Phew! Er, I mean: Darn! I mean … phew? Here’s the thing –I am both relieved and embarrassed to report/admit I found Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe thoroughly entertaining. I am relieved because a similar venture, South Park: Post COVID was so awful I didn’t bother watching its sequel, and embarrassed because, well, I am an adult.
Perhaps some background is warranted: Beavis and Butt-Head are the unholy union of terrible animation and worst-case studies. Perhaps intended to be a reflection of modern television culture or prime examples of a generation oft critiqued for lack of work ethic and morality, Beavis and Butt-Head, to me, are simply tween-age morons into base passions and completely bereft of intellectual curiosity. It would seem that the boys are an anachronism, specifically rooted to the days when MTV showed videos and little else. I think such represents one-dimensional thinking; Beavis and Butt-Head, to me, represent anti-intellectualism for the ages. While they should have died out –fad-wise- in 1998, they represent the constant dumbing down of life. Hence, I think they should be welcomed by the era of Trump with open arms.
It is not clear to either boy as to why they would ever need to know anything … or change the channel from a music video. Hence, their intellects are very poor and they only care about a few things in the world (loud music, blowing stuff up, nachos, and little else); their top-most priority is “scoring,” although neither boy has any idea how such is achieved. In this way, they are not unlike millions of tween boys throughout the country, nay, the world.
Being that the boys only care about stereotypical tween boy interests, the humor of Beavis and Butt-Head is often lowest common denominator stuff – sex jokes, bathroom jokes, crude insults, and a general abhorrence of intellect so intense it would even put the modern GOP to shame — well, some of it at least.
That all said, sometimes Beavis and Butt-Head are freaking funny as Hell and parts of Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe are flat-out hilarious.
Beavis (voice of Mike Judge) and Butt-Head (also the voice of Mike Judge) find themselves at their school science fair in 1998. How or why they are there is anybody’s guess. What they’re doing there is pretty simple: Butt-Head is “experimenting” to see how many times Beavis can get kicked in the nads before the latter passes out. Giving up on his own efforts, Butt-Head swaps his own kicking leg for one of those long-distance field-goal football kicking machines. The very next moment, Beavis is thrust nads-first into the atmosphere and the ensuing chaos burns down the school. Brought before a judge to answer for their antics, our two “heroes” are sent to Space Camp, which strikes me as a very “Simpsons”-like solution, but it gets our plot going.
At Space Camp, the two find a docking simulation machine, note how closely it resembles human intercourse, and stay at the simulator docking and undocking and docking and undocking for hours and hours and hours. A common plot in the Beavis/Butt-Head world occurs — their enthusiasm for sex is mistaken, of course, for an enthusiasm for something that isn’t sex, in this case, science and space travel. The leader of an upcoming space exploration mission, Serena Ryan (Andrea Savage) asks the boys if they would like to travel into outer space and dock for real. Her invitation is mistaken by the boys as a solicitation for sex, which also seems like a common Beavis and Butt-Head trope.
Bottom line is idiocy happens, and Beavis and Butt-Head are transported from the MTV Era into 2022 … and this is where an ordinary Beavis and Butt-Head adventure begins to shine. I won’t spoil it entirely, but there are several laugh-out–loud scenes of the idiots in the modern world including, but not limited to 1) the boys finding a smart phone and realizing the device can be used to pay for stuff. Given unlimited credit at their fingertips, Beavis and Butt-Head opt for nachos, nachos, nachos. It’s endearing … almost adorable. Two near-primitive minds, who have been propelled twenty+ years in the future entirely because they think sex is going to happen, find the means to make it happen, and opt for nachos; after all, what’s important? 2) Stumbling upon a college classroom teaching feminism, the boys are accused of having white 
male privilege (and don’t kid yourself, Beavis and Butt-Head most certainly do have white male privilege; it is the nature of the country we live in), but instead of feeling slight or shame, the two treat such as an invitation to abuse white male privilege …even in situations where it doesn’t apply. 3) The multi-verse happens, yielding “Smart Beavis” and “Smart Butt-Head,” two glowing astral and not-vocabulary challenged versions of Beavis and Butt-Head.
What do Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head report? In the entire universe, no iteration of Beavis or Butt-Head in any form has ever scored.
That particular revelation is hilarious in every universe.
I’m never going to call Beavis and Butt-Head “great art.”
I’m never going to call Beavis and Butt-Head “art.”
I’m never going to be proud of enjoying Beavis and Butt-Head.
But … this film can be enjoyed without any previous knowledge of Beavis and Butt-Head.
And those who have enjoyed Beavis and Butt-Head in the past will almost certainly enjoy their newest adventure.
Haven’t seen these morons two in a while
Thinking “how could they possibly make me smile?”
Beavis/Butt-Head, could they
Be well past passé?
Here’s the catch: stupid never goes out of style
Rated TV-14, 87 Minutes
Director: John Rice, Albert Calleros
Writer: Mike Judge, Lew Morton, Guy Maxtone-Graham, Ian Maxtone-Graham
Genre: Morons on parade!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People capable of lowest common denominator humor
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Others
