The Geniuses of February Awards
A grievously short history of Beavis and Butt-Head and the itch that simply refuses to go away
DO YOU REMEMBER your first reaction to the phenomenon of Beavis and Butt-Head? Would you call your initial encounter with the lads adventitious — was it an unexpected, full-on, frontal attack on your sensibilities? Or, was it serendipitous, in the sense that while it was still unexpected, shocking even, it left you craving more of it?
I suspect your answer will be generational. That first group is older. They felt a little (to a lot) overwhelmed and threatened by what appeared to be B &B’s motiveless actions that nearly always veered away from what was socially acceptable, and what was often illegal.
The second group — the Serendipitalists, we’ll call them — are younger. They were raised by the first group. Their mamas and daddies led that first group. Serendipitalists applauded Beavis and Butt-Head’s lack of forethought. They cheered their careless spontaneity and rib-nudged and chuckled at their consequences. Motives be damned! Motives got us into WWI and II. Motives dragged us into Vietnam.
Keep in mind, I’m a child of the 40s and 50s. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Adventitionist! Roseana’s and my children, now middle-aged, never tire of chiding us about how we…
