Beavis and Butt-Head alike humor in Nickelodeon cartoons.

[The Great Saiyaman]

I'm a night owl, going to bed at 4 at night is normal for me. And most of the time, before I go to sleep, I ended up watching Nickelodeon and I noticed something about quite a lot of their cartoon series.

How quite a bit of Beavis and Butt-Head style humor ended up in those cartoon series.

Well, I don't have to tell you who these two are. So how on earth could those two be like B&B?

- Well first of all, Spongebob is a neighbour from hell. He constantly violates Squidward's privacy and on several occasions destroys Squidwards belongings and several times his entire house. There's the episode where Spongebob and Patrick were playing golf and the ball went into Squidward's house, and they played on, damaging the furniture and chopping holes in the wall.
- Related to that, Spongebob, fails to realize that Squidward GENUINELY does not like him. There is a particular episode in which Spongebob and Patrick got their hands on flutes and start to add cartoon like noises to every single thing Squidward did, driving him insane. And the both of them laughing, failing to see how distressed Squidward is getting with their "funny" prank.
- If we draw parallels between B&B and Spongebob and Patrick, then Spongebob is Beavis and Patrick is Butt-Head. And much like Butt-Head, Patrick is not beyond throwing Spongebob under the bus. He steals from Spongebob, eats the last remaining crabby patty which was meant for being entered into a food competition, seconds before it due to be judged, doing so with a very satisfied grin.
- AND...


But not just with Spongebob...

Fanboy and Chum-chum is a series about two boys wearing superhero costumes, (They're never seen without them.) going through adventures in a town where nothing ever happens.
- Much like B&B, they intentionally sabotage attempts of their schoolmates to make a career. One of those schoolmates is an aspiring wizard, but finds every attempt he makes into getting into wizard school thwarted by FB&CC.
- When drawn Parallels between B&B and FB&CC, Chum-chum is Beavis and Fanboy is Butt-Head. Again with Fanboy's ease with how quickly he throws Chum-chum under the bus. But also by being the instigator of their many acts of vandalism.

- Having mentioned that: the supermarket is most often the target of the two's antics, and they always walk away from the carnage cackling.


And yeah, B&B style humor also appeared in a TMNT related series.

And Harold isn't the only one who got into trouble with encountering the Turtles, ask Bullhop or Señor Huesos, who saw their business trashed by four teens who refuse to take responsibility for their actions.

The most disturbing about all of this isn't so much the fact that there's B&B kind of humor in Kids' shows, but that they chose to take it from the earliest B&B series. Those eps where B&B were at their absolute WORST.

Not too hard to see this happening in a Rise or Spongebob episode.


Again something I can see happening in either a Spongebob or a Rise episode, with April taking Daria's role here.

[neatoman]

I'm not sure you fully understand the humor of Beavis and Butt-head. It's genuinely hard to see anything but surface level comparisons in the video examples you posted. I know a frequent joke in SpongeBob is about how Squidward is annoyed by SpongeBob's behavior, but I'm not sure if SpongeBob behaves enough like Beavis and Butt-Head for it to be similar. As for RotTMNT, the video example clearly demonstrates a dare, Raph is well aware it won't end well and I can't remember anything that similar to Beavis and Butt-Head otherwise. As for Fanboy and Chum Chum, I'm not familiar with the show in general but I'm not seeing much comparable to Beavis and Butt-Head in the videos either.

In order to qualify as similar in my eyes, it needs to fit the following criteria:

1. The main characters must be indifferent to their destructive behavior, it can't just be malicious (or at least not think they are) nor can it be well intentioned but misguided, they have to genuinely not care.
2. They can't just be stupid, they must also fail to understand what's going on around them, correct assumptions should not be made by them.
3. People around them need to either be irritated by their behavior, mistake it for a good deed or be oblivious to it, they can't just go along with it or accept it for what it is.

If you can find clear cut examples of something that fits all of these criteria, that would be a good start.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I'm not sure you fully understand the humor of Beavis and Butt-head. It's genuinely hard to see anything but surface level comparisons in the video examples you posted. I know a frequent joke in SpongeBob is about how Squidward is annoyed by SpongeBob's behavior, but I'm not sure if SpongeBob behaves enough like Beavis and Butt-Head for it to be similar. As for RotTMNT, the video example clearly demonstrates a dare, Raph is well aware it won't end well and I can't remember anything that similar to Beavis and Butt-Head otherwise. As for Fanboy and Chum Chum, I'm not familiar with the show in general but I'm not seeing much comparable to Beavis and Butt-Head in the videos either.

In order to qualify as similar in my eyes, it needs to fit the following criteria:

1. The main characters must be indifferent to their destructive behavior, it can't just be malicious (or at least not think they are) nor can it be well intentioned but misguided, they have to genuinely not care.
2. They can't just be stupid, they must also fail to understand what's going on around them, correct assumptions should not be made by them.
3. People around them need to either be irritated by their behavior, mistake it for a good deed or be oblivious to it, they can't just go along with it or accept it for what it is.

If you can find clear cut examples of something that fits all of these criteria, that would be a good start.

I mean... surface level, those three examples fit Spongebob and Patrick to a tee, especially Patrick. The only difference that would REALLY make in B&B humor is for them to also be trying to get laid. A lot of times B&B get into their shenanigans because they think they can score. Oh, and have Spongebob constantly abuse Patrick as well.

Also while most of the time B&B are too stupid to fully grasp what they're doing, they know they're doing bad stuff since doing bad stuff and causing vandalism and whatnot is 'cool'. I'm not sure exactly what level of malice they actually comprehend, but at the same time they don't want to be boring goody-goodies like Stewart and actually do good things either. That's 'not cool'.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

This thread reminded me of when are we going to hear more news on that Ren and Stimpy reboot for Comedy Central?