Just nosing through all these posts, I have come across the same sort of questions over and over again. Replies (follow-ups) that answer these questions are invariably incorrect, and require more follow-ups to straighten the whole thing out.
Solution: Make a FAQ
There may already be a FAQ. I haven't seen it. It needs to be posted again.
If there is no FAQ, somebody make one. It should at least contain a list of all the episodes with the videos and a brief synopsis. Possibly identifying the "lost" episodes and the ones with variations (snipped dialogue).
Does anybody agree with me? Does anybody feel like tackling it?
I agree, but there is something already. We have created an episode guide which has all the episodes, their descriptions, video lists and first airing dates as accurately as known by the readers of the group. Check the older articles, or stay tuned until Lopez-Bassler ([email]) posts it again. I think it's also in some ftp sites already.
As for a real B&B FAQ, we could indeed use one. So, to do something about it, let me first present this very old FAQ-wannabe from last year. I paste it here as is, only removing the episode list parts, because they are useless now that we have the Guide. And after that, my suggestion about what the new FAQ could look like, based on this old one. If you have any suggestions, let's hear them and make a brave new FAQ, shall we?
Beavis and Butt-head -- Some interesting facts...
=================================================
What: VARIOUS FACTS ~From: [email] (Will Leland) ~Date: July 22, 1993
When: A half hour on MTV weeknights at 7pm (and 11pm Mon-Thurs).
Creator: Mike Judge, 30, Texan. Supplies both voices.
Quotes from Judge (Newsweek 7/19/93):
"I don't think anybody said, `We're making fun of the people
who watch MTV.' It just happened."
"Every once in a while they get their comeuppance in the end,
but it's funnier when they get away with it."
History: Spinoff from Liquid Television. Premiered for two weeks in March. Returned full time in May.
Popularity: Most popular show on MTV with ratings twice as high as
plain music videos. Recent winner of Calif. Lottery (7.5
million) wants to use his money to pressure MTV to take Beavis
and Butthead off the air.
Format: Coarse characters matched by the appropriate crudeness of
rudimentary animation. Seen in various scenes at high-school,
part-time jobs, regurgitating TV commercial jingles, but
mostly sitting around watching and commenting on music videos.
What makes it funny:
Lampoons not just the performers who are the MTV channel's
lifeblood, but mercilessly depicts the many real-life B&B's
planted in front of the set watching them.
What: Disclaimer ~From: [email] ~Date: July 24, 1993
Beavis and Butthead are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy who we hardly even know. Beavis and Butthead are dumb, crude, ugly, thoughtless, sexist self-destructive fools. But for some reason the little weinerheads make us laugh.
What: COLLECTED COMMENTS FROM THE CRITICS ~From: [email] (Will Leland) ~Date: July 22, 1993
Lewd, destructive and uproariously moronic antics. A whiff of bracing (gaseous) aroma. Liberators of animal responses. Makes wusses Wayne and Garth sound like a couple of high-brow Voltaire dudes. It is Wayne and Garth desentimentalized. Too exquistely absurd and vacuous to be resisted. Utterly cretionous. Uniquely outrageous. Its logic is its laughs. A depiction of MTV's dopey, antisocial, surburban-boy audience. Archetypical guys, exaggerated, but not so out of the norm. Ordinary adolescents who don't want any part of adulthood yet. To like these guys is, damningly, to join them. Refreshingly unburdened by knowledge unrelated to heavy metal.
The bravest show ever run on national television. -Time
The decline of Western Civilization continues. -Variety
... postmodernity, once the plaything of smarty-pants French guys, in truth belongs to the engagingly stupid. -Newsweek
What: Comments on other episodes ~From: Various ~Date: July 26, 1993
Also...
There are two other short ones: [Huh, huh, I said "short ones"] "FROG BASEBALL!!!" and the one about the monster truck show. They were shown on Liquid Television, and people says that they've seen them in the Spike-n-Mike festival. I haven't seen "FROG BASEBALL!!!" on the regular B-n-B Show.
Also...
the one where they are at Burger World and tell the irritating guy at the drive thru "we're, like, closed or something. Go away."
Also...
My favorite was when B&B were sent to the counseler's (or principal's) office where the guy was trying to find them a job .... asked them questions like 'Can you count to 10?' and that sort. I think he was planning on sending them to enlist in the Army as demolition experts and to get them out of his hair.
Also...
I remember (huhhuh I said member) when B&B first aired they had an episode where they goto like Sea World or something. Beavis is holding a bunch of baloons and becomes airborne over the fishtank. He screams for Butthead to help him ("help! Butthead! This sucks! this sucks!). Butthead shoots his slingshot and hits Beavis in the nuts, and then a bunch of stuff happens.
Yeah, and then he falls in the shark pool. he heh hhhehe At the beginning, Sally Struthers(I think) was talking about the harm balloons released into the air do to animals. Then one of them goes: "Let's go buy some balloons."
And here's how I would put it. The last part can be removed because episode descriptions are already in the Guide. The "you said" list and the list of terms for "choking one's chicken" that some dude had collected could be eligible material to be added. And we need a maintainer... I think the easiest way would be to have the same guy maintain the FAQ and the Episode Guide, huh?
Beavis and Butt-Head -- The FAQ
===============================
When:
A half hour on MTV weeknights at 7pm (and 11pm Mon-Thurs).
On MTV Europe weeknights at 22.30, Saturday nights at 02.00
and Sundays at 23.00
Creator:
Mike Judge, 31, Texan. Supplies both voices.
Quotes from Judge (Newsweek 7/19/93):
"I don't think anybody said, `We're making fun of the people
who watch MTV.' It just happened."
"Every once in a while they get their comeuppance in the end,
but it's funnier when they get away with it."
History:
Spinoff from Liquid Television. Premiered for two weeks in
March 1993 and returned full time in May.
Popularity:
Most popular show on MTV with ratings twice as high as
plain music videos. A winner of Calif. Lottery (7.5
million) wanted to use his money to pressure MTV to take
Beavis and Butt-Head off the air.
Format:
Coarse characters matched by the appropriate crudeness of
rudimentary animation. Seen in various scenes at high-school,
part-time jobs, regurgitating TV commercial jingles, but
mostly sitting around watching and commenting on music videos.
Lampoons not just the performers who are the MTV channel's
lifeblood, but mercilessly depicts the many real-life B&B's
planted in front of the set watching them.
Disclaimer:
Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. In fact, 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. In other words, don't try this at home.
Collected comments from the critics:
Lewd, destructive and uproariously moronic antics. A whiff of
bracing (gaseous) aroma. Liberators of animal responses. Makes
wusses Wayne and Garth sound like a couple of high-brow
Voltaire dudes. It is Wayne and Garth desentimentalized. Too
exquistely absurd and vacuous to be resisted. Utterly
cretionous. Uniquely outrageous. Its logic is its laughs. A
depiction of MTV's dopey, antisocial, surburban-boy audience.
Archetypical guys, exaggerated, but not so out of the norm.
Ordinary adolescents who don't want any part of adulthood yet.
To like these guys is, damningly, to join them. Refreshingly
unburdened by knowledge unrelated to heavy metal.
The bravest show ever run on national television. -Time
The decline of Western Civilization continues. -Variety
... postmodernity, once the plaything of smarty-pants French
guys, in truth belongs to the engagingly stupid. -Newsweek