Beavis and Butthead handle the joyous season in their own twisted way, with visits from ghosts and even an angel failing to get through their thick skulls.
After the typical intro of Beavis and Butthead giggling, this time with Santa hats, we're introduced to Part 1: "Huh Huh Humbug."
Beavis and Butthead are at work on Christmas Eve, with the former asleep at the register and the latter pressing a rat onto the grill. He explains to his angered boss that he's trying to clean the grill by doing this, and the manager chastises him for screwing around, saying he'll be nothing with no ambition. As he rants, he hits Butthead to wake him, and Beavis himself dozes off, dreaming of a world where he's the manager and Principal McVicker works the grill. After giving McVicker a warped version of his own manager's speech, Beavis declares that he's going home for Christmas while leaving Butthead in charge all night. Once there, Beavis pops in a porno tape, only for his attempts to be thwarted as he gets visits from multiple ghosts, each played by someone he knows trying to convince him he needs to change his ways. After this section concludes, we get to meet the great Santa Butthead, who answers letters from real people. The duo later reacts to the Ramones song "Merry Christmas, I Don't Want to Fight Tonight," the Hoodoo Gurus performing "Little Drummer Boy," and Buster Poindexter with "Zat You, Santa Claus?" As Beavis got his own twisted take on a Christmas tale, Butthead now gets the spotlight with "It's a Miserable Life." This time around, we open on people around town praying to God, begging that the duo either "go away" or be killed for the trouble they cause. In the fashion of It's a Wonderful Life, the starry God sends for an angel, Charlie, as Beavis and Butthead show disgust with every channel showing a Christmas special. Charlie explains there's just no reaching the two, demonstrating by appearing on their TV, which they write off as a show sucking and flip to a new one. God declares that Charlie will have to take away their lives to get through to them, and sends him down as they head out to search for girls. They are upset to find the convenience store is closed, preventing them from meeting girls or looking at nude magazines, so they head out. They come to a rickety bridge as a storm picks up, and Charlie arrives to freeze the planks as the pair wrestle around the edge. Just as they start to fall, they catch themselves and Butthead decides they should go home because it's cold; Charlie gives chase and slips into the water. The two laugh at Charlie's misfortune as he returns to the bridge and tells them who he is, requesting that they jump off the bridge for the good of all mankind. Bored after learning he won't jump again and appalled at his request, they try to leave, but Charlie decides to show Butthead how much better the world would be if her was never born. With a flash, Beavis disappears and the sky clears, leaving the angel to direct Butthead around and show him how his absence has bettered everyone's lives. Following this is Beavis and Butthead reacting to more music: "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis." To finish up the special, Santa Butthead returns with more letters, this time with a special one that includes both him and his reindeer, Beavis.
I only discovered this special a few years ago, but it quickly became a favorite for me after I came to love the ridiculous tales of Beavis and Butthead.
In the main stories for the episode, we get classic Christmas stories, with parodies of "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful LIfe," twisted for our bumbling duo. In the first, there's a change in that, unlike Ebenezer Scrooge, who truly needs to become selfless, the Beavis needing this is in a dream. Right off the bat, we get the ridiculous logic of this show, with Beavis attempting to clean the grill at Burger World by pressing a rat onto it. Butthead takes a major backseat in this section, beginning it by sleeping and only appearing again as this version of Jacob Marley and at the end. Beavis, meanwhile, spends the episode stubbornly refusing the ghosts' advice, but here it's not because he's a Christmas curmudgeon, but due to his plans. All he wants to do is sit back and watch his tape, but every time he tries, one of the ghosts appears to ruin his fun. The joke repeats each time he gets to a new point and a ghost appears, and each time Beavis gets more irritated that they won't let him do what they want. Butthead's later story is a complete 180 from the joy and positive message of the original, giving it some excellent dark humor. The happiness of Christmas specials is irritating Beavis and Butthead, who hope to pick up girls, and their antics have led to everyone hating them. It's already darkly humorous enough that many people in town are praying for their deaths, and then it gets better when it turns out God agrees. Realizing how upset everyone is, God decides "You know, what? Maybe I should just wipte those two stains off the map." When Charlie at this point demonstrates how he can't get through to them, we see the duo's obliviousness as he directly tells them from the TV he's talking to them, and they simply think it's a show and decide to change the channel. The upbeat story of "It's a Wonderful Life" is about the positive impact one man can have on a town, as a way of convincing George he has a purpose. For Beavis and Butthead, on the other hand, the point is to show them that everything would be much better if they went ahead and jumped off a bridge.
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My favorite aspects of the first section with Beavis have to be the characters who take part in the "Christmas Carol" twist, and how Beavis reacts to it all.
Naturally, Butthead takes the place of Jacob Marley, since Beavis is our Scrooge for the evening, and the first ghost following him is Anderson as the Ghost of Christmas Past. His point is that Beavis has wasted his life up to this point, spending every Christmas sitting on the couch with Butthead and laughing. Naturally, he is unable to get through Beavis's thick skull, as the dunce simply argues that "at least I'm not some old fat dude." Beavis's uncaring and oblivious attitude gets me each time a new ghost appears; following Anderson is Mr. Van Drieeson as the Ghost of Christmas Present. He gets one of my favorite introductions for the episode, appearing right after the woman in the video mentions how great men with facial hair are. His face simply dings into place on the screen, and Beavis's immense joy immediately turns sour upon seeing his teacher's face in the video. Van Drieeson shows Beavis that his stinginess is keeping McVicker from being able to feed his family, who hilariously all look and sound exactly like him, stuttering and all, but Beavis has a reaction he doesn't expect. Unlike Scrooge, who realizes the harm his actions are causing, Beavis only notices that McVicker snuck out and "stole" some food for his family, and he should be fired. He and Butthead being oblivious is always a key component to the comedy for this show, and here it's on full display as he doesn't care McVicker's family has no food. This continues later with the Ghost of Christmas Future, portrayed by Coach Buzzcut, who gets another of my favorite reactions from Beavis: "I'm trying to watch a porno, and you fart knockers keep interrupting me!" This time around, his idiocy is completely countered by the ghost, as Buzzcut warns that he'll stick a Christmas tree where the sun don't shine, with Beavis simply replying that this could hurt. A lot more of this one is based around Buzzcut's rage as Beavis continues his idiocy; he reveals that McVicker's kids starved, and Beavis assumes he and his wife ate them. It takes him quite some time to realize what truly happened, and then he comically replies that this won't be the future, putting forward his own idea wherein Beavis still works the counter at Burger World while Beavis is now the robot manager. It's already ridiculous to see how he thinks things will be, and Buzzcut angrily says that Beavis is wrong and reveals the other part of his future: after death, Beavis's headstone reads that he never scored, a result of him staying in and watching porn. As with most things in the show, this all does nothing to really change Beavis, as after waking up, he tells Butthead that the future is going to be pretty great. No matter what anyone tries to do or say, it seems nothing can stop Beavis from his moronic, destructive ways.
In the second story, we follow Butthead more as Charlie ridiculously tries to convince him to jump in the river to better everyone's lives.
As a direct antithesis of "It's a Wonderful Life," we humorously get to see Butthead learning how his shenanigans have ruined everyone's lives, often in dramatic ways. First up is Anderson, who of course has had the problem of Beavis and Butthead living next-door to him and ruining his yard all the time. When Butthead and Charlie arrive at his house, everything is beautiful, with green grass, bushes, and trees, and a beautiful Christmas display. Naturally, the moment Butthead and Charlie turn to leave, Butthead's foot drags the cord to Anderson's display, destroying it and the yard. They then travel to the school, where Principal McVicker, now with a full head of hair, happily carols with the students, including Daria, who now has a boyfriend as Butthead wasn't their to ruin her image of boys. McVicker is one who generaly takes the cake for dramatic changes in this special for me, as Butthead is apparently the sole reason he lost his hair. I can't imagine the stress Butthead constantly causes him, but it apparently caused the loss of a luscious head of black, styled hair. With this section we really get to see that, of the two, Butthead is really the big problem, influencing even Beavis in a negative way. He demands that Charlie take him to his friend, and learns that in this world, he volunteers at the homeless shelter with Stewart, who has self-esteem now. Stewart and Beavis actually have different clothes to reflect the change, and behave differently: Stewart is more aggressive, and Butthead kinder and more docile. Beavis is definitely a follower, and builds his personality around whomever he's with; with Butthead, he's the crazy guy we see at the start, but with the polite Stewart, he's happy to party with non-alcoholic eggnog and helps the homeless. Funnily enough, we see Butthead influence Beavis a tad in the small moment they see each other here, as he repeatedly calls him a bunghole and demands money. This only results in the homeless citizens throwing him out as he gets handsy with Beavis, and Beavis then starts to giggle at liking the word "bunghole." Continuing the reversal of how the original movie is, Butthead just keeps making Charlie's job more difficult, requesting that he be born again and not complying. Charlie had believed seeing all this would lead to Butthead deciding to do what's best for mankind, but Butthead deems the alternate reality inferior to this one. He and Beavis leave, and Charlie again falls in the river, further showing how dense and uncaring Beavis and Butthead are.
Of the other sections, I never cared as much for the musical segments, but always love the "Santa Butthead" sections.
The music is often from people I just don't know, and never really cared much for most of the music that played. On the other hand, I always found Santa Butthead to bea funny segment, mostly because the letters he reads are from real fans. You can tell the people whose letters appear are true fans, as their requests are just as ridiculous as something you'd hear in a typical episode. It's here that Beavis actually gets to learn he's apparently the heartthrob of the group, as a few girls request that he be their present. Each time of course, Butthead refuses to believe that people are interested in Beavis, saying this can't possibly be true. My favorite of these moments is the first woman to request Beavis, as she doesn't ask for him by name, but gets so descriptive with her desire that she's obviously talking about him, in a truly ridiculous fashion. They also get a letter from jail, and one guy who mostly just wants to ask Butthead to kick the "bejeezus" out of Beavis, his reindeer, and Santa Butthead is happy to comply. The final request is the most out there and I love getting to, as someone with the name "Karen Cleavage" requests that they "share" her as their woman. To this point, Buttheadhas been getting annoyed repeatedly as Beavis tries to demand things like the letters that want him, and this time is no different. Shocked at the letter's contents, Beavis requests the woman's address, and Butthead simply says it's time for them to go.
Now I know that Beavis and Butthead isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea, but I for one love the ridiculous humor these two provide.
I only discovered this special a few years ago, but it's now one I'll actually watch multiple times when Christmas rolls around. The two man stories of the special are excellent opposites to two classic Christmas stories, with some excellent twisted humor mixed in. Along with this comes sections of Beavis and Butthead watching and mocking music videos as they typically do, and letter-reading with Santa Butthead. These smaller sections help to break up the episode so we're not on one subject for too long, and by the end I've always had some good laughs.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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