Beavis and Butt-Head Beavis Original Animation Production Art scarce 16 For Sale

Beavis and Butt-Head Cornholio Original Animation Production Art measuring approximately 10 1/4 x 12 1/4 in______________________
Beavis and Butt-Head is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge for MTV.[4] The series follows Beavis and Butt-Head, both voiced by Judge, a pair of teenage slackers characterized by their apathy, lack of intelligence, lowbrow humor and love for hard rock and heavy metal. The original series juxtaposes slice-of-life short subjects—in which the teens embark on low-minded misadventures in their fictional town of Highland, Texas—with the pair watching and commenting on music videos.Judge developed the pair when making his own animated shorts. Two of these films, including Frog Baseball, were broadcast by MTV\'s animation showcase Liquid Television. The network commissioned a full series, which over its seven seasons became its most popular program.[5][6] The original series ended in 1997, but has been twice rebooted, first in 2011 for MTV, and again in 2022 for Paramount+.[7][8] Starting in 2025, the second reboot was moved to Comedy Central.Comedy Central has renewed the series for a twelfth season.[2][3]During its initial run, Beavis and Butt-Head received acclaim for its satirical commentary on society, as well as criticism for its alleged influence on adolescents. The characters became pop culture icons among Generation X viewers, with their sniggering and dialogue becoming catchphrases.[9] The series was adapted into a theatrical film, the commercially successful Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), as well as a sequel, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022). The franchise also spawned a comic book series, video games, books, an album, and more.
Premise
See also: List of Beavis and Butt-Head charactersBeavis and Butt-Head are unintelligent teenage boys who live in the fictional town of Highland, Texas.[9] Rolling Stone described them as \"thunderously stupid and excruciatingly ugly\".[10] They spend time watching television, drinking unhealthy beverages, eating,[11] and embarking on \"mundane, sordid\" adventures, which often involve vandalism, abuse, violence, or animal cruelty.[10] According to The Baltimore Sun, Beavis and Butt-Head are \"at their most incorrect when it comes to sexuality and matters of gender. The nicest thing you can say about them in this regard is that they are budding misogynists.\"[11] When Beavis consumes high amounts of caffeine or sugar, he becomes Cornholio, a hyperactive alter ego.[12] Over the course of the series, they developed more distinct personalities. Beavis was more hyperactive and even less intelligent than his best friend, Butt-Head, who was often more relaxed and tended to be (comparatively speaking) the smarter half of the duo.[12]Most episodes integrate sequences where Beavis and Butt-Head watch music videos and offer commentary.[10] They prefer videos with \"explosions, loud guitars, screaming and death\", and favor rock bands such as the Butthole Surfers, Corrosion of Conformity, and Metallica.[10] The music video sections allow the characters to provide diegetic commentary on the contents of the video; Judge himself noted that these sections allow the characters to say \"things that are a little smarter than they ought to be\".[13] These segments have no script, with Judge improvising the dialog on the spot; editors would then cut together the animation mostly from existing footage.[14] Starting from the 2011 revival, the music video sections also featured excerpts from reality television shows, and from 2022 onwards, viral videos.Judge said he saw Beavis and Butt-Head as \"pretty positive characters, generally speaking ... They usually think everything\'s pretty cool. Or, in one way or another, everything sucks.\"[9] He said his perception of the characters changed over the years: \"When I first started out with the first show, which was Frog Baseball, they were just two guys that I would definitely want to keep my distance from ... But, by the end of the series, I would think that two guys like that would at least be fun to sit and watch TV with.\"[11] Judge composed the series\' theme song, which is descended from AC/DC\'s \"Gone Shootin\'\". He later claimed that the central guitar riff of the theme is that song played backwards.[15] The original theme was played by Judge using a drum machine; for the 2022 revival, the theme was recreated by Gary Clark Jr..[16]
Voice cast
See also: List of Beavis and Butt-Head characters Mike Judge as Beavis, Butt-Head, Principal McVicker, Coach Buzzcut, David Van Driessen, Tom Anderson, and others
Tracy Grandstaff as Daria Morgendorffer and Mrs. Stevenson
Kristofer Brown as various
Toby Huss as Todd and othersDevelopment
Mike Judge (pictured 2011) created Beavis and Butt-Head and voices most of the charactersBeavis and Butt-Head was created by the American animator Mike Judge. He graduated with a degree in physics but struggled to connect with his work in computer science. In the late 1980s, he began making short animated films on his own; he taught himself how to draw and animate and would shoot his projects with a cheap Bolex 16mm film camera. He made several shorts, including Frog Baseball, which marked the first appearances of the characters. Judge cold-called networks to pitch this concept, and would send out VHS tapes with prints of his films.[17] The voice of Beavis was based on a kid in his high school calculus class, who would always snicker in a distinct way at their attractive female teacher.[17]The art style of what became Beavis and Butt-Head was intentionally disruptive; Judge wanted it to look like \"it was drawn by an insane person.\" The comic strip Peanuts was an unlikely influence: Judge stated that Schulz\'s line work and sketchy sensibility worked its way into his as well.[17] He was also inspired by the work of John Kricfalusi, and fellow Texas animator Wes Archer and his film Jack Mack and Rad Boy Go![18] Aesthetically, Judge likened the program\'s best episodes to comfort food: \"I think there’s something kind of relaxing about it,\" he noted. He claimed the wacky comedy of The Beverly Hillbillies was an influence on the show.[19] Other elements of the setting are left up to the viewer\'s imagination: there is little said of the characters\' backstories, or their parents, and it\'s unclear whose house the characters are couch-surfing. This aspect of the show was also inspired by Peanuts, where the characters also seem to inhabit a liminal world without parents.[20]Originally it is not mentioned in which state they live, and Mike Judge imagined them living in a small town in New Mexico. But when a background artist, without Judge\'s knowledge, wrote Texas on cars’ license plates, he decided that they lived in Texas.[21] MTV bought Frog Baseball and two other films to air as part of its late-night animation showcase, Liquid Television, from which it commissioned the First seven seasons and first filmIn September 1992, MTV flew Judge to their New York headquarters to commission a full series of the concept. Executives initially approved 35 episodes; the show\'s seven-figure budget floored Judge, who had only made the films on his own for $800.[18] The original series aired from 1993 to 1997.[23][9] The show hired four staff writers, who would work up a treatment to present to Judge, who would then revise it to capture his artistic voice. One early writer, David Felton, found it best to write the characters from a primitive state of mind: \"You go to that place in your mind where thoughts begin and then just stay there.\"[24] The music video commentary was more-or-less improvised by Judge, who recorded them alongside an engineer in Austin.[18] Judge had also tried to have the duo comment on the network\'s other programs, like The Real World, but found that recording dialogue on top of dialogue too confusing for viewers.[20]After writing, the episodes were storyboarded and went to the layout phase of animation, before being transferred to cels and photographed. Judge estimated it could \"take anywhere from five months to a year before it\'s on the air.\"[18] To save time, the animators made a stock selection of different movements like head turns to simplify editing the program. Though earlier seasons were produced at MTV\'s midtown Manhattan campus,[25] Judge preferred to produce the show from his Austin home; in a Los Angeles Times piece from 1994, it observes: \"Judge makes occasional trips to New York to approve the music videos that will be used in the series and to take care of other business, but generally works by fax, FedEx and video conferencing from Austin.\"[22] Animation was also partially handled by studios in South Korea.[25]The show\'s first season was animated by J. J. Sedelmaier Productions, while the rest was handled by an in-house animation unit for MTV.[26] Initially, the show\'s animators condensed the show\'s art style down to the industry standard of limited animation, which Judge likened to a Saturday morning-type style. He was specific about the show looking intentionally off-kilter: \"there\'s something kind of interesting about seeing drawings animated that look like they were done by a 15-year-old in his notebook,\" he later said.[17] In describing the show\'s style, Elizabeth Kolbert from The New York Times wrote: \"They are drawn with purposeful crudeness and their motions have the jerky, seasick quality of marionettes.\"[25]Getting the show to a place to where Judge felt it was running smoothly was difficult. He was particularly embarrassed by the first five episodes of the show, with its crude animation style,[27] and was ready to end the show after the second season, when he felt like he was running out of ideas. He claimed he got a \"second wind\" in the series\' third season,[18] which is where he felt like it hit its stride, and he also felt particularly inspired during the series\' fifth season. The relentless pace in making the show was wearing him down, which is why he chose to end the series after its 1996 film adaption.[28]
2011: Eighth seasonJudge returned to the characters to develop an additional season of the program, which aired in 2011. John Altschuler, formerly a writer for King of the Hill, told a Rolling Stone reporter that he saw signs that Mike Judge was thinking of reviving Beavis and Butt-Head. On more than one occasion, Judge told the writers that one of their ideas for an episode of King of the Hill would work well for Beavis and Butt-Head; eventually he concluded, \"Maybe we should just actually make some good Beavis and Butt-Head episodes.\" Later, a Lady Gaga video convinced Van Toffler of the tenability of a Beavis and Butt-Head revival: \"I felt like there was a whole crop of new artists—and what the world sorely missed was the point of view that only Beavis and Butt-Head could bring.\"[29] As in the old series, Beavis and Butt-Head are high school students who, among other things, criticize contemporary music videos.[30] In updating the show for its millennial-era audience, the duo also watch episodes of Jersey Shore, Ultimate Fighting Championship matches, and amateur videos from YouTube.[29][31] Some characters like Daria Morgendorffer did not return. According to TMZ, MTV had not asked Tracy Grandstaff to reprise that role;[32] Judge confirmed that the character was limited to a cameo appearance.[20] As the animation business had switched to digital tools in the time between, this version utilized digital ink and paint, with each drawing simply scanned into a computer and colored.[20]The episodes debuted in the United States and Canada on October 27, 2011; further, its premiere was a ratings hit, with an audience of 3.3 million total viewers.[33] This number eventually dwindled to 900,000 by the season\'s end, mainly due to its challenging time slot pitted against regular prime time shows on other networks.[34] As part of a promotional campaign, cinemas screening Jackass 3D opened the feature film with a 3-D Beavis and Butt-Head short subject.[35] The revival encompassed 24 episodes (12 half-hour programs),[20] but only lasted one season. In a later interview, Judge confirmed \"Things didn’t quite click. There were a lot of problems on the animation side of things, trying to get it to look right. I don’t know if that played into it. But it actually did pretty well — the ratings were good. MTV just didn’t want to do anymore.\"[36] The network\'s demographic had also shifted to include more female viewers, complicating the show\'s appeal.[37] In an interview with Howard Stern in 2014, Judge mentioned that while the show\'s ratings were high, meeting this key demographic was a factor in its cancellation. He also said that MTV was close to selling it to another network, but it became \"lost in deal stuff\".[38]: 37m  Judge remained outwardly open to producing more shows, suggesting in 2014 that there was a chance of pitching Beavis and Butt-Head to another network.[39] Conflicting with the actual season number, MTV incorrectly refers to this season as \"Season 9\", even though it is technically the eighth season.[40] Later reruns of this iteration of the program were broadcast on MTV Classic in the mid-2010s.[41][42]
2022–present: Second film and revivalOver a decade after the last iteration of the series, the series was again revived, this time in the streaming era for Paramount+. The concept of relaunching the show a second time came from Judge, who created a concert intro for the band Portugal. The Man using the characters. He had not intended to return to the characters again, but found performing the voices fun. He entered discussions with Paramount Global, which was met with more \"enthusiasm\" than its previous MTV incarnation.[36] The show was originally set to debut on Comedy Central,[7] but was moved to help launch Paramount+. This revival also encompasses additional spin-offs and specials; a second feature film entitled Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe premiered on June 23, 2022, to kick-off the new series.[43] The ninth season followed on August 4, 2022, with its tenth season debuting on April 20, 2023.[44] In addition, in 2022 Paramount+ announced they were to host the full library of over 227 original episodes, newly remastered, with music videos intact for the first time. As of 2024, only some of these episodes have been hosted.[45][46][47]In the new series, Beavis and Butt-Head enter a \"whole new Gen Z world\" with meta-themes that are said to be relatable to both new fans, who may be unfamiliar with the original series, and old.[7][48] This iteration has several episodes that depict the characters settling into middle-age, which is a concept Judge had suggested might be amusing over the years. While promoting his film Extract in 2009, Judge noted: \"I wouldn\'t mind doing something with them as these two dirty old men sitting on the couch.\"[49] Season 9 continues the concept of the Beavis and Butt-Head multiverse initially explored in its film predecessor; Teenage Beavis and Butt-Head and Smart Beavis and Butt-Head all get their own dedicated episodes in the revival as well.[50]To promote the revival, Paramount+ attempted to break the world record for the largest serving of nachos at S. Alameda St in Los Angeles to celebrate the return of the show.[51][52][53] They were successful and were given a ceremonial plaque from the Guinness World Records representative which stated \"The largest serving of nachos was achieved by Mike Judge\'s Beavis and Butt-Head and Paramount+\".[54]On June 5, 2024, it was announced that the revival had been renewed for an eleventh season, which premiered on September 3, 2025.[55]
Live-action adaptationThe concept of taking the teens to the silver screen has been floated since the program was taken on the air. Paramount approached Judge at the start of the show\'s run to produce a live-action adaption; David Geffen reportedly wanted to cast unknown actors for the role, but Judge refused.[56] Judge has also suggested on more than one occasion directing a live-action adaption of the program. He revealed that Johnny Depp had once expressed interest in the role of Beavis, having imitated the character while Marlon Brando imitated Butt-Head during the production of Don Juan DeMarco (1995).[57] He initially disliked the idea of bringing the characters to the real world, but by 2008 had come to believe that \"maybe there\'s something there\";[57] around the same time, he also suggested that \"Seann William Scott\'s kinda got Butt-Head eyes.\"[58] A decade later, Judge told Radio Times \"maybe it could be a live-action someday\", then went on to speculate that Beavis might be homeless by now.[59] In developing the series\' second revival for Paramount+ in the 2020s, executives for the streamer had wanted a live-action Beavis and Butt-Head movie. Judge held auditions over Zoom for the project. He eventually talked the company into doing an animated movie instead to reestablish the characters first, with a future live-action movie still a possibility. Judge found it hard to replicate the characters\' onscreen stupidity: \"It was just sort of like watching teenagers imitate Beavis and Butt-Head.\"[36]
Episodes
Main article: List of Beavis and Butt-Head episodes
Season Episodes Originally released
First released Last released Network
Pilots 2 September 22, 1992 November 17, 1992 MTV (Liquid Television)
1 3 March 8, 1993 March 25, 1993 MTV
2 26 May 17, 1993 July 15, 1993
3 31 September 6, 1993 March 5, 1994
4 32 March 14, 1994 July 15, 1994
5 50 October 31, 1994 October 12, 1995
6 20 October 31, 1995 March 7, 1996
Do America December 20, 1996 —
7 41 January 26, 1997 November 28, 1997 MTV
8 22 October 27, 2011 December 29, 2011
Do the Universe June 23, 2022 Paramount+
9 23 August 4, 2022 October 13, 2022
10 27 April 20, 2023 June 29, 2023
11 TBA September 3, 2025 TBA Comedy Central
Reception
Original run Beavis and Butt-Head are so stupid and sublimely self-absorbed that the exterior world has little reality except as an annoyance or distraction. It would be easy to attack B&B as ignorant, vulgar, depraved, repulsive slobs. Of course they are. But that would miss the point, which is that Mike Judge\'s characters reflect parts of the society that produced them. To study B&B is to learn about a culture of narcissism, alienation, functional illiteracy, instant gratification and television zombiehood.— Roger Ebert (1996)[60]During its original run, Beavis and Butt-Head was MTV\'s highest rated show.[61][62] It was one of the most popular series when it premiered in 1993.[63][64] In 1993, Rolling Stone described Beavis and Butt-Head as the \"biggest phenomenon on MTV since the heyday of Michael Jackson\".[10] In Time, Kurt Andersen wrote that Beavis and Butt-Head \"may be the bravest show ever run on national television\".[10] In 1997, Judge said the show was \"my reaction to the whole fringe aspects of the political correctness movement\".[11]Over its run, Beavis and Butt-Head received both positive and negative reactions from the public with its combination of lewd humor and implied criticism of society.[65] It became the focus of criticism from some social critics such as Michael Medved, while others such as David Letterman and the National Review defended it as a cleverly subversive vehicle for social criticism and a particularly creative and intelligent comedy. Either way, the show captured the attention of many young television viewers and is often considered a classic piece of 1990s youth culture and Generation X. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, cite the series as an influence and compared it to the blues.[66]In 1997, Dan Tobin of The Boston Phoenix commented on the series\' humor, saying it transformed \"stupidity into a crusade, forcing us to acknowledge how little it really takes to make us laugh.\"[67] In 1997, Ted Drozdowski of The Boston Phoenix described the 1997 Beavis and Butt-Head state as \"reduced to self-parody of their self-parody\".[68] In the Baltimore Sun, David Zurawik said that Beavis and Butt-Head was \"intelligent social satire that especially speaks in a meaningful way to a generation of teenage boys who are going through a uniquely complicated socialization at the hands of their baby-boomer parents\".[11] He said that its popularity may have taught audiences about male adolescence in the 1990s; he wrote that they were the postmodern descendants of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, who were the \"exemplars of males coming of age in American popular culture\".[11]
2011 revivalThe show\'s 2011 revival saw mixed reviews. Karen Olsson from The New York Times found it \"dumber and funnier\" than the original run,[69] and Brian Lowry of Variety \"still a rowdy, guilty hoot.\"[70] Others found it tiresome: Slate\'s Troy Patterson called it a \"grim\" rehash,[71] and James Poniewozik writing for Time found it not as \"innovative\" but still amusing.[72] Matthew Gilbert from the Boston Globe felt television was now too dumb for them: \"The problem is, there actually isn’t much of a need for the two dopes and their anti-wisdom anymore.\"[73] Conversely, Tom Carson for GQ found it \"just right [...] Judge anticipated the trickle-down version of popland\'s Age of Meta.\"[74]
2022 revivalIts 2022 revival received critical acclaim.[75] The New York Times\'s Jason Zinoman extolled the revival: \"[the show] remains singular [...] they all hit comic notes ‌with moseying cadences you can’t find elsewhere.\"[76] Jesse Hassenger from The Wrap wrote \"Beavis and Butt-Head have a tendency to mold their environment in their image. Or are they just so timelessly American that surprisingly little adaptation is necessary?\"[77] Daniel Fienberg at The Hollywood Reporter called it \"solidly amusing, if rarely remarkable.\"[78] Lowry, now for CNN, viewed it \"proudly stupid\";[79] similarly Andy Greene, for Rolling Stone, \"really loved\" the new take.[36]
LegacyIn December 2005, TV Guide ranked the duo\'s distinct laughing at #66 on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Quotes and Catchphrases.[80] In 2012, TV Guide ranked Beavis and Butt-Head as one of the top 60 Greatest TV Cartoons of All Time.[81] IGN ranked the series as the fifth greatest cartoon of all time on their list of the Top 100 Animated Series.[82]Various television series have done parodies or homages to the series, including The Simpsons, Family Guy, Arthur, Friends, The Critic, Two and a Half Men, Frasier, The Fairly OddParents, Boy Meets World, Full House, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Robot Chicken, Married... with Children, Roseanne, Tiny Toon Adventures, Big Mouth, Drawn Together, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Beverly Hills, 90210, 2 Broke Girls, among others.[citation needed]On the April 13, 2024 episode of Saturday Night Live guest host Ryan Gosling, and cast regular Mikey Day, appeared in a sketch as live-action versions of Beavis and Butt-Head.[83] The sketch went viral and received large media coverage and critical acclaim. The pair reprised the roles on the red carpet at The Fall Guy movie premiere.[84]
Cultural impactBands getting positive comments from the characters would sometimes acknowledge the show providing an increase in their popularity: Rob Zombie[85] and Kirk Windstein of Crowbar credited the show with growing their fanbase.[86] Conversely, Winger guitarist Reb Beach claimed the show\'s portrayal of his band effectively ended their career.[87]The song \"The Arsonist\" by the experimental-rock group Puscifer, off its 2015 album Money Shot, explicitly refers to Beavis with the fire theme of the song, including the chorus and a line \"Beavis sure do love his matches.\"[88]Beavis and Butt-Head are featured as audience members in an April 2024 Saturday Night Live skit, with Ryan Gosling as Beavis, and Mikey Day as Butt-Head.[89]
ControversiesIn its heyday, Beavis and Butt-Head became a lightning rod for controversy over its content. \"The downward spiral of the living white male surely ends here,\" John Leland wrote in Newsweek in 1993.[25] The show was blamed for the death of two-year-old Jessica Matthews in Moraine, Ohio, in October 1993. The girl\'s five-year-old brother, Austin Messner, set fire to his mother\'s mobile home with a cigarette lighter, killing the two-year-old.[90] The mother later claimed that her son watched an episode in which the characters said \"fire was fun\".[90][91]As a result, all references to fire were removed from subsequent airings and the show was moved to a later time slot.[92] The creators found a censorship loophole and took delight in sometimes making Beavis scream things that sounded very similar to his previous \"Fire! Fire!\" (such as \"Fryer! Fryer!\" when he and Butt-Head are working the late shift at Burger World) and also having him almost say the forofferden word (such as one time when he sang \"Liar, liar, pants on...\" and pausing before \"fire\"). There was also a music video where a man runs on fire in slow motion (\"California\" by Wax). Beavis is hypnotized by it and can barely say \"fire\". However, MTV eventually removed the episode entirely, leading it to be locked away in the MTV vault. References to fire were cut from earlier episodes—even the original master tapes were altered permanently.[93] Other episodes MTV opted not to rerun included \"Stewart\'s House\" and \"Way Down Mexico Way\". Copies of early episodes with the controversial content intact are rare, and the copies that exist are made from home video recordings of the original broadcasts, typically on VHS. In an interview included with the Mike Judge Collection DVD set, Judge said he is uncertain whether some of the earlier episodes still exist in their original, uncensored form.[92]When the series returned in 2011, MTV allowed Beavis to use the word \"fire\" once again uncensored.[20] During the first video segment, \"Werewolves of Highland\", the first new episode of the revival, Beavis utters the word \"fire\" a total of seven times within 28 seconds, with Butt-Head saying it once as well.[94]In February 1994, watchdog group Morality in Media claimed that the death of eight-month-old Natalia Rivera, struck by a bowling ball thrown from an overpass onto a highway in Jersey City, New Jersey, near the Holland Tunnel by 18-year-old Calvin J. Settle, was partially inspired by Beavis and Butt-Head.[95] The group said that Settle was influenced by the episode \"Ball Breakers\", in which Beavis and Butt-Head load a bowling ball with explosives and drop it from a rooftop.[95] While Morality in Media claimed that the show inspired Settle\'s actions, the case\'s prosecutors did not. It was later revealed by both prosecutors and the defendant that Settle did not have cable TV, nor did he watch the show.MTV also responded by broadcasting the program after 11:00 p.m. and included a disclaimer, reminding viewers: Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh.This was later changed to: Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They\'re not even human. They\'re cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: don\'t try this at home.This disclaimer also appears before the opening of their Sega Genesis and Super NES games as well as their Windows game Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity.[96]They were famously lambasted by Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) as \"Buffcoat and Beaver\".[97] This subsequently became a running gag on the show where adults mispronounced their names. For example, one character on the show, Tom Anderson, originally called them \"Butthole\" and \"Joe\" and believed the two to be of Asian ethnicity (describing them to the police as \"Oriental\"). In later episodes, Anderson uses the Hollings mispronunciation once and, on at least one occasion, refers to them as \"Penis and Butt-Munch\". President Clinton called them \"Beavis and Bum-head\" in \"Citizen Butt-head\", as well as in the movie, where an old lady (voiced by Cloris Leachman) consistently calls them \"Travis\" and \"Bob-head\". In \"Incognito\", when another student threatens to kill them, the duo uses this to their advantage, pretending to be exchange students named \"Crevis and Bung-Head\". The bully, seeing through the disguises, calls them \"Beaver and Butt-Plug\". In \"Right On!\", when the duo appear on the Gus Baker Show, host Gus Baker (a caricature of Rush Limbaugh) introduces them as \"Beavis and Buffcoat\". And in the original series finale, \"Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead\", a news reporter refers to the two boys as \"Brevis and Head-Butt\". In the Season 9 episode \"Locked Out\" Tom Anderson mistakes Beavis and Butt-Head for honest and responsible boys, and blames \"Buford\" and \"Bernardo\" for the alleged damage to the paint on his new truck, though Beavis and Butt-Head lied about the damage.Beavis and Butt-Head have been compared to idiot savants because of their creative and subversively intelligent observations of music videos. This part of the show was mostly improvised by Mike Judge. With regard to criticisms of the two as \"idiots\", Judge responded that a show about straight-A students would not be funny.
FilmsThere have been two Beavis and Butt-Head films that have been released: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) and Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022). The two films have received largely positive reviews.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)The first theatrical adaptation, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, is a comedy road-trip film that was released in the US on December 20, 1996.[98][99] Its UK and European releases came later in 1997.[100][101] Along with several of the series regulars, it also features the voices of Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Cloris Leachman, Robert Stack, Eric Bogosian, Richard Linklater, Greg Kinnear (in an uncredited role) and David Letterman (credited as Earl Hofert). The film follows the duo\'s cross-country trip as accidental fugitives. The film was a commercial success, opening at number one at the US box office and grossed more than $60 million. It held the highest December opening gross of all time before being passed by Scream 2 a year later in 1997.[9] It received positive reviews with critics complimenting the film\'s humor as \"unexpectedly funny.\"[102]
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022)The second adaptation, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, is a sci-fi comedy film that was released as a Paramount+ exclusive on June 23, 2022. A Beavis and Butt-Head follow-up film was rumored long after Do America\'s release, but such a project never materialized. In February 2021, a sequel film was announced to be released on Paramount+ with an unspecified release date.[103] A trailer was eventually released for the film on June 2, 2022, showcasing footage as well as the film\'s new subtitle; its release date was later that month on June 23.[104] Work for the film was done remotely via zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[105] The film follows the titular duo as they get transported from 1998 to 2022 via space, coming into conflicts with their alternate-universe selves and the US government. The film received a highly positive reception from reviewers, who praised it as a \"return to form\" for the franchise.[106] The film served as a lead-in to its Paramount+ revival.
Related media

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Home mediaEpisodes of Beavis and Butt-Head were released on VHS by MTV Video in the United States throughout the 1990s. Each tape is themed and the majority of the show\'s music video segments excised due to copyright. The following releases were later released on LaserDisc in 1995 and on DVD through Time Life in 2002. There Goes the Neighborhood (February 7, 1995)
Contains: \"Home Improvement\", \"Lawn and Garden\", \"Good Credit\", \"Washing the Dog\", \"Vs. the Vending Machine\", \"Mr. Anderson\'s Balls\", \"Pool Toys\", \"The Trial\"
Work Sucks (February 7, 1995)
Contains: \"Burger World\", \"Customers Suck\", \"The Butt-Head Experience\", \"Be All You Can Be\", \"Cleaning House\", \"Sperm Bank\", \"Blackout!\", \"Closing Time\"
Chicks N\' Stuff (December 1995)
Contains: \"Friday Night\", \"Naked Colony\", \"1-900-BEAVIS\", \"Party\", \"Top O\' The Mountain\", \"Plastic Surgin\'\", \"Pregnant Pause\", \"Dream On\"
The Final Judgement (1995)
Contains: \"No Laughing, \" Scared Straight\", \"They\'re Coming To Take Me Away, Huh Huh\", \"Manners Suck\", \"Liar! Liar!\", \"The Great Cornholio\", \"The Final Judgement of Beavis\"
Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas (1996)
Contains: \"Huh-Huh-Humbug\", Letters to Santa Butt-Head Part I, Season\'s Greetings I, \"It\'s a Miserable Life\", Season\'s Greetings II, Letters to Santa Butt-Head Part II (missing letter from prison that was in aired version)
Feel Our Pain (1996)
Contains: \"Animation Sucks\", \"Bad Dog\", \"Tired\", \"Bus Trip\", \"Patsies\", \"Choke\", \"Blood Pressure\", \"Lightning Strikes\"
Law-Aoffering Citizens (1997)
Contains: \"Generation in Crisis\", \"Citizen Butt-Head\", \"Sexual Harassment\", \"Stewart Is Missing\", Prank Call\", \"Feel A Cop\", \"Buy Beer\", \"Buttniks\"
Innocence Lost (1997)
Contains: \"Held Back\", \"Safe Driving\", \"Figure Drawing\", \"Stewart Moves Away\", \"A Very Special Episode\", \"Nose Bleed\", \"Dumbasses Anonymous\", \"Vaya Con Cornholio\"
Troubled Youth (1998)
Contains: \"Citizens Arrest\", \"Substitute, No Service\", \"Impotence\", \"Speech Therapy\", \"Work Is Death\", \"Die Fly, Die!\", \"Tainted Meat\"
Hard Cash (1998)
Contains: \"Hard Sell\", \"Temporary Insanity\", Music video: Rancid - \"Nihilism\", Buttbillies, Green Thumbs\", Music video: Faith No More - \"Diggin\' the Grave\", \"Whiplash\", Music video: MC 900 Ft. Jesus - \"If I Only Had a Brain\", \"Inventors\", \"Yard Sale\", Music video: Beastie Boys - \"Pass the Mic\", \"Babysitting\"
Butt-O-Ween (1999)
Contains: \"Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest\", \"The Pipe of Doom\", \"Killing Time\", \"Leave It to Beavis\", \"Ding Dong Ditch\", \"Late Night with Butt-Head\", \"Candy Sale\"Aside from the US, the UK and Australia received its own line of original home video releases from 1999 through 2002. In 2002, a DVD compilation entitled The History of Beavis and Butt-Head was pulled due to it not being approved by Mike Judge. However, some retailers erroneously put it out anyway, resulting in it becoming much sought-after item.Three DVD volumes entitled Beavis and Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection were released in 2005 and 2006. Following the release of a fourth volume containing the show\'s entire eighth season revival series on DVD and Blu-ray in 2012, Beavis and Butt-Head: The Complete Collection was released in 2017. The set contains all previously released four volumes as well as the 1996 film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
MerchandiseMTV marketed the program with a surplus of merchandise, with items as varied as clothing, hats, and aftershave.[56] Judge found it difficult to extend his sensibility to the consumer products that bore his name; he noted that he had no involvement in the show\'s video games.[22]
ComicsFrom 1994 to 1996, Marvel Comics published a monthly Beavis and Butt-Head comic under the Marvel Absurd imprint by a variety of writers, but with each issue drawn by artist Rick Parker. It was also reprinted by Marvel UK, which created new editorial material.[107]
Daria
Main article: DariaA spin-off based on classmate Daria Morgendorffer premiered in 1997. Mike Judge was not involved at all except to give permission for use of the character (created by Glenn Eichler and designed by Bill Peckmann).[108] The only reference to the original show is Daria\'s mentioning that Lawndale cannot be a second Highland \"unless there\'s uranium in the drinking water here too\".
Video games MTV\'s Beavis and Butt-Head, a set of games released by Viacom New Media for the Game Gear, Genesis and Super NES in 1994. All three games featured music composed by Gwar.
Talking MTV\'s Beavis and Butt-Head: This Game Rules!!!, a handheld LCD video game released by Tiger Electronics in 1994.
Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity, a graphic adventure game released for Windows 95 in 1995. A PlayStation port was released exclusively in Japan in 1998 featuring dubbed voice acting by Atsushi Tamura and Ryō Tamura from Owarai duo London Boots Ichi-gō Ni-gō.
Beavis and Butt-Head in Calling All Dorks, a collection of desktop themes for Windows 95 released in 1995 by Viacom New Media.
Beavis and Butt-Head in Wiener Takes All, a Beavis and Butt-Head-themed trivia game by Viacom New Media. Released as a PC/Macintosh-compatible CD-ROM in 1996.
Beavis and Butt-Head in Little Thingies, a mini-game collection released for Windows 95 in 1996 featuring four mini-games from the previously released Virtual Stupidity and three new ones.
Beavis and Butt-Head, a coin-operated video game developed by Atari Games for a 3DO Interactive Multiplayer-based hardware. The game underwent location testing 1996, but was unreleased due to poor reception.
Beavis and Butt-Head in Screen Wreckers, a collection of screensavers released for Windows 95 in 1997.
Beavis and Butt-Head: Bunghole in One, a Beavis and Butt-Head-themed golf video game released for Windows 95 by GT Interactive in 1998.
Beavis and Butt-Head, an overhead action game released by GT Interactive for the Game Boy in 1998.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do Hollywood (originally Beavis and Butt-Head: Get Big in Hollywood), an unreleased 3D action game that was being produced by GT Interactive. It was announced for the PlayStation in 1998.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do U., a graphic adventure game released by GT Interactive for Windows 95 in 1999.
Call of Duty, the duo (as well as Coach Buzzcut and Todd Ianuzzi) are available as Call of Duty skins that can be used in both Black Ops 6 and Warzone multiplayer matches in the 2025 Season 4 Reloaded update.
Fortnite, the duo are also available as Fortnite outfits, with both launching on Chapter 6 Season 4 in September 2025.Books Brown, Kristofor (1997). Stern, Dave (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Travel Log. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-01533-8.
Brown, Kristofor (1997). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Big Book of Important Stuff to Make Life Cool. Boston America Corp. ISBN 1-889647-15-2.
Doyle, Larry (1995). Eichler, Glenn (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: This Sucks, Change It!. MTV Books, Pocket Books, Melcher Media. ISBN 0-671-53633-8.
Doyle, Larry (1996). Eichler, Glenn (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Huh Huh For Hollywood. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-00655-X.
Grabianski, Greg; Keillor, Aimee (1997). Brown, Kristofor (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: The Butt-Files. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-01426-9.
Johnson, Sam; Marcil, Chris (1993). Eichler, Glenn (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: This Book Sucks. MTV Books, Callaway, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-89034-4.
Johnson, Sam; Marcil, Chris; Maxtone-Graham, Guy; Brown, Kristofor; Felton, David; Eichler, Glenn; Judge, Mike (1994). Eichler, Glenn (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Ensucklopedia. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-52149-7.
Judge, Mike; Stillman, Joe (1997). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: The Official Script Book. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-00658-4.
Rheingold, Andy; Sonneborn, Scott (1998). Brown, Kristofor (ed.). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Chicken Soup for the Butt. MTV Books, Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-02598-8.
Brown, Kristofor, ed. (1996). MTV\'S Beavis and Butt-Head: Doodle (doodie) Book. Boston America Corp. ISBN 1-889647-00-4.
MTV\'s Beavis and Butt-Head: 3-D Poster Book. Boston America Corp. 1997.
MTV\'s Beavis and Butt-Head: Doodle (doodie) Book #2. Boston America Corp. 1997. ISBN 1-889647-28-4.
MTV\'s Beavis and Butt-Head: Sticky Things. Boston America Corp. 1997. ISBN 1-889647-16-0.
Reading Sucks: The Collected Works of Beavis and Butt-Head. MTV. 2005. ISBN 978-1-4165-2436-6. (NOTE: This book is a bundle of four previous books \'Ensucklopedia,\' \'Huh Huh for Hollywood,\' \'The Butt-Files,\' and \'Chicken Soup for the Butt\' which are no longer in print separately).MusicAn album inspired by the series, The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience, was released on Geffen Records. The label\'s namesake, David Geffen, came up with the concept for the album. He was sold on the show\'s success upon its debut, and contacted MTV to make a deal to co-finance the album and later film.[109] The album features many hard rock and heavy metal bands such as Megadeth, Primus, Nirvana and White Zombie. Moreover, Beavis and Butt-Head do a duet with Cher on \"I Got You Babe\"[110] and a track by themselves called \"Come to Butt-Head\". The track with Cher also resulted in a music video directed by Tamra Davis and Yvette Kaplan. It sold over two million copies worldwide.[109]In 2015, the pair were featured in commissioned skits on the album Speedin\' Bullet 2 Heaven by Kid Cudi.[111]
Chart success
Beavis and Butt-Head duet with Cher UK single which includes a Beavis and Butt-Head Experience sticker to promote the releaseThe Beavis and Butt-Head duet with Cher on \"I Got You Babe\" was released as a single in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US,[112] the UK CD had a special limited edition sticker to promote The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience available with the release.[113] On January 15, 1994, the song charted at number 35 in the UK charts[114] and stayed on the charts for 4 weeks. On December 4, 1993, the song charted on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart in the US peaking at number 8.[115]The single also charted at number 69 in Australia,[116] 19 in Belgium,[117] 18 in Denmark,[118] 69 on the European Hot 100,[118] 9 on the Netherlands Dutch Top 40,[119] 10 on the Netherlands top 100[120] and number 40 in Sweden.[121]
Slot gameIn 2019, Gauselmann Group\'s UK-based games studio Blueprint Gaming launched the Beavis and Butt-Head online slot game.[122] The game features moments and scenes from the TV show and film.The branded game was among the 10 most exposed slot games in UK online casinos days after its release in late May 2019.[123]
NotesCredited as MTV Production Development on season 8 and as MTV Entertainment Studios on seasons 9, 10, and 11.Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, and director.[1][2] He is best known for being the creator of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present). He also co-created the television series King of the Hill (1997–2010, 2025–present), The Goode Family (2009), Silicon Valley (2014–2019), and Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus (2017–2018). He wrote and directed the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Office Space (1999), Idiocracy (2006), and Extract (2009), and co-wrote the screenplay to Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022).Judge was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego,[2] where he studied physics.[2] After losing interest in a career in science, Judge focused on animation and short films. His animated short Frog Baseball was developed into the successful MTV series Beavis and Butt-Head, and the spin-off series Daria (with which Judge had no involvement).In 1995, Judge and former Simpsons writer Greg Daniels developed King of the Hill, which debuted on Fox in 1997 and quickly became popular with both critics and audiences. Running for 13 seasons, it became one of the longest-running American animated series. During the run of the show, Judge took time off to write and direct Office Space, Idiocracy and Extract. As King of the Hill was coming to an end, Judge created his third show, ABC\'s The Goode Family, which received mixed reviews and was canceled after 13 episodes. After a four-year hiatus, he created his fourth show, the live-action Silicon Valley for HBO, which has received critical acclaim.[3] In 2017, Judge\'s fourth animated series, the music-themed Tales from the Tour Bus, premiered on Cinemax, to acclaim.Judge has won a Primetime Emmy Award and two Annie Awards for King of the Hill and two Critics\' Choice Television Awards and Satellite Awards for Silicon Valley.
Early lifeMichael Craig Judge[4] was born on October 17, 1962, in Guayaquil, Ecuador.[4][5] He is the middle of three children born to Margaret Yvonne (née Blue), a librarian, and William James Judge, an archaeologist. At the time of his birth, his father was working for a nonprofit organization in Guayaquil and other parts of Ecuador, promoting agricultural development. Judge was raised from age three in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he spent a small portion of his life working on a chicken farm. He attended St. Pius X High School[6] and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of California, San Diego, (UCSD) in 1985.[7]
Career
1985–1997: Early science career; musician; animation and Beavis and Butt-HeadAfter graduating from UCSD in 1985, he held several brief jobs in physics and mechanical engineering, but found himself growing bored with science.[2] In 1987, he moved to Silicon Valley to join Parallax Graphics,[8] a startup video card company with about 40 employees based in Santa Clara, California. Disliking the company\'s culture and his colleagues, Judge quit after less than three months, describing it as, \"The people I met were like Stepford Wives. They were true believers in something, and I don\'t know what it was\". Shortly after quitting his job, he became a bass player with a touring blues band.[9] He was a part of Anson Funderburgh\'s band for two years, playing on their 1990 Black Top Records release Rack \'Em Up,[10] while taking graduate math classes at the University of Texas at Dallas.[9] He was planning to earn a master\'s degree as \"a back-up plan\" to become a community college math teacher after relocating to the north Dallas area for his then-wife\'s new job.[11][12][13] In 1989, after seeing animation cels on display in a movie theater, Judge purchased a Bolex 16 mm film camera and began creating his own animated shorts in his home in Richardson, Texas. In 1991, his short film Office Space (also known as the Milton series of shorts) was acquired by Comedy Central, following an animation festival in Dallas. Shortly thereafter, he dropped out of school to focus on his career.[9] In the early 1990s, he was playing blues bass with Doyle Bramhall.[14]In 1992, he developed Frog Baseball,[9] a short film featuring the characters Beavis and Butt-Head, which was to be featured on Liquid Television, a 1990s animation showcase that appeared on MTV. The short led to the creation of the Beavis and Butt-Head series on MTV, in which Judge voiced both title characters as well as the majority of supporting characters and wrote and directed the majority of the episodes. The show centers on two socially incompetent, heavy metal-loving teenage wannabe delinquents, Beavis and Butt-Head, who live in the fictional town of Highland, Texas. The two have no adult supervision, are dim-witted, sex-obsessed, uneducated, barely literate, and lack any empathy or moral scruples, even regarding each other. Over its run, Beavis and Butt-Head drew a notable amount of both positive and negative reaction from the public with its combination of lewd humor and implied criticism of society.[15]Judge himself is highly critical of the animation and quality of earlier episodes, in particular the first two – Blood Drive/Give Blood and Door to Door – which he described as \"awful, I don\'t know why anybody liked it ... I was burying my head in the sand.\"[16] The series spawned the musical single I Got You Babe (1993) (a humorous cover with participation by Cher), a feature-length film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) and the spin-off show Daria.[17][18]After a hiatus of two decades, the series aired a new season on October 27, 2011.[19] The premiere episode was a ratings hit, with an audience of 3.3 million total viewers.[20] On January 10, 2014, Judge said that there is still a possibility that Beavis and Butt-Head could be pitched to another network, adding that he wouldn\'t mind making more episodes.[21]
1997–2009: King of the Hill, Office Space, and IdiocracyIn early 1995, after the successful first run of Beavis and Butt-Head, Judge decided to create another animated series, King of the Hill.[22][23] Judge conceived the idea for the show, designed the main characters, and wrote a pilot script. Fox was uncertain of the viability of Judge\'s concept for an animated comedy based in reality and set in the American South, so the network teamed him up with The Simpsons writer Greg Daniels.[24][22] Judge was a former resident of Garland, Texas, upon which the fictional community of Arlen was loosely based, but as Judge stated in a later interview, the show was based more specifically on the Dallas suburb of Richardson.[22][25] Judge voiced characters Hank Hill and Jeff Boomhauer. The show is about a middle-class Methodist family named the Hills living in a small town called Arlen, Texas. It attempts to retain a naturalistic approach, seeking humor in the conventional and mundane aspects of everyday life while dealing with issues comically. After its debut in 1997, the series became a large success for Fox and was named one of the best television series of the year by various publications, including Entertainment Weekly, Time, and TV Guide.[26]For the 1997–1998 season, the series became one of Fox\'s highest-rated programs and even briefly outperformed The Simpsons in ratings.[27] Although ratings remained consistent throughout the 10th, 11th and 12th seasons and had begun to rise in the overall Nielsen ratings (up to the 105th most watched series on television, from 118 in season 8), Fox abruptly announced in 2008 that King of the Hill had been canceled. The cancellation coincided with the announcement that Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and American Dad!, would be creating a Family Guy spin-off called The Cleveland Show, which would take over King of the Hill\'s time slot.[28] Hopes to keep the show afloat surfaced as sources indicated that ABC (which was already airing Judge\'s new animated comedy, The Goode Family) was interested in securing the rights to the show,[29] but in January 2009, ABC president Steve McPherson said he had \"no plans to pick up the animated comedy.\"[30] On April 30, 2009, it was announced that Fox ordered at least two more episodes to give the show a proper finale.[31] The show\'s 14th season was supposed to air sometime in the 2009–10 season,[32] but Fox later announced that it would not air the episodes, opting instead for syndication.[33] On August 10, 2009, however, Fox released a statement that the network would air a one-hour series finale (which consisted of a regular 30-minute episode followed by a 30-minute finale) on September 13, 2009.[34] The four remaining episodes of the series aired in syndication the week of May 3, 2010, and again on Adult Swim during the week of May 17, 2010. During the panel discussion for the return of Beavis and Butt-Head at San Diego Comic-Con in 2011, Mike Judge said that no current plans exist to revive King of the Hill, although he would not rule out the possibility of it returning.[35]Judge began to develop one of his four animated short films titled Milton, about an office drone named Milton that Judge created, which first aired on Liquid Television and Night After Night with Allan Havey and later aired on Saturday Night Live.[36] The inspiration came from a temp job he once had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders[37] and a job he had as an engineer for three months in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1980s, \"just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful\".[38] Judge sold the completed film Office Space to 20th Century Fox based on his script and a cast that included Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston, and David Herman.[36] Originally, the studio wanted to make a film out of the Milton character but Judge was not interested, opting instead to make more of an ensemble cast–based film.[38] The studio suggested that he should make a film like Car Wash but \"just set in an office\".[38] Judge made the relatively painless transition from animation to live-action with the help of the film\'s director of photography who taught him about lenses and where to put the camera. Judge says, \"I had a great crew, and it\'s good going into it not pretending you\'re an expert.\"[37] Studio executives were not happy with the footage Judge was getting. He remembers them telling him, \"More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You\'re failing! You\'re failing!\"[39] In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film until a focus group approved of it. Judge hated the ending and felt that a complete rewrite of the third act was necessary.[39] In the film, he made a cameo appearance as Stan (complete with hairpiece and fake mustache), the manager of Chotchkie\'s, a fictionalized parody of chain restaurants like Chili\'s, Applebee\'s and TGI Friday\'s, and the boss of Jennifer Aniston\'s character, whom he continually undermines and interrogates over her lack of sufficient enthusiasm for the job and the insufficient quantity of \"flair\" (buttons, ribbons, etc.) she wears on her uniform. The film was released on February 19, 1999, and it was well received by critics. Although not particularly successful at the box office, it sold well on VHS and DVD, and it has come to be recognized as a cult classic.[40]Beginning in fall 2003, Judge and fellow animator Don Hertzfeldt created an animation festival called \"The Animation Show\". \"The Animation Show\" toured the country annually for several years, screening animated shorts.[41] In 2005, Judge was presented with the Austin Film Festival\'s Outstanding Television Writer Award by Johnny Hardwick.[42]Judge has made supporting and cameo appearances in numerous films. Judge had a voice cameo as Kenny in South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), the feature-length film adaptation of the popular Comedy Central series; he voiced Kenny McCormick when he was unhooded towards the end of the film. He later acted in the science-fiction family comedy franchise Spy Kids, where he played Donnagon Giggles in the first three films. His next film appearance was Serving Sara (2002) where he played a motel manager. He later appeared in the comedy Jackass Number Two (2006), in which he can be seen during the closing credits. An extended version of his sequence can be seen in Jackass 2.5 (2007) which was a direct-to-video release. Judge also created a video clip of Beavis and Butt-Head ripping into Steve-O for his video Poke the Puss, where the two try imagining if they would like the video better if they were black. The clip aired as a part of Jackassworld.com: 24-Hour Takeover, a February 23, 2008, television special on MTV to coincide with the official launch of jackassworld.com. The characters appeared again in the third Jackass film, titled Jackass 3D, at the beginning of the film, telling viewers to put on their 3D glasses for the film.[43]Judge\'s third film, Idiocracy, a dystopian comedy starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph, was given a limited release theatrically by 20th Century Fox in September 2006, two years after production. The film\'s original release date was intended to be on August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge.[44] In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. The film was released without a trailer or substantial marketing campaign.[45] The film was not screened for critics beforehand as is usually done.[46] Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively attempted to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP.[47] That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio\'s lack of support from Ain\'t It Cool News, Time, and Esquire.[48][49][50] Time\'s Joel Stein wrote \"the film\'s ads and trailers tested atrociously\", but \"still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox.\"[49] Despite the film not being screened for critics, the film received positive reviews and was a minor box-office success.[51] In the U.S., the film was released to DVD in January 2007 and later aired on premium-television, multiplex channels Cinemax in September 2007 and HBO in January 2008. Since then, it has gained a cult following.[52]
2009–2013: The Goode Family, Extract, and other projects
Judge in 2009Judge\'s fourth directorial effort was 2009\'s Extract. Shortly after completing Office Space, Judge was already about 40 pages into his follow-up script, set in the world of an extract factory, when he was convinced by his representative team that he needed to shelve that and concentrate on something more commercial. Over the next several years, he focused his energy on developing Idiocracy. But years later, by the time of the film\'s release, audiences had decided that Office Space had struck a chord, so they were ready to see Judge return to on-the-job humor, and thus the Extract script was given new life.[53]Seeking to keep Extract below the radar of the studio system, Judge and his producers set up a production company, Ternion Productions, and arranged private financing while partnering with Miramax for domestic distribution of the film. Judge relied heavily on his own personal knowledge of the industrial world to bring the story to life. \"I actually worked in a factory a little bit myself ... I hopefully write stuff that is recognizable as the archetypes of this world,\" Judge stated.[53]Keeping true to this baseline of reality, Extract was shot in a working factory, in this case a water bottling plant south of Los Angeles, in the City of Commerce.[53] He makes an uncredited appearance as Jim, a union organizer.[54] The film premiered on September 4, 2009, and received mixed to positive reviews from critics and was a minor commercial success.[55]Judge\'s third television series, The Goode Family, debuted on ABC but was canceled after one season. Comedy Central first aired the series in reruns on January 4, 2010. However, the series was pulled off the schedule shortly thereafter. It was confirmed on The Goode Family Facebook page that Comedy Central had picked up the reruns of the series,[56] which were to be evaluated for a chance of being renewed for a second season.[57] On August 8, 2009, however, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson stated that the show, along with Surviving Suburbia, had officially been canceled due to low ratings.[58]In 2010, reruns of The Goode Family aired Monday nights at 10 pm on Comedy Central, beginning January 4. It departed the network\'s primetime schedule after four weeks, returning occasionally in low-trafficked timeslots.[59]In 2012, Judge directed the music video (animation by Titmouse) for country music group Zac Brown Band\'s \"The Wind\".[60] In 2013, Judge collaborated with Seth MacFarlane on a mashup episode of Family Guy, in which, complete with a Hill-themed opening, Judge reprises his role as Hank Hill.[61] Earlier in 2010 and 2012, Judge played cameos as Hank on two episodes of MacFarlane\'s The Cleveland Show.[citation needed]
2014–2019: Silicon Valley and Tales from the Tour BusJudge created his fourth show, Silicon Valley, with King of the Hill executive producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. The HBO comedy is a single-camera live-action sitcom set in Northern California. One of its main themes is the idea that \"the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success\".[62] The first season of Silicon Valley was 8 episodes long and received critical and public acclaim. Silicon Valley was renewed for a second season on April 21, 2014, and a third season on April 13, 2015.[63][64] Silicon Valley aired its fourth season, which premiered on April 23, 2017.[65] The series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on March 25, 2018, and a sixth season, which premiered on October 27, 2019, and served as its final season.[66][67]On January 12, 2017, Deadline confirmed that Cinemax ordered 8 episodes of Judge\'s new animated series, Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus. The series premiered on September 22, 2017.[68] Judge wrote the story for Action Point, the film was released in 2018.[69] In 2018, he starred in the film, The Front Runner.[70] In 2019, Judge announced he had been developing two projects for HBO: QualityLand and A5, both of which were later scrapped by HBO in 2021.[71][72]
2020–present: Bandera Entertainment, Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill revivalsIn June 2020, Comedy Central announced it had ordered a second revival of Beavis and Butt-Head consisting of two new seasons along with spin-offs and specials. In the new series, Beavis and Butt-Head will enter a \"whole new Gen Z world\" with meta-themes that are said to be relatable to both new fans, who may be unfamiliar with the original series, and old.[73][74]In February 2022, it was announced that the revival would instead premiere on Paramount+, following a second Beavis and Butt-Head feature film entitled Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe.[75] Originally, Paramount executives wanted a live-action Beavis and Butt-Head movie. Judge held auditions over Zoom for the project. He eventually talked the company into doing an animated movie instead to reestablish the characters first, with a future live-action movie still a possibility.[76] In June 2022, it was confirmed that new episodes would debut later that year, along with the full library of over 227 original episodes, newly remastered, with music videos intact.[77][78][79] One month later, it was announced that the revival would premiere on August 4, 2022.[80] Season 9 continues the concept of the Beavis and Butt-Head multiverse initially explored in Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe. Teenage Beavis and Butt-Head, Old Beavis and Butt-Head, and Smart Beavis and Butt-Head all get their own dedicated episodes in the revival.[81]In January 2022, it was announced that Judge and Daniels had formed an animation company called Bandera Entertainment, with a revival of King of the Hill being one of several series in development.[82][83] During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2022, Judge stated that the show \"has a very good chance of coming back.\"[84] In September 2022, Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn confirmed that the series would not air on Fox, with the reason being that Fox prefers to have full ownership of whatever new shows they air.[85][86] On January 31, 2023, a revival on Hulu was officially confirmed to be ordered.[87]Bandera\'s first produced series is Anna Drezen\'s Praise Petey[88] starring Annie Murphy, John Cho, and Stephen Root among others. The series premiered on July 21, 2023, on Freeform and Hulu, and has received mostly positive reviews,[89][90][91][92] with Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 80% Fresh from critics, and 90% Fresh from audiences.[93] The series was canceled after one season.[94] In 2024, Judge, along with Zach Woods and Brandon Gardner, co-created the series In the Know.[95] The series premiered on January 25, 2024, on Peacock. His new show, Common Side Effects currently airs on Adult Swim and is streaming on Max.
Personal life
Judge with his daughters at the Paramount Theatre (Austin, Texas), February 8, 2009Judge married Francesca Morocco in 1989; they divorced in 2009.[96][97][98] Together they have two daughters.[96][97][99] The family lives in Austin, Texas, and Santa Monica, California, having previously resided in Malibu.[100][101] Judge is a fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).[102]
Political viewsWhile King of the Hill is often a satire of protagonist Hank Hill, identifiable as a conservative,[103] and his The Goode Family is essentially a satire centered on a liberal family, Judge avoids discussing his own political leanings.[103]In reviewing Idiocracy, Salon stated, \"Judge\'s gimlet eye is so ruthless that at times his politics seem to border on South Park libertarianism\".[104] A writer for the libertarian magazine Reason seems to agree, comparing King of the Hill to the anti-authoritarian point of view of South Park and The Simpsons, though he calls the show more populist, noting the disdain King of the Hill seems to have for bureaucrats, professionals, and big-box chains.[105]Still, Judge denies having political messages in his shows, saying in 2006 in an IGN interview about King of the Hill:[103] I try to not let the show get too political. To me, it\'s more social than political I guess you\'d say, because that\'s funnier. I don\'t really like political reference humor that much. Although I liked the episode \'Hank\'s Bully\' where Hank\'s talking to the mailman and he says, \'Why would anyone want to lick a stamp that has Bill Clinton on it?\' To me that\'s just like more of a character thing about Hank than it is a political joke or anything. I don\'t want to do a bunch of stuff about the war, particularly.In June 2016, before the presidential election in November, Etan Cohen told BuzzFeed that he and Judge would produce Idiocracy-themed campaign advertisements mocking Donald Trump\'s presidential campaign if given permission from 20th Century Fox to do so.[106] It was later reported by Business Insider that they would not have been campaign ads, would have mocked all of the candidates, and would not go Title Functioned as Role Notes
Director Writer Producer Actor
1991 Huh? Yes Yes Yes Yes Hillbilly, Mother Earth Whole Foods spokesperson (voice) Short film
Also did animation and music
1991 The Honky Problem Yes Yes Yes Yes Inbred Jed (voice)
1991 Milton Yes Yes Yes Yes Milton, additional voices
1994 Airheads No No No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice)
1996 Beavis and Butt-Head Do America Yes Yes Yes Yes Beavis, Butt-Head, David Van Driessen, Tom Anderson, Principal McVicker Also executive soundtrack producer
1999 Office Space Yes Yes Yes[108] Yes Stan
1999 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut No No No Yes Kenny McCormick unhooded (voice)
2001 Spy Kids No No No Yes Donnagon Giggles Cameo
2002 Serving Sara No No No Yes Motel manager Cameo
2002 Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams No No No Yes Donnagon Giggles
2003 Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over No No No Yes Donnagon Giggles
2006 Idiocracy Yes Yes Yes Yes I.Q test machine (voice; uncredited)
2006 Jackass Number Two No No No Yes Himself Guest appearance
2007 Jackass 2.5 No No No Yes Himself Guest appearance
2009 Extract Yes Yes No Yes Jim
2010 Jackass 3D No No No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Cameo
2013 R.I.P.D. No No No Yes Various Deado Voices
2016 Punching Henry No No No Yes Ed
2016 Nerdland No No No Yes Archie (voice)
2017 Sandy Wexler No No No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Cameo
2018 Action Point No Story No No
2018 The Front Runner No No No Yes Jim Savage
2022 Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe No Yes Executive Yes Beavis, Butt-Head, David Van Driessen, Principal McVicker, additional voices
Television
Year Title Functioned as Role Notes
Creator Director Writer Executive Producer Actor
1992 Liquid Television No Yes Yes No Yes Various voices Episode: \"Frog Baseball\", \"Office Space\", \"The Honky Problem\", and \"Peace, Love and Understanding\"; also did animation and Beavis and Butt-Head Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Beavis, Butt-Head, David Van Driessen, Tom Anderson, Principal McVicker, Coach Buzzcut, Todd (1993 only), additional voices Also musical theme composer
1993–2002 Saturday Night Live No Yes Yes No Yes Milton, Bill, Beavis, Butt-Head, additional voices 5 episodes
1993–2009 Late Show with David Letterman No No No No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) 3 episodes
1994 The Head No No No No Yes Butt-Head (voice) Episode: \"The Head/The Date\"
1997–2010; 2025–present King of the Hill Yes No Yes Yes Yes Hank Hill, Jeff Boomhauer, Stuart Dooley, additional voices
1997 69th Academy Awards No No No No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) TV special
1997 The Simpsons No No No No Yes Hank Hill (voice) Episode: \"Bart Star\"
2003 Frasier No No No No Yes Van Episode: \"The Harassed\"
2006 Aqua Teen Hunger Force No No No No Yes Aliens (voice) Episode: \"Antenna\"
2009 The Goode Family Yes No Yes Yes Yes Gerald Goode, The Average Guy, additional voices 13 episodes
2010–2012 The Cleveland Show No No No No Yes Hank Hill (voice) 2 episodes
2011 Jimmy Kimmel Live! No No No No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) 2 episodes
2013–2022 Family Guy No No No No Yes Hank Hill, Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) 3 episodes
2013 You and Your Fucking Coffee No No No No Yes Stan Episode: \"Houseguest\"
2014–2019 Silicon Valley Yes Yes Yes Yes No 53 episodes
2017–2018 Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Narrator (voice) 16 episodes
2019 Sherman\'s Showcase No No No No Yes Hellman Groolsby Episode: \"The Showcase Dancers\"
2020 Better Things No No No No Yes Himself Episode: \"She\'s Fifty\"
2023 Praise Petey No No No Yes No 10 episodes
2024 In the Know Yes No No Yes Yes Sandy (voice) 6 episodes
2024 Exploding Kittens No No No Yes No 9 episodes
2025 Common Side Effects No No No Yes Yes Various Voices
Other appearances
Year Title Functioned as Role Notes
Director Actor
1994 Beavis and Butt-Head No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1995 Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1996 Beavis and Butt-Head in Calling All Dorks No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1996 Beavis and Butt-Head in Wiener Takes All No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1996 Beavis and Butt-Head in Little Thingies No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1997 Beavis and Butt-Head in Screen Wreckers No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1998 Beavis and Butt-Head: Bunghole in One No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
1999 Beavis and Butt-Head Do U. No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head (voice) Video game
2000 King of the Hill No Yes Hank Hill, Jeff Boomhauer (voice) Video game
2012 \"The Wind\" Yes No Music video[109]
2015 Kid Cudi - Speedin\' Bullet 2 Heaven No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head, David Van Driessen (voice) Voice skits on the album, featured in the songs Man in the Night, Adventures, Handle with Care, and Red Sabbath[110]
2022 Warped Kart Racers No Yes Hank Hill, Jeff Boomhauer (voice) Video game[111]
2025 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 No Yes Beavis, Butt-Head, Coach Buzzcut, Todd (voice) Video game[112]
Awards and nominations
Year Award Nominated work Result
1994 CableACE Award for Best Comedy Series Beavis and Butt-Head Nominated
1997 Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production King of the Hill Nominated
1997 Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement: Voice Acting by a Male Performer in a TV Production King of the Hill for Hank Hill Nominated
1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program King of the Hill for \"Square Peg\" Nominated
1997 MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo Beavis and Butt-Head Do America for Beavis & Butt-Head Nominated
1997 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple Beavis and Butt-Head Do America for Beavis & Butt-Head Nominated
1997 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star Beavis and Butt-Head Do America for Beavis & Butt-Head Nominated
1997 TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy King of the Hill Nominated
1998 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Primetime or Late Night Television Program King of the Hill Nominated
1998 Kids\' Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon King of the Hill Nominated
1998 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program King of the Hill for \"Texas City Twister\" Nominated
1999 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program King of the Hill for \"And They Call It Bobby Love\" Won
1999 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Television Program King of the Hill Nominated
2000 Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Television Production King of the Hill for Hank Hill Nominated
2001 American Comedy Award for Funniest Television Series – Animated King of the Hill Nominated
2001 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program King of the Hill for \"Chasing Bobby\" Nominated
2002 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program King of the Hill for \"Bobby Goes Nuts\" Nominated
2003 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Individual Episode King of the Hill for \"My Own Private Rodeo\" Nominated
2004 Certificate of Merit (Annie Award) Won
2005 Satellite Award for Outstanding Overall DVD Office Space Nominated
2005 Satellite Award for Best DVD Extras Office Space Nominated
2006 Teen Choice Award for Choice Animated Show King of the Hill Nominated
2006 Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production King of the Hill Nominated
2007 People\'s Choice Award for Favorite Animated Comedy King of the Hill Nominated
2008 People\'s Choice Award for Favorite Animated Comedy King of the Hill Nominated
2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program King of the Hill for \"Death Picks Cotton\" Nominated
2008 Annie Award for Best General Audience Animated TV/Broadcast Production King of the Hill Nominated
2009 Prism Award for Best Comedy Episode King of the Hill for \"Dia-BILL-ic Shock\" Won
2009 Winsor McCay Award Won
2012 Teen Choice Award for Choice Animated Series[113] Beavis and Butt-Head Nominated
2014 Critics\' Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Series[114] Silicon Valley Nominated
2014 SXSW Audience Award: Episodic[115] Silicon Valley Won
2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series[116] Silicon Valley Nominated
2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series[116] Silicon Valley for \"Minimum Viable Product\" Nominated
2014 AFI Award for TV Program of the Year[117] Silicon Valley Won
2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy[118] Silicon Valley Nominated
2015 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series[119] Silicon Valley Nominated
2015 Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series[120] Silicon Valley Nominated
2015 Writers Guild of America Award for Television: New Series[120] Silicon Valley Nominated
2015 Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy[121] Silicon Valley Nominated
2015 Critics\' Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Series[122] Silicon Valley Won
2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series[123] Silicon Valley Nominated
2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series[123] Silicon Valley for \"Sand Hill Shuffle\" Nominated
2016 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy[124] Silicon Valley Nominated
2016 Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy[125] Silicon Valley Nominated
2016 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series[126] Silicon Valley Nominated
2016 Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series[127] Silicon Valley Nominated
2016 Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy[128] Silicon Valley Won
2016 TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy[129] Silicon Valley Nominated
2016 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series[130] Silicon Valley Nominated
2016 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series[130] Silicon Valley for \"Founder Friendly\"\" Nominated
2016 Critics\' Choice Television Award for Best Comedy Series[131] Silicon Valley Won
2016 Inkpot Award[132] Won
2017 Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy[133] Silicon Valley Won
2017 Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy[134] Silicon Valley Nominated
2017 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series[135] Silicon Valley Nominated
2017 Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series[136] Silicon Valley Nominated
2017 Animation Writers Caucus Animation Writing Award[137] Won
2017 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series[138] Silicon Valley Nominated
2017 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series[138] Silicon Valley for \"Server Error\" Nominated
2018 Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television, Comedy[139] Silicon Valley Nominated
2018 Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series[140] Silicon Valley Nominated
2018 Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Comedy Series[141] Silicon Valley Nominated
2018 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series[142] Silicon Valley Nominated
2018 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series[142] Silicon Valley for \"Initial Coin Offering\" NominatedBeavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is a 2022 American adult animated science fiction comedy film directed by John Rice and Albert Calleros and written by Mike Judge, Lew Morton, Guy Maxtone-Graham and Ian Maxtone-Graham. It is the second film based on the animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head after Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996). The film follows teenage delinquents Beavis and Butt-Head, who are transported 24 years from 1998 to 2022, encounter parallel-universe versions of themselves and are hunted by the US government.The film was announced in February 2021. The production was conducted remotely via Zoom conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released on the streaming service Paramount+ on June 23, 2022, to acclaim from critics.
PlotIn Highland, Texas, in 1998, Beavis and Butt-Head accidentally burn down their high school science fair. Believing they are at-risk youth, a judge sends them to space camp at the Johnson Space Center, where they become engrossed in a docking simulator. Impressed, the NASA astronaut Captain Serena Ryan invites them to train as astronauts, which they mistake as an offer for sex. They undergo training and board the Space Shuttle Endeavour to study a micro black hole.In space, Beavis and Butt-Head create a catastrophe. When Serena volunteers to sacrifice herself, they mistake this for another offer of sex. They put on their spacesuits, and watch Serena through a window as she prepares to change. Enraged, Serena uses the shuttle controls to fling them into space, where they are sucked into the black hole.The boys emerge in Galveston in 2022. The Pentagon detects their arrival and begins tracking them; Serena, now governor of Texas, vows to kill them to cover up her attempted murder. The boys meet intelligent versions of themselves from another universe, Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head, who explain that they have two days to enter a portal on top of Mount Everest to prevent the destruction of the multiverse.Beavis and Butt-Head acquire an iPhone and accidentally activate Siri, which they mistake for Serena; Beavis develops feelings for her. When Siri offers to set up their smart home, they believe Serena is waiting for them in Highland. After Beavis becomes trapped in a port-a-potty, he and Butt-Head are transported to a university. Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head urge them to enter the portal, which they have moved nearby, but instead they wander into a gender studies class, where the professor lectures them on white privilege. Taking this to mean they have the right to do whatever they want, they steal a police car and are arrested. In jail, Beavis takes pills given to him by an inmate, transforms into his hyperactive alter ego Cornholio, and incites an uprising. Discovering that the boys seemingly died in 1998, the warden decides that they are angels and releases them.The boys arrive home, expecting to find Serena, but find it has been placed for sale. They blame each other and separate, but are quickly abducted by government officials. Serena\'s downtrodden lieutenant, Jim Hartson, covertly frees the boys, saying he knows what Serena did to them. Smart Beavis and Butt-Head urge them to enter the portal, but the boys ignore them.All parties arrive at Beavis and Butt-Head\'s house. As Serena is about to shoot them, she realizes they are not her enemies, only foolish teenagers. Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head urge Beavis and Butt-Head to enter the portal, but Hartson is accidentally sucked in instead, closing the rift and saving the multiverse. Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head acknowledge that possibly anything could have worked and they were making it more complicated by saying only Beavis and Butt-Head could stop the portal, and acknowledge that while they are the smartest versions they are still not the brightest in existence. As Beavis attempts to express his love to Serena, Smart Beavis interrupts and offers to show her the cosmos; she leaves with him and Smart Butt-Head. In exchange for their silence, the government gives Beavis and Butt-Head their home back in its original condition. In another universe, the assembled alternative Beavises and Butt-Heads applaud Smart Beavis for becoming the first Beavis to have sex, although Serena does not return his calls.
Voice cast Mike Judge as Beavis and Butt-Head, David Van Driessen, Principal McVicker, Smart Beavis, Smart Butt-Head, Old Beavis, Old Butt-Head, Empress Beavis, Emperor Butt-Head
Gary Cole as Mattison
Nat Faxon as Jim Hartson
Chi McBride as Judge, Metcalf
Andrea Savage as Serena Ryan
Carlos Alazraqui as Flight Specialist Valdivia
Susan Bennett as Siri
Mary Birdsong as Reporter
Greg Chun as Bus Driver
Phil Davis as Federal Whistleblower Hotline Operator
Chris Diamantopoulos as Police Officer, Prisoners, Corrections Officers
Zehra Fazal as Butt-Head Fantasy Woman #1
Ashley Gardner as Anita Ross
David Herman as German Tourist, Gage, Jail Warden
Brian Huskey as Richard Wack
Toby Huss as Todd Ianuzzi
Phil LaMarr as Flight Specialist Jackson, NSA Agents, Police Officer
Whitney Martin as Disrespect Prisoner
Mike Massimino as Launch Control Voice
Jim Meskimen as NASA Director Ogilvie, Extraction Team Leader, Prisoners
Tig Notaro as Professor
Toks Olagundoye as Campaign Aide, Butt-Head Fantasy Women #2 & 3, & Female Students
Jimmy O. Yang as Flight Specialist Jung, Jeff
Stephen Root as Jail Tattoo Artist
Martin Starr as Corrections Officer, Ball-kicking Biker
Tru Valentino as McCabe, Head Corrections OfficerDaria Morgendorffer, Principal McVicker, Tom Anderson, Stewart Stevenson, Mrs Stevenson, Coach Buzzcut and Todd Ianuzzi make cameo appearances, most of them silent.
Production
DevelopmentIn 2008, Mike Judge stated, \"I like to keep the door open on Beavis and Butt-Head, because it\'s my favorite thing that I\'ve ever done. It\'s the thing I\'m most proud of.\" However, he stated his reservations regarding the \"year and a half [to] two and a half years\" that it would take \"to do that right,\" saying that a revival project \"comes up every three years.\" In 2009, while promoting his film Extract, Judge said he would like to see the characters on the big screen again, and that \"I kind of think of them as being either 15 or in their 60s. ... I wouldn\'t mind doing something with them as these two dirty old men sitting on the couch.\"[1]In March 2018, Judge told Rotten Tomatoes that the idea of doing a second Beavis and Butt-Head movie had been brought up two months prior, saying \"It\'s just a matter of coming up with an idea that feels like it\'s worth doing.\"[2] In July 2019, Judge again reiterated interest in a potential movie, stating, \"I\'ve got some ideas. I think it would have to be something that makes it relevant today. I think I might\'ve figured out a way to do that.\" He further stated that he would probably direct it.[3][4]In February 2021, it was announced that a new Beavis and Butt-Head movie was in production for Paramount+, with Judge on board. The news came following the announcement of a revival series the year prior, which was originally set to air on Comedy Central.[5] Originally, Paramount executives wanted a live-action Beavis and Butt-Head movie, with Judge holding auditions over Zoom for the project before eventually talking the company into doing an animated movie instead to reestablish the characters first, with a live-action movie still a possibility.[6] In January 2022, Judge tweeted drawings of older versions of Beavis and Butt-Head.[7] A month later, the film\'s title was revealed as Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe.[8] John Frizzell, who composed Do America, returned to compose the score.[9] The entire production was conducted remotely via Zoom conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[10]
AnimationWhile the series and the first film Do America were hand-drawn animated by Rough Draft Studios, animation services for Do the Universe were provided by Titmouse, Inc in Los Angeles, Snipple Animation Studios in the Philippines, and Inspidea in Malaysia using Adobe Animate, making it the first official Beavis and Butt-Head animation to be done digitally. Some layouts were handled by Studio Moshi in Melbourne and Ink Animation in Singapore.[11]
ReleaseThe film\'s trailer was released on June 2, 2022.[12] A sneak peek debuted three days later, at the MTV Movie and TV Awards.[13] Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe was released on Paramount+ on June 23, 2022,[14] and a day later on the UK version of the service.[15]The soundtrack was released digitally on July 8, 2022, from Paramount Music.[16][17]

---

---