Friday, July 31, 2020

"Beavis & Butthead's Favorite Videos 2016-2020," Plus "Bill & Ted 3" Update


This post includes an update from our March 2018 list imagining Beavis & Butthead's Favorite Videos 1995-2018.

But first...

Bill & Ted 3 Comes To Streaming In September

We recently saw Freaked (1993) for the first time. It's the only non-Bill & Ted movie to star both Alex and Keanu, and its absurdity helped us understand how good they are at writing wildly bizarre comedy. It's honestly one of the best movies we've ever seen, and it sparked our nostalgia for early '90s Nickelodeon-style gross-out humor.

It also strongly built our anticipation for Bill and Ted Face The Music despite our boredom with excessive reboots and unnecessary sequels. Due on streaming services in September, the third and likely final installment of the Bill & Ted trilogy experienced a decade of drafts and rewrites before Alex and Keanu agreed on its current version.

Spoiler headlines on our Google news feed reports that Bill & Ted 3 feature our heroes as dads, updating the universe to include their immediate families.

New Beavis Series and Spin-offs Coming Soon

Elsewhere on our Google news feed, we saw about 20 headlines that really wanted us to know about the "reimagined" Beavis and Butthead reboot due to premiere in 2021.

We think it's entirely possible that Mike Judge received a screener of Bill and Ted Face The Music, thus encouraging him to finally update B&B's universe to the present day -- with children of their own.

In the mid 2000s, Mike had stated in interviews that he could only imagine B&B as either teenagers or senior citizens. We agree with this entirely; a reimagining of Beavis and Butthead as boneheaded, marginally responsible 40-something dads is probably not the best move for universe expansion. And yet, the internet buzz suggests the show might move forward with this decision.

Viacom is reviving Beavis and Butthead, and it's possibly going to suck. Why are we not surprised?

On a positive note, this means Beavis finally scored.

They're also moving the new series from MTV to Comedy Central. A great idea in theory, the move would ensure more substantial viewership numbers, since literally no one cares about MTV anymore. (It would likely stream on Hulu in either case.) Over the past 15 years, Viacom blew every last opportunity to properly revive MTV's brand and expand their audience. But it's become painfully obvious that no one who currently works at Viacom gives one single fuck about fans of MTV or its current state.

Reports indicate the channel aired a record 113 weekly hours of Ridiculousness earlier this summer. That's about two-thirds of the hours in an entire week. The same reports indicate MTV might finally get renamed and/or repurposed within the next 2-3 years. If it weren't for the VMAs, would MTV even exist anymore?

Do America is a obvious classic, and another 90 minute B&B adventure would be hugely welcomed by fans. However, their TV adventures really shouldn't exceed 5 minutes of content, or else the writers risk placing B&B in higher concept stories where their IQs might require an upgrade. The broken lighter in Beavis's thought bubble might actually ignite for once. This would be bad!

B&B Needs Videos

Similar to the setting of both Bill & Ted and Wayne's World, heavy metal and music discussion were central to the success of B&B's initial run. Sadly, a much smaller selection of videos made the cut for their 2011 season. We anticipate the show's move to Comedy Central all but ensures the "reimagined" update will distance the show from music even further.

We've read countless arguments in favor of removing music videos from the show, and they all suck:

"MTV airs shows, not videos."

Why does that matter? The original run included a few hundred videos that MTV rarely aired or hadn't aired in over a decade. The video selection was never faithful to their own channel's programming until the 2011 season.

"MTV doesn't play music anymore."

Yeah, no shit, but today there are seven other Viacom channels that DO focus on music videos. Either way, Beavis and Butthead's universe is consistently brainless, low concept, and juvenile. Why does it need to be "updated" to exclude references to music or heavy metal? The boundaries of Highland, Texas exist entirely in Mike Judge's mind; if he really wanted to, he could "reimagine" a world where B&B are still couch potatoes, still watching bad TV, still laughing at shitty videos. There's no tangible reason to throw that away besides Viacom's suggestion that removing music would be a fiscally responsible decision.

"The world of music doesn't need their negativity."

Not true. As stated in our earlier post, "Any musician should consider it an honor to have them say their band sucks."

If Beavis and Butthead can't headbang at a Fury or Slipknot video or yell "THIS SUCKS" at a Shinedown or Train video, then maybe the show should not return at all. If there's literally zero opportunity for cross-branding and music exposure, perhaps they're wasting their time. The world of infinite 7.8's desperately needs some unchecked critique without a comments section. B&B might be the best possible way to encourage this.

"We now live in a world where everyone has a voice thanks to Twitter and Youtube comments."

Correct, and in case you haven't noticed, both Twitter and Youtube comments are cesspools of noise, ignorance, and garbage opinions. If anything, the current state of social media only increases the potential value of B&B's return to unchecked video critique.

"The value of promo videos is not what it once was. Modern music videos aren't worth promoting. People didn't watch Beavis and Butthead for music exposure."

Entirely wrong. Right now, the world of promo clips is ripe as fuck for something like a Beavis and Butthead reboot.

"@Catatonicyouths already fills the lmao-metal void."

If anything, the success of @catatonicyouths only further proves how potentially huge this could be.

On that note, we decided to update our hypothetical "B&B's Favorite Videos" canon, which will sadly never be seen by anyone with the authority to make a creative executive decision. But hey, we tried.

Beavis and Butthead's Favorite Videos 2016-2020

"So we wrote up a fanfic list starting with September 1995. They might have loved hating some of these. They might have genuinely enjoyed some of them. They might have simply reacting by smacking each other upside the head."

We updated the original post with these videos. They vary in quality, but we think they're all worthy of discussion. (And they have all appeared on our MTVZ playlists at some point.)

2016
Maren Morris "80s Mercedes"
Melkbelly "Elk Mountain"
Joey Purp f/ Chance The Rapper "Girls @"
Weezer "King of the World"
DNCE "Cake By The Ocean"
Radiohead "Burn The Witch"
Teen Suicide "Violets"
Bishop Bullwinkle "Hell To The Naw"

2017
Pissed Jeans "The Bar Is Low"
Run The Jewels "Love Again"
Young Thug "Wyclef Jean"
Lil Yachty "Bring It Back"
Cloakroom "The Sun Won't Let Us Go"
Alex G "Bobby"
New Found Glory "The Sound Of Two Voices"
Charli XCX "Boys"
Uncl Rodg "Rollin' in the Hay"

2018
Bruno Mars f/ Cardi B "Finesse"
Wrong "Zero Cool"
The Chats "Smoko"
Fozzy "Judas"
Hunt The Dinosuar "Destructo"
Sheck Wes "Mo Bamba"
Valee "Womp Womp"
Flasher "Material"
Pig Destroyer "Mt Skull"
Kanye West & Lil Pump "I Love It"
Broods "Peach"
2 Chainz "Proud"
Mason Ramsey "Famous"
Andrew WK "Music Is Worth Living For"
Tenement "Garden Of Secrecy"
Turnstile "I Don't Wanna Be Blind"
Greta Van Fleet "Highway Tune"
Sting & Shaggy "Gotta Get Back My Baby"
Little Big "Skibidi"

2019
100 Gecs "Money Machine"
Realworld "Green Room"
DaBaby "Babysitter"
Steve Lacy "Playground"
Rich Dunk "High School"
Billy V "Real Tune Is Life"
DaBaby "Suge"
2 Chainz "2 Dollar Bill"
Danny Brown "Dirty Laundry"
The Chats "Identity Theft"
Fury "Angels Over Berlin"
Sedona "More Love"
Devil Master "Black Flame Candle"
Rammstein "Sex"

2020
645AR "4 Da Trap"
Thundercat "Dragonball Durag"
RMR "Rascal"
Bad Bunny "Si Veo a Tu Mama"
Puddle Of Mudd "About A Girl"
Soccer Mommy "Circle The Drain"
Lil Mosey "Blueberry Faygo"
Protomartyr "Processed By The Boys"
Disclosure "My High"
Mimi Barks "The Dark"
Oneohtrix Point Never "Lost But Never Alone"
Lil Yachty "Oprah's Bank Account"

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