‘Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe’ Movie Review


While a lot of 90s exports age like day-old nachos in this endless conquest of Hollywood to extract every little corner of nostalgia found in our pop culture sphere, there is nothing insane about having Beavis and Butt-Head back in our lives . (Heh-heh-heh-heh, you said a **.)

The couch-surfing, persistently perverted princes of double meaning and nutcrackers have returned after about 11 years since their latest TV ventures, and well over 26 years since their last film adventure. Instead of feeling like a constructed game for streaming, Beavis and Butt-Head make the universe, yes, scores, giving fans the kind of grand revival they were hoping for after years of longing for a return from MTV’s most infamous cartoon knockleheads. Although it never quite reaches the absurd heights of the 1996 masterpiece, Mike Judge’s lovely doofuse rises again, wrapped in the exact kind of brain-freezing laughter that can come from reaching out for the lowest possible hanging wasp nest and continuing to kick to it until you are teeming with its plugs.

Judge has spent most of his career exploring the everyday lives of all people, whether they are horny, pop culture-obsessed teens, patriotic propane sellers, dull office mates, future Neanderthals or Silicon Valley tech bros. His laser-sharp commentary often avoids deep dives; the jokes are always on the surface and that’s the point. He has long advocated the idea that people who take themselves too seriously or try to take advantage of others evade their innate desire: to be true to ourselves, no matter how simple or stupid it may be.

Beavis and Butt-Head
Paramount +

While Judge has openly talked about how idiotic Beavis and Butt-Head are, and how the laughs are always directed square in their direction, there is a charm to how committed the two dumba **** are in never understanding anything past their nose and their second sense of humor. While the adults flaunt around them and try to make them better or put them in their place, it is somehow teenagers who stand tall in the end and laugh at how you accidentally made a potty joke.

The new film elaborates on how Beavis and Butt-Head would fare if they were sucked into a black hole (yes, they find the very basic humor in a black hole) and transported into 2022. They misunderstand Siri, crash a sex study class, completely miss the point of what white privilege means, encourage a prison riot that inspired a progressive warden to take divine intervention, and yes, completely miss the point that no women are interested in anything under any circumstances them. Judge and company avoid going for the easy 2022 jokes by going for the easiest 2022 jokes. Again, the original series lived and died by just hitting you over the head in the most obvious way, so that any laughter hit you until you were numb to the will of Beavis and Butt-Heads.

There’s a happy submission in just going with it, in just accepting that these losers will always find their way out of their own butts, no matter how crooked things get. There’s nothing more satisfying than the stately facade of the serious people around Beavis and Butt-Head, which crashes like a computer soaked in water every time teens wiggle into a situation and mess it up so badly, but somehow never to their own detriment. Somehow, after all these years, it’s still just the funniest thing in the world for Beavis and Butt-Head to torment the more “enlightened” people around them with the dumbest situational humor.

Beavis and Butt-Head
Paramount +

Beavis and Butt-Head make the universe, at times, feels the weight of its streaming media. It never becomes quite as cinematic as its predecessor, nor as anarchist. The boys have by no means slowed down, but there seemed to be a force of gravity to set up a Paramount + revival. It’s never defeating, and no, you’ll never get tired of watching Beavis and Butt-Head find all the ways to turn space camp activities into something harsh. The first 30 minutes of the film are a lightning rod of raw humor, just as funny as the duo has ever been. Everything that follows is still hugely entertaining (especially the prison sequence that features a cameo from The Great Cornholio, who of course still needs tee-pee for his bunghole), but you can toot that it’s a little too plotted to what works best with the characters.

With the boys apparently back forever, it’s a relief that their return feels so much less forced than welcome. This is not hashtag content; it’s a reminder that even to this day you can still find yourself howling on the couch over the dumbest crotch you could imagine. One day we will all get sick and tired of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Batman will lose its luster, the Avatar universe will run out of steam (again?), And the galaxy far, far away will keep it that way. However, we will never lose interest in Beavis and Butt-Head. All these years later, they are just as sharp and punishingly funny as ever. It will never be hard to jump back into action with these idiots.

Beavis and Butt-Head make the universe is now available to stream on Paramount +. Watch the trailer here.

Advertising


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *