but huffing glue’ shtick doesn’t do enough to parody real life morons. It is not an escape from the real world it’s a revealing view from an ivory tower looking down on anyone who has to use YouTube and is not represented via a media corporation.
The concept is older and more tired than its original fan-base
The fourth episode they are beekeepers which goes exactly as it sounds. This is where I stopped watching. I can’t do it. I really can’t. The episode starts with them breaking bottles which is a strange hobby for men who are in their late 40s but I guess they are still in high school somehow.
All high schoolers in 2022 love AC/DC and Metallica.
Oh they happen to run into David Van Driessen, the hippie teacher who educates them about beekeeping. The price of artisan beekeeping piques their greed and they decide to become beekeepers to make “a bunch of dumb bugs do all the work” which sounds like a plot from The Simpsons.
Tom Anderson warns them about the wasp nest on his garage and hilarity ensues as they get stung! Get it! WASPS DON’T MAKE HONEY AND HAVE STINGERS!!! COMEDY GENIUS.
They keep it real by watching a BTS Korean music video and huhuhu eheheheh through the whole thing, you know the drill.
“This kicks ass but it sucks” Beavis says of the music video, trying to hide his love of Korean music videos. No, it just sucks and so does this show.
I judge ye!
It’s sad to see Mike Judge fall so far and be so greedy.
Overall I’d say the show’s reboot is a better attempt than the last one but falls flat as it lands in “how do you do fellow kids” territory on a youth network in a show marketed towards aging Gen-X and millennials to try to get one of these newfangled generations into tired old characters you and I were sick of before Seinfeld ended.
Fan service or disservice? You be the judge.
