'Beavis and Butt-Head' reboot: The Gen Xers will struggle to cope with Gen Z's hyperactive stupidity
The entertainment industry likes the tried and tested. So it isn't surprising in the long list of reboots and revivals, to have MTV's iconic adult animated series. 'Beavis and Butt-Head' being brought out of retirement. The creator of the original '90s series, Mike Judge, is in charge again. He will write, produce, and provide the voices for both iconic characters for two brand new seasons. Since MTV's viewing demographic has changed considerably from metalheads to tween girls, the new seasons will be broadcasted on Comedy Central.
In its press release, Comedy Central laid out what will be on offer. "In this iteration, Beavis and Butt-Head are entering a whole new Gen Z world", with "meta-themes relatable to both new and old fans -- Gen X parents and their Gen Z kids." Judge, known for his films 'Idiocracy', 'Office Space' and the series 'King of the Hill', also spoke about bringing the two slacker teens into 2020. "It seemed like the time was right to get stupid again,” he said.
Touted as a "reimagining" of the series that overtly parodied Gen X teens, while also responding to common criticisms "about the youth", it is clear that the series wants to reap the nostalgia factor while becoming au courant with Gen Z shenanigans.
“Beavis and Butt-Head were a defining voice of a generation, and we can’t wait to watch as they navigate the treacherous waters of a world light-years from their own," said Comedy Central's Chris McCarthy, President of Entertainment & Youth Group. His statement illustrates the central problem with bringing back a series that is a defining pop culture phenomenon.
'Beavis and Butt-Head' epitomized the '90s "teen slacker culture", bored, privileged, and like a lot of TV in the '90s, casually sexist and racist. Beavis' alter-ego "Cornholio" from "Lake Titicaca" with his phoney Spanish accent who once got deported to Mexico is a prime example of this. That sort of thing wouldn't raise eyebrows in the '90s but it won't fly in 2020. MTV's own research shows that jokes based on racial differences simply don't work with the Gen Z audience, and even Gen Y millennials. The series' humor that seemed super-edgy compared to other teen-oriented content on TV in the '90s, now just seems dated.
There is also a whole world of hurt coming their way, thanks to cancel-culture and woke-ism if they decide to continue along the same lines. In 2020, when even long-running, beloved shows like 'Simpsons' are reforming, how will 'Beavis and Butt-Head' adapt? If they lay off the jokes that made them famous in the first place, they will lose their nostalgic Gen X audience tuning in for politically-incorrect fare. If they don't, they will attract the full fury of social justice warriors and vocal Twitter activists and will alienate Gen Z who lives on social media.
Gen Z, the "digital latchkey" generation, grew up on the internet. So while the whole world was just a click away for them, they are more isolated, prone to anxiety, and worry about jobs and education far more than the blissfully ignorant Gen X teens, who had a stable future ahead of them. Therefore, a lot of the violent, juvenile humor displayed by the anarchist metalhead duo might not work anymore.
Instead, stupidity among Gen Z comes in the form of chasing quick fame (and money) through social media challenges (like licking toilets seats) or throwing "COVID parties" with prize money for whoever contracts the disease first. So while it is true that stupidity reinvents itself in every generation of teens, as Judge correctly notes, the shape and form it takes vary tremendously.
'Beavis and Butt-Head' represent Gen X teen stupidity, for whom everything "sucked" and making snarky commentary on music videos as couch potatoes was the zenith of mental stimulation. But, can they represent Gen Z's hyperactive stupidity? Or will they, as McCarthy puts it, be the same Gen X teens who "navigate" the Gen Z's world, taking potshots at Tik Tokers, gender-fluid and queer icons like Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga or Black artists like Nicki Minaj and Beyonce with raging fanbases or, god forbid, K-pop stars?
One example of how Beavis and Butt-Head were "updated" in the brief 2011 revival was 'Werewolves of Highland'. In that episode, the teens realize that post-'Twilight', girls are attracted to vampires and werewolves. So they make it their mission to be bitten by an immortal creature. They mistake a crazy old homeless guy named Henry for a werewolf who bites them. Back home, when they start sprouting boils, they think they are "transforming".
But in actuality, they have contracted hepatitis C, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, gonorrhoea, gangrene, MRSA and staph. When the nurses touch their penises to insert catheters, they giggle in their characteristic manner despite being in a coma, with Butt-Head saying, "Deep...". But he is too sick to finish the phrase with the word "throat".
So essentially, 'Beavis and Butt-Head' can't change their basic Gen X DNA and they start resembling letchy old men, instead of edgy slacker teens, when they start reacting to newer material. Therefore, the plan to cater to both Gen X and Gen Z through some miraculous mix-and-match humor is doomed to fail.