Cartoon Corner- Mike Judge's Beavis and Butthead (Volume 4/Season 8)

Originally posted at the DL June 2015

hehheh hehheh



So this is the entirety of the 2011 revival.  I also considered calling this entry 'Beavis and Butthead Open Bracket 2011 Close Bracket', but that'd be a reference I'm not entirely sure anyone present would get.

So, extended joke about all the really dumb shit Beavis and Butthead have done over the years aside, this is our first entry where continuity is optional.  And consequently the hardest one to say anything substantive about.

My main memories of the braindead duo are of the movie, and setting that aside what I remember of the show's original run finding individual episodes funny but being annoyed at the music video segments breaking up the flow.  The biggest change to the show for the revival was having most of the intermissions be for MTV's reality programs of the day (Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, etc), which is probably the most effective part of this season on the whole.  While the dorks gain about 30 IQ points for these parts which is weird, it's otherwise fairly consistent about having a good zinger or two.  Could just be I didn't know enough about music during original run to appreciate the bits back then.

The trouble the show has though is that while the intermissions are generally good, they still play holy havoc with the episodes.  A lot of times there's not even enough episode remaining to actually properly set up a punchline because you have to spend the whole run-time just showing stuff happening to get to the end at all.  So in the end most of the good stuff is actually visual gags, which there's plenty of opportunity for at least.

I'd prefer to rate the episodes as what constituted a broadcast episode (so episodes that are two 10 minute shorts would go together), since some other shows with splits like that will be easier to handle that way, but well... without interval parts connecting them or the like I"m having trouble actually remembering both halves of the episodes that stood out to me, so I'm going to break them up.  It's simpler.

Best Episode- The Rat.  The entire middle segment of the Rat where they fail to set a rat trap is great.  But I actually really love the rat puppy-dogging after them afterward.  Something about the genuine affection they show for the thing really works for me, even though the ultimate punchline is just kinda there.

Weakest Episode- Bathroom Break.  Hits too close to home.

Rating- 5/10.  It's popcorn.  I mean, aside from The Rat and the two extended episodes, I'm having trouble what the actual gags were in any of the episodes, and I watch most of them yesterday.  I also distinctly remember declaring a lot of them kinda eh, even though I'm not sure which ones were and which ones had some good jokes I don't remember.  If I were cruising the channels looking for something to fill a dull half hour I'd certainly watch it ahead of a lot of other things, but the way I watch shows, binge watching video releases?  Yeah, doesn't hold up too great.