Beavis and Butt-Head Do America Stands the Test of Time
Looking for something other than sappy Christmas movies to watch over the holidays? There is no greater and more prescient skewering of the absurdity of the American national security state than Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
Twenty-five years later, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America remains an excellent satire of the twenty-first-century US security state. (MTV)
Twenty-five years ago this week, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America made its debut. Creator Mike Judge had resisted previous attempts to make a movie about these two quintessentially American characters — the manic, tweaked-out, and perpetually horny Beavis and the disaffected, bored, and also perpetually horny Butt-Head — but MTV finally dangled a big enough check in front of him that he agreed to sign off on Do America. The result was a box-office smash that is being commemorated with a big media celebration, a Blu-ray release, and talk of a sequel.
All this is pretty standard media hype cycle stuff, but that shouldn’t obscure what’s really worth discussing: Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is the greatest satire of the twenty-first-century American security state. And what’s even more impressive is that it was made in the twentieth century, five years before 9/11.
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