Film + TV

TRENDSPOTTING: '90s nostalgia reanimates Beavis and Butthead, causes other shows to rise from the dead

by Richard Trapunski

If you’ve paid any attention to fashion, music, or film lately, chances are you’ve noticed something familiar: flannel, distortion, detachment, and irony. Everyone from the Pixies to Dinosaur Jr to Kyuss are picking up for reunion tours, Hollywood studios are recycling 20 year old concepts, and fashion mavens are celebrating grunge. The ‘90s are back in a big way, and after exhausting all the other airwaves, it’s spreading to the small screen.

Last week, MTV saw the return of television’s most irreverent music critics: Beavis and Butthead. The giggling, wisecracking titular teens of Beavis and Butthead are more than just a reprisal of Mike Judge’s most celebrated achievement—they represent major signposts of the return of the ‘90s alternative ethos. From their slacker lifestyle to their ironic commentary on music videos, the two characters are practically Generation X incarnate.

So what are they doing on TV screens in 2011, almost completely un-updated? Well, despite what they may have said twenty years ago, X’ers are seemingly just as prone to nostalgia as their Baby Boomer forebears. But this isn’t just a case of simple nostalgia. Beavis and Butthead, more than its traditional narrative storytelling, is known for the simple-but-iconic segments of the two characters sitting on their couch and making fun of music videos. The characters may be the same, but the material has been updated.

In the past two decades, music videos have more and more become the territory of the internet, while MTV and similar channels have filled the space with reality TV and other similar “lifestyle” programming. Therefore, on episode one, we have Beavis and Butthead directing their sarcastic gaze at contemporary pop culture ephemera like Twilight and Sixteen and Pregnant, a bit of an uncanny shift considering the characters themselves remain preserved in their perma-‘90s style. It’s as if they stepped out of a time machine with the express purpose of finding newer material for their juvenile basement couch schtick.

But is that schtick still relevant? Well, looking at today’s airwaves, the field of metatextual critique is certainly more crowded than it was when the show first aired. Shows like The Soup, The Daily Show, and on MuchMusic, Video On Trial, have inherited quite a bit of B&B’s DNA. Which is to say, anyone looking for a snarky take on music, news and pop culture don’t have far to surf to find it.

In fact, that mode even been re-joined by one of Beavis and Butthead’s original peers, VH1’s Pop-Up Video. The 90’s show merged behind-the-scenes trivia, non-sequiturs and snark with videos in a way that both celebrated pop music and highlighted its absurdity in a satisfying way that prefigured watching TV with an iPhone in hand. That said, it definitely seems to play just as well now as it did then. But in 2011, its use of real-time commentary of pop culture is no longer one-of-a-kind.

Perhaps that’s in part a reaction to the source material itself. Trash TV like Jersey Shore has a built-in irony mechanism. It’s bad and it’s mindless, but it seems well aware of that. Considering much of today’s pop culture practically invites you to watch it from a safe distance of superiority, using a television soapbox to mock it almost seems a bit too easy. Which is, of course, why so many programs have opted to do so.

Beavis and Butthead (not to mention its well-loved spin-off Daria) once represented the fringes of mainstream culture, the great “alternative nation” before it was packaged and re-sold as post-grunge. Nowadays, those fringes don’t exist like they used to, and if they’re to be found at all they’re often found on the internet. That’s likely why, despite a heralded revamp of genre niche shows The Wedge and Rap City to MuchMusic’s primetime lineup, they’re yet again floundering in late-late-night slots.

That leads us to yet another once-celebrated ‘90s hit soon to make its return: In Living Color. In its prime, the Fox sketch comedy show was greatly influential for its mixed-race cast, frequent hip hop musical guests and boundary-pushing comedy, which coloured outside the lines of political correctness.

Much of that comedy seems tame by today’s standards, especially as shows like Family Guy and South Park have crossed the lines of poor taste so many times, and in prime-time, that “edginess” has lost its meaning. (It’s also lost its immediate chuckle factor, which may also explain why Family Guy seems so lifeless in its current incarnation). And hip hop has largely lost its subversive qualities and become one of the most profitable genres.

If In Living Color, Beavis and Butthead, Pop-Up Video or any other ‘90s shows want to rise from the dead, it’s important they prove adaptable to today’s zeitgeist. It’s okay if television looks back, as long as it has one eye forward