Watching Beavis and Butt-Head works on two distinct levels. Firstly, it’s a display
of two imbeciles who spend their time making dick jokes, trying
desperately to get laid and absorbing pop culture –
and on that level, it’s quite amusing. But spending
roughly four hours with The Mike Judge Collection
-Volume 2 easily gives way to a dark center much
more edgy than a few farts, and that’s the theme of
neglect. In their own little world, neglect made Beavis and
Butt-Head who they are, and neglect allows them to continue
to exist.
 While
Beavis and Butt-Head are certainly nitwits of the highest
degree, adults, for the most part, come off even worse. Beavis
and Butt-Head show at the very least a fraction of curiosity
for their surroundings along with a surprising amount of perception
at times (usually displayed in their music video commentaries
– check out that Korn video in the previous collection
for Beavis’ eye-opening diatribe that manages to be
very accurate and also name-checks Laurie Anderson for Chrissakes),
but every adult stays in a bubble of their own willful ignorance.
Every single aspect of the two, from their conversations to
their nervous tics to their trademark laugh, should have red
flags popping up in any adult’s brain, but they choose
to ignore these problems – that would require effort
on their part.
Of course, the concept of subtext rarely enters the minds
of children and young adults (and their parents), which resulted
in a couple of kids setting themselves on fire, thus ruining
all the fun. I guess that’s what you get for taking
social satire at face value: burnt, crispy children.
 But
unless you’re particularly hungry, who cares about mutilated
children? What’s most important is the content of this
set: Beavis and Butt-Head -The Mike Judge Collection
– Volume 2 contains 40 cartoons, hand-picked
by creator Mike Judge and spread across two discs. As one
should guess by now, considering the royalties would be astronomical,
these shorts are presented without music videos, which reveal
a few shortcomings of the series itself – they’re
rather inconsequential, really. Chalk it up to the design
of the show. With continuous, even maddening fade-ins-and-outs,
each clip can basically be summed up in two sentences, three
max. For example:
In Bad Dog, Beavis and Butt-Head notice an angry
dog on television and decide to adopt their own angry dog
in hopes of impending chaos. Beavis and Butt-Head adopt said
dog, which then bites them and runs away.
In Pregnant Pause, Beavis thinks he is pregnant.
Surprise! He just had to poo.
In Vidiots, Beavis and Butt-Head visit a video dating
company, give false names and forget these alternate identities
when the ladies start knocking on the door.
You can’t expect much out of what boils down to five-minute
sketches, but there are moments of surprise, mainly dealing
with the obvious frustration creator Mike Judge was feeling
when parental groups and the media started keeping tabs on
the show (Lightning Strikes is an amusing attack
on the media’s quest for sensationalism). But there
are also some bits that come off like old-fashioned comedy
routines, brought up-to-date and re-written (Candy Sale veers into shtick that would easily slide into any Marx Brothers
film).
 One
might think that the brevity of the episodes was its saving
grace. It’s understandable to think that too much time
with these jerks would start to grate on the nerves, but that
idea was dashed away with the delightful 15-minute (roughly
three times longer than an average short) episode Bungholio:
Lord of the Harvest, and with the full-length film Beavis
and Butt-Head Do America. In a not-so-perfect world, Beavis and Butt-Head would be running on
Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, without the music
videos and a full 15 minutes to breathe. But that sure as
hell isn’t gonna happen.
While in the long run the episodes might feel a little slight
as opposed to the Earth-shattering comedic force it was once
thought to be, Volume 2 of The Mike Judge Collection presents some well-written gags, moments of brilliance and
a lot of jokes about genitalia.
Presentation
Matching the crudeness of
the series itself, Beavis and Butt-Head is
a little grainy, a bit ugly, and features the signature problems
of cheap, fast animation: nicks, scratches, smudges, spots,
smooshes, smeeches, sloshes, et cetera. It’s not a terrible
transfer, but it could have used some extra polishing. If
there’s one thing about the transfer that stands out,
it’s that the colors are certainly much better than
I remember. Hang around MTV for a while and you might catch
a washed-out episode, but here we’ve got some nice colors
that represent the drab palette of Beavis and Butt-Head’s
world.
As
for the sound, you get a very basic stereo track. Considering
most of the sound activity was from the music videos, which
have been left out, you get a very talky track that lacks
any sort of dynamic, but doesn’t feature any problems.
Extras
Considering many of these episodes
had already found their way onto DVD previously through Time
Life sets and such, you might ask yourself if there’s
really any reason to pick up yet another Beavis and
Butt-Head set. While I cannot comment on the quality
of previous releases, I must say that an entire disc full
of extras is a pretty convincing argument for a purchase.
 Possibly
the crowning jewel of the set, 13 music videos complete
with B’n’B commentary are first up. Not only do
they present quality comedy that often overshadowed the show
itself, it’s also a delightful early-to-mid-‘90s
time machine. You’ll find some moments of greatness.
Marvel at Thom Yorke’s stone-face in Radiohead’s
“Fake Plastic Trees!” Enjoy the hell out of The
Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video, and if you
didn’t catch it the first time through, you totally
missed out on Helium’s “Pat’s Trick;”
it ain’t the best video in the lot, but Mary Timony
could beat the shit out of any ‘90s girlie rocker. Not
all of them can be winners. In fact, some of these videos
are outright embarrassments. In fact, the guys actually manage
to turn off their television when faced with Compulsion
(P.S.: Compulsion who?).
Continuing where the first volume left off,
we get Taint Of Greatness: The Journey of Beavis And Butt-Head,
Part 2, which covers Mike Judge’s music video riffing
(mostly improvised on the spot), and even pulls out a few
musicians (Snoop Dogg and Gwar) to reflect on how the show
effected them. If it feels a little incomplete don’t
worry - Taint Of Greatness 3 should be attached with
the release of the next DVD.
Under Special Appearances we get
a collection of unrelated clips. Three Butt-Bowl clips span years ’94 to ’96 and seems to be produced
as halftime breaks for the Superbowl… I guess? I don’t
watch football. So without any explanation, I’m a bit
lost. Also, apparently I’m not a man.
Produced
in celebration of MTV’s 20th anniversary (well…
Dur-hey), MTV’s 20th Anniversary Special features
a collection brief clips where Beavis and Butt-Head bitterly
comment about the station. It’s surprising that these
were ever produced considering the duo throw out comments
like “20 years? We’ve wasted our lives,”
and “They never liked us, they were ashamed of us!”
Short, but brilliant(ly mean).
Anyone who remembers those slightly creepy
live-action commercials for Calvin Klein (Were they directed
by Larry Clarke? I wouldn’t be surprised if they were)
should get a kick out of the Parody Ads, and living
cartoon Snoop Dogg makes another appearance in a collection
of Moron-A-Thon Clips.
 The
last bit under Special Appearances, is an unaired
clip from VH1’s I Love the ‘90s. Does
anyone care about this stuff anymore? Did anyone care about
this stuff to begin with?
Getting back to the main menu, there’s
a collection of premiere Promos, a few pointless Montages, Previews for the
previous Beavis and Butt-Head collection along with a
preview for Volume 3 (plus previews for Wonder
Showzen, The
Andy Milonakis Show and Chico
and Guapo), and finally a plug for Mike Judge and
Don Hertzfeld’s The Animation Show,
complete with trailers.
The
Bottom Line
It seems a bit far-fetched, but Beavis and Butt-Head is a multi-layered package. It manages to present dumb teenage
antics in order to please dumb teenagers while simultaneously
pointing at and mocking them. But then again, satire always
seems to end up in the hands of people who don’t understand
it – that was certainly the case when I watched it on
its initial run. It’s dark, it’s scathing, it
has jokes about boobs. I like it a lot.
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