In honor of the triumphant return of Beavis and Butt-head to MTV, I thought it would be fitting to work them into a top 5. I had forgotten how influential B&B had been for my generation until I started watching the new episodes. Seeing the two main characters tear apart bad videos stupid reality shows brought up an interesting "chicken or egg" question. Was the original run of the show so successful because it reflected the jaded sarcasm that was already present in our generation or did B&B teach it to us? Either way, I can't help but feel it played some role in creating the "too cool" hipster community that is so prevalent in today's society. None the less, it was a huge source of entertainment for me through my formative high school years and looks to be returning to form 14 years later, so here is my list of Top 5 Old School Beavis and Butt-head episodes...
5) Burger World (Season 2)
This is one of the episodes that I remember putting B&B on the cultural map. The boys are working at a fast food joint and end up serving Mr. Anderson a fried rat and bugs. There was an outrage about showing fast food workers doing something so horrible. It's a far cry from the stuff that South Park gets away with today, but it was a big deal in '93 and certainly paved the way for Matt Stone and Trey Parker to work their satiric magic.
4) No Laughing (Season 2)
This was a two part episode where Principle McVicker forbids B&B from laughing because they are being to disruptive in during class. After the punishment is handed down, the two boys find themselves in Coach Buzzcut's sex ed class and hilarity ensues. As stupid and immature as B&B are, there's a little kid in all of us that find dirty words and funny names hilarious and it's that little bit of truth blown up to ridiculous proportions that makes this show so great. This episode was a perfect and early example.
3) Very Special Christmas (Season 3)
This episode was nothing but B&B watching and making fun of Christmas videos. As funny as the plot parts of the episodes were, what really made B&B so funny were the videos. And as many horrible videos as Mike Judge showed, there were also a ton of great ones. B&B was a great source of new music for a kid who lived in the boonies of Northwestern Connecticut and had very few outlets for anything but top 40 fare. This episode didn't have any good music in it, except "Christmas in Hollis", just really funny Christmas crap and, of course, the burning Yule Log.
2) Choke (Season 5)
Butt-head chokes on a chicken nugget and it's up to Beavis to save his life. It's probably the stupidest brand of humor you can find, but I laughed through this episode at least 100 times. I'm not proud of it, but it doesn't change the fact that it's one of my all time favorites.
1) The Great Cornholio (Season 4), Buttniks (Season 5), Bungholio: Lord of The Harvest (season 6), Vaya con Cornholio (Season 7)
I know it's cheating to list four episodes and count them as one, but I lived for anything Cornholio. To the point where, on boring weekend nights in high school, I was know to wander the frozen food section of the local grocery store with my shirt over my head. My favorite of the four was probably the Halloween one, where Cornholio pops up after Beavis gets a hold of to much candy, even though nothing can ever really beat the first appearance of such a classic character.
Honorable Mention: Kidnapped (season 3), Cow Tipping (season 4), Vs. The Vending Machine (season 4), Spanish Fly (season 5)
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