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Heh huh heh huh heh huh...
"Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh."

"Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They're not even human. They're cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: Don't Try This at Home."
The original preshow content disclaimer(s)

Beavis and Butt-Head is a mid-90s animated cartoon on MTV by Mike Judge, who would go on to make King of the Hill, Office Space, Idiocracy, The Goode Family and Silicon Valley. Its stated purpose was to skewer the then-public stereotype of their viewing audience as lazy, unintelligent teenage slackers who did nothing but watch videos all day and were easily amused by bodily functions and dirty jokes.

The titular characters were a pair of not-too-bright (which in this case is quite possibly an overstatement of their intelligence) heavy metal music fans who virtually did nothing but watch real-life music videos on their TV and make snide Mystery Science Theater 3000-esque comments about things in the videos that annoyed or amused them. These music video commentaries were pretty much inserted for padding into the very short episodes, where the boys would wander around their hometown of Highland, Texas, generally annoying those they met and committing acts of petty vandalism.

The most common targets of the boys' antics were their elderly neighbor Tom Anderson (who was basically an older, more senile prototype of Hank Hill), their geeky school classmate Stewart Stevenson, and most of the faculty of their high school. The character who took the worst abuse was Principal McVicker, who was driven to drink, medication, and in the finale, a seemingly fatal heart attack. The dimwitted duo were, in turn, foiled by the sarcastic Daria Morgendorffer, who occasionally tricked them into publicly embarrassing themselves, and local hot-rodder/gangleader Todd Ianuzzi, whom they admired (similar to how Stewart views them) but who invariably ended up maiming them.

It horrified the Moral Guardians from the get-go, and a few of its more controversial aspects had to be dropped— notably Beavis's pyromania, after they reportedly inspired a viewing child to set a fire in his house that killed his sister.note  In one case in real life which apparently was inspired by the show's antics, a boy killed his brother by giving him a ride in a commercial dryer, the way one of the characters did to the other, which made the show rein in some of its more outrageous acts of stupidity. Also spurring objections were the boys' constant use of fireworks to blow things up, along with their tendency to amuse themselves with physical violence and animal cruelty, most notably the infamous pilot episode "Frog Baseball".

A total of 199 episodes were produced, as well as the 1996 feature-length film Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, several computer games, a 28 issue comic book series from Marvel Comics, and tons of associated merchandise. Additionally, supporting character Daria successfully spun off into her own show. A later Mike Judge creation, King of the Hill, would retool Tom Anderson into the lead character of Hank Hill. DVD and VHS releases of the series have left out most of the Music Video segments due to rights issues, losing a lot of the series' best moments.

In late 2011, the show returned to MTV; while the format had been slightly tweaked — the snark segments now covered both music videos and MTV original shows such as Jersey Shore, Teen Mom and True Life, presumably to prevent the sort of rights issues that surround the original series' snark segments — the show remained the same otherwise. The 2011 series, however, only lasted one season before being canceled again. However, Judge tried his best to find another network to pick the show up again, even as Silicon Valley took up most of his time.

Eventually, Judge's persistence (and the end of Silicon Valley) paid off. On July 1, 2020, the boys were again Un-Canceled; ViacomCBS announced that the revived series would get two new seasons in which the dull-witted duo would face "a whole new Gen Z world", with plans for additional Spin-Offs and specials. The re-launch was originally intended to premiere on Comedy Central, but it ultimately debuted on Paramount+ along with older remastered episodes of the original run, with the duo making a few appearances in the Mega Crossover ad campaign for that service's initial relaunch alongside various other characters and personalities.

On June 2, 2022, a new movie was announced for Paramount+ called Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, putting the idiotic duo through a strange sci-fi adventure for the ages and serving as the launch of the new series.


"Tropes are cool, huh-huh":

General trope examples:


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    Tropes A to F 
  • Abusive Parents:
    • In "Drones", the boys recount Beavis's mother's attempt to leave him behind at an IKEA so she could go to Vegas with a gang of bikers.
    • Stewart's dad has demonstrated that, when faced with a dilemma, he'll throw his son under the bus to save himself, like the infamous Harry Sachz incident, where he went from an undeserving victim to a well deserving victim of an Ass Shove.
  • Accidental Misnaming: After a real life American Senator referred to our heroes as "Beaver and Buffcoat" (see Fan Nickname on the Trivia tab), the show introduced a Running Gag in which Beavis and/or Butt-Head's names were mispronounced by people who didn't know them well. They were referred to as everything from "Beatrice and Butt-Brain" to "Beavis and Nut-Head" to "Travis and Bernard".
  • Achievements in Ignorance: In "Animation Sucks", the duo have no idea how the process of animation works and spend all their time in class drawing hundreds of pictures of themselves getting tortured and mauled without considering how any of the images are supposed to relate to one another. They end up creating a short that, while very macabre and disturbing, is fluid, detailed, dynamic, and able to stay on model in ways few untrained animators could achieve on their first tries. Van Driessen himself admits to being very impressed by how it turned out.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Even while he's choking to death on a piece of fried chicken in "Choke", Butt-Head can't help but giggle in amusement when Beavis points out that Butt-Head is "choking his chicken."
  • Adults Are Useless: The titular characters are left unattended at home; the adults are either irresponsible, ignorant, or helpless when it comes to managing them.
  • Advanced Tech 2000:
    • In "Inventors", the duo deform a coathanger, calling it the "Butt-Scratcher 2000", and try to sell it.
    • And in "Good Credit", the boys shop at a "Turbo Mall 2000". This is also a level in the Genesis game.
  • Aerith and Bob: Butt-Head and Beavis, the latter being close to the name of the title character from a Richard Jefferies adventure novel.
  • Aerosol Spray Backfire: In "Die Fly, Die!", after attempts to get rid of a fly using a shovel, a hammer and a hedge trimmer fail, the duo use a can of insecticide but because they stay in the room and don't open any windows, they pass out. When they wake, they see the mess their room is in and think they must have had a party in their house.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Occasionally, an episode will end with Van Driessen realizing that Beavis and Butt-Head are horrible people and his methods will never reach them. He'll always forget it by his next appearance.
  • The Alcoholic: In "Do America", Muddy is frequently seen chugging off of a bottle of whiskey. He even does this while driving.
  • Alliterative Title: Beavis and Butt-Head
  • All Men Are Perverts: Subverted, believe it or not. The terrible twosome are shown to be the only ones persistently preoccupied with their pursuit of coitus; any man not named Beavis or Butt-Head seems as annoyed by their perversion as all the women are.
  • Alternate Universe:
    • "It's a Miserable Life" showed Beavis as he would have been without Butt-Head's influence. He ended up as a nice guy, even helping Stewart feed the homeless on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately by the end, he seemed to be rather taken with the phrase "bunghole"... Daria is happy in this universe, complete with a boyfriend, which suggests in the prime universe that Butt-Head caused her to lose trust in men and have the snarky personality that Glenn Eichler and Suzie Lewis Lynn would refine on her much-beloved spin-off series.
    • Much more prominent in the 2022-present era starting with Beavis And Butthead Do The Universe, as we meet Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-head from a universe where everyone is hyper-intelligent, as well as a universe where B&B didn't time travel from 1998 to 2022 through a black hole (as depicted in Do the Universe) and aged naturally.
  • Ambiguous Situation: The boys' living situation is in general left open-ended. On one hand, there are never any adults present in their house, which gives the sense that Beavis and Butt-Head are Minors Living Alone, and McVicker at one point questions if they even have parents. But on the other hand, someone has to be paying the bills for them to have a house with proper plumbing and electricity in the first place, plus Beavis and Butt-Head often talk about their mothers in the present tense, which might imply the women are around at least some of the time, but are just never seen. Beavis And Butthead Do The Universe appears to lend credence to the latter theory, but still keeps things vague, and the movie ends with the boys unquestionably living on their own without parental supervision.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: A few minor characters including Dr. Leibowitz from "Impotence", Sam Gluckman from "Jump!", Joe Adler from "Sexual Harassment" and "Whiplash", Betsy Weiner from "Lightning Strikes", and Harry Sachz from "Prank Call" have Jewish-sounding surnames, although the latter two surnames were obviously chosen for the show because they are Unfortunate Names.
  • Amoral Attorney: Joe Adler from his aforementioned episodes.
  • Amusing Injuries: Butt-Head slapping the bejesus out of Beavis, which more or less happens Once an Episode. Occasionally, Beavis will respond by kicking Butt-Head in the nads.
  • Anachronism Stew: This came heavily into play for the 2011 revival. The show's first run was clearly set in the 90s and Bill Clinton was the President back then, having met Beavis and Butt-head as high school students on two separate occasions. In the revival series, there's a clear picture on the wall of Barack Obama as President in an episode and the boys are still in high school. The two of them also watch Twilight and, going by real world time, there's no way they'd still be in high school by the time they watch that movie if they were high school students in the 90s. While it's conceivable that the two are so stupid that they never graduated from high school in all of this time and stretched out their stint at Highland High well into the 2000s, the fact that Stewart is still of young high school age, in addition to the fact that none of the faculty at Highland have aged at all, still adds up to one wonky timeline, at least in comparison to real world chronology, with Comic-Book Time and Not Allowed to Grow Up being in full effect. Given that Alternate Universes would come into play in the second revival, this may be another AU.
  • Animated Shock Comedy: Probably the closest thing to South Park before South Park itself. The show pioneered a type of crude animated comedy that would later take the cartoon world by storm.
  • Anti-Hero: Type I, or
  • Anti-Role Model: You did read that disclaimer at the top, right?
  • Aroused by Their Voice: Deconstructed and parodied in "1-900-BEAVIS" where the two are understandably aroused by the silky voice of a woman... shown to be that fat and utterly repulsive chain-smoking trailer resident seen in some episodes.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The 1993 compilation album The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience includes Megadeth's "99 Ways to Die", Nirvana's "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die" and... the duo doing a duet with Cher on "I Got You Babe".
    • Of course, with the duo, you could actually apply the literal name of this trope to them, since they DID set Mr. Anderson's bushes on fire in "Home Improvement"; Beavis said, "I killed a bunch of people once" in "Liar Liar"; and in "Follow Me", where Beavis copies everything Butt-Head does, the duo end up jaywalking.
  • Art Evolution: In earlier episodes, the animation was very limited, with lots of blatant reusing of stock footage and a wonky and often incosistent framerate. The art direction itself also rather crude as well, with a lot of Off-Model character designs. By mid-second season, the animation improved significantly (though there was still a lot of recycled stock footage here and there) and the artwork became more smooth and consistent.
  • Art Shift: The music video sections for later episodes would sometimes recycle the (crude) animation from the older ones, giving this impression. The 2022 revival uses new animation for these segments, however, as the duo have a new TV.
  • Artistic License – Military: In the episode "Drones", not only does the military accept dropouts and delinquents (according to one officer), but they were too incompetent to notice the duo sneaking into a restricted area and piloting a drone.
  • An Ass-Kicking Christmas: Spoofed when RoboCop saves Christmas on one of the shows they flip through.
  • Ass Shove: Stewart's dad gets his phone shoved up his rear in "Prank Call".
  • Asshole Victim: While several of the people who get caught up in the duo's mayhem don't really deserve it, quite a few do, such as Rush Limbaugh expy Gus Baker, who has his grassroots presidential campaign ruined by the duo's antics on his TV show; the Maxi-Mart owner in "Another Friday Night"; Mr. Manners/Mr. Candy, who gets fired (and beaten up) twice for of his abusive behavior (brought on by the duo's behavior); Coach Buzzcut, whenever Beavis and Butt-Head do manage to get back at him (which is quite rare, making it all the more satisfying and awesome they do); and Mr. Stevenson, when he gets brutally assaulted after trying to throw Stewart under the bus for his own sake.
  • Auto Erotica: If the van's a-rockin' don't come a-knockin'.
    • Also happens in The Movie with Dallas and Muddy.
  • Ax-Crazy: The Crazy Farmer / Janitor. Mainly in "Cow Tipping".
  • Bait-and-Switch: In "Tired", Van Driessen and his girlfriend are examining a butterfly on a flower when Beavis comes rolling through in a tire but runs over Van Driessen. A few moments later, Butt-Head runs through and steps on the flower.
  • Balls of Steel: In "Buff 'N Stuff", Buzzcut tells Butt-Head to "kick him in the jimmy". The only reaction to Butt-Head doing so (twice) is his face turning red while he goes "YYYESSS!"
  • Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: Butt-Head uses this exact phrase at least once; fortunately, he's only fantasizing.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In the original series finale, "Beavis and Butt-Head Are Dead", McVicker falsely claims on camera that he would give up the entire amount of change collected in the duo's name just to see them alive again. Guess who shows up on the spot.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Beavis, upon being called a "butt-knocker".
    • Buzzcut will absolutely LOSE it if you strike him, even if you're a complete and total weakling. He doesn't take kindly to someone (besides himself) hurting his students either. Also, never disrespect the US flag.
    • McVicker has this with Beavis and Butt-Head themselves. The mere mention of the duo makes him edge closer to a nervous breakdown.
    • Do not touch Billy Bob's scooter. It won't be pretty.
    • The normally calm Van Driessen becomes very pissed if he catches someone harming one of his students, and he'll become more pissed off if you destroy his antique eight-track collection.
  • "Better if Not Born" Plot: The second half of the final Christmas Episode has a guardian angel actually trying to convince Butt-Head to commit suicide after showing him how much better everyone else was doing: Beavis became a nice and respectful young man, Stewart had confidence, Highland High was a great school, Daria had trust in men and a boyfriend, and McVicker was not only happy with his school, his staff and his students, but also has a full head of hair.
  • Big Beautiful Woman: Katiya, Butt-Head's mail order Russian wife from "Bride of Butt-Head" is wider than most of the other women on the show, but she's still considered attractive.
  • Big Damn Movie: The film's bio-terrorism plot.
  • Big "NO!":
    • Beavis gives one when Butt-Head told him Yanni was his dad.
    • They both have this reaction upon learning that they pierced their right ears... and what said piercing supposedly meansnote .
  • Big "YES!":
    • When the boys see a Motörhead video in "Canoe".
    • Nearly every Pantera and GWAR video they see— hell, just '90s metal videos in general (not '80s metal, which tends to "suck").
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: The first revival's episodes involve riffing on other MTV shows, including Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, True Life and 16 and Pregnant. It's rather hilarious when you consider MTV rarely shows music these days.
  • Black-and-Gray Morality: The eponymous duo are selfish, amoral, and perverted, but their antics are rather tame compared to the people they are against, such as Buzzcut, Todd, Crazy Old Farmer, Harry Sachz, and the Grimes couple from Do America.
  • Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: Early episodes like "Frog Baseball" and "Washing the Dog" were built around this. This disappeared from the show (and the relevant episodes banned) around the same time as Beavis' pyromania. However, "Washing the Dog" is still commercially available.
  • Black Comedy Burst: In "Science Project", Beavis and Butt-Head's initial science project mocks the 1986 Challenger disaster and the death of teacher Christa McAuliffe.
  • Bloody Hilarious: "Wood Shop" where Beavis saws off his finger in shop class.
    • Also "Nosebleed".
    • And "Give Blood".
    • Thanks to the revival, you can now add "Holy Cornholio" to the list.
  • Boom, Headshot!: In Virtual Stupidity, switch to the foot in the coffeehouse bathroom, click the fasteners on the mirror top to bottom, then the skull on the stall. The two will take positions, and then Butt-Head will graphically let Beavis have it with a shotgun before returning to the title screen.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: From "The Great Cornholio":
    McVicker: Uhhhh... look! I don't know what your problem is... but I simply cannot have students wandering the hallways during class, interrupting other classes and giving prophesies of a great plague.
  • Breather Episode: "A Great Day" shows nothing but good things happening to Beavis and Butt-Head and ends with them loaning money to Todd, who doesn't beat them up, but instead THANKS them! This is pretty much the highpoint of Beavis and Butt-Head's lives, unless the ending to Virtual Stupidity is canon.
    • Their lives' high point would be when they sneaked into a nudist colony and stood there looking at naked people all day - a Flash Forward to decrepit old age has them stating that very thing.
      • Not if you look at "Spill" from the revival. It's the only time so far that they've ever been hugged by a woman!
  • Bring My Brown Pants: In "Citizen Butt-Head", Principal McVicker asks his secretary for a new pair of pants after being informed that the Secret Service have taken Beavis and Butt-Head to the assembly where Bill Clinton will be.
  • Broke the Rating Scale: Every once in a while, Beavis and Butt-Head watch a video so awful, it shocks them into silence. They just stare at the TV for a few seconds and then change the channel. This happened to Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True".
    • While watching the video for Compulsion's "Delivery", the band gets so annoyed that they decide to turn the TV off. They then attempt to have a conversation with each other... but the result is so awkward that they decide to turn the TV back on.
  • Burger Fool: The boys inexplicably had jobs, if at the local burger joint.
    • They're usually the only ones working during their shifts, meaning Burger World is probably so understaffed their boss has no choice but to keep them employed.
    • One episode had them working as telemarketers - they would read their scripts literally, saying cryptic things like "My name is your name."
  • Butt-Monkey: Stewart, and by extension, his parents. This show is the trope namer as well, since it's among the many insults the boys traded with each other (although Buffy the Vampire Slayer is what gave it its definition).
    • A lot of characters, actually. These include Tom Anderson (who never recognizes the duo and lets them "help" him over and over again, with disastrous results), Mr. Van Driessen (who also serves as The Chew Toy due to all of his near-death experiences), Principal McVicker (who lives in fear of the duo), Hamid (from the 2011 revival, who loses both of his jobs because of the duo), and the Burger World manager (who never fires them despite all the trouble they cause him and his restaurant).
    • The boys themselves, who are always hurting themselves with their antics and never win with their pursuit of "scoring". Beavis gets the worst of it.
  • Call-Back: Beavis's infamous "We're never gonna score!" speech from The Movie is actually a reworked version of a similar rant he did in "Teen Talk".
    • In "Snitchers", a lawyer seeking to discredit the duo's testimony recalls "Frog Baseball" and how they got failed all the way back to kindergarten in "Held Back".
    • In "A Great Day", when the boys are laughing at two dogs humping on Tom Anderson's lawn, Butt-Head says to Beavis, "I think that's our dog, remember?" in reference to the one they adopted in "Bad Dog".
    • "Closing Time" has multiple references to "Frog Baseball" - not only do they do their scream into the camera seen in that episode three separate times throughout the episode, the duo watch Peter Gabriel's Kiss That Frog partway through it. When the frog in the video first appears, Beavis asks Butt-Head "I wonder if there's a baseball game on?" Later in the video, Butt-Head comments on the frog compared to the many others he has "seen come and go".
  • Canada, Eh?: Stewart's mother sounds like she's from up North.
  • Cannot Tell a Joke: Butt-Head.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Hilarity Ensues whenever Beavis and Butt-Head try to get laid.
    Beavis: (about Butt-Head's mail-order wife) Do you think she'll know how to do it?
    Butt-Head: She better.
    Beavis: Cool!
  • Cash Lure: "Couch Fishing".
  • Caught with Your Pants Down: In "Do America", Beavis (in his Cornholio persona) sees Mr. Anderson's camper, pulls out a picture of the woman he was sent to "do" and then goes into the camper. Later, Mr. Anderson is curious to find out why his camper is rocking, and investigates. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Centipede's Dilemma: In "Trouble Urinating", the boys become unable to urinate after thinking too hard about how they actually do it.
  • Chaotic Stupid: All they care about is food, girls, heavy metal and whatever captures their interest at the moment, most notably, any sort of carnage, to which effect they were too amused by the wreckage of an airplane crash to help the victims. They're too lazy and stupid to care about anything else, like work or their education. Sometimes their actions may cause harm to someone unintentionally. This is very clear in the film, as there is a terrorist threat to D.C. involving a biological weapon, all they understand about it is that they can "score with a chick".
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "That was cool", "uh huh huh huh...", "We're there, dude", "DA DADADA DADADA DADA-DAAADAAA!"
    • Beavis's used to be "Fire! Fire! Fire!" until the trailer incident. Afterwards he made do with anything that sounded similar. "Fryer! Fryer! Fryer!" or "Water! Water! Water!"
    • Pretty much their entire vocabulary is limited to catch phrases. Take a sip for every time Butt-Head says 'Whoa', 'Oh yeah', 'Dumbass', 'Uh, no', 'Come to Butt-Head', 'Uh...OK' or 'This sucks', and you'll be passed out (or more likely in a coma) on the floor in a few minutes.
    • Almost all of Beavis's dialogue as Cornholio. "I am (the Great) Cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole!"
    • And the ever popular "Are you threatening me?"
  • Cheated Angle: Beavis is almost always drawn with his face in profile or at a 3/4 angle, even when he's looking straight at the camera. Butt-Head, on the other hand, is commonly drawn both straight-on and from the side.
  • Chick Magnet: Not in the series itself, but in "Letters to Santa Butt-Head", several women write/vocalize their desire to have Beavis as a Christmas present, which naturally just pisses Butt-Head off.
  • Chronically Crashed Car: Tom Anderson's Camper in "Do America".
  • Church of Happyology: One appears in "Holy Cornholio", believing that Beavis in his Cornholio persona is their recently deceased leader reincarnated.
  • Clip Show: The final episode of the first series.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: While not with that specific word, a lot of swearing in rapid succession appears in the duo's review of the song The Late Mistake by the Comateens.
    Beavis [in time to the music]: Dammit, dammit, son of a bitch. Dammit, dammit, son of a bitch.
    Butt-Head: If those were the words, it'd be cool.
    Beavis: You know, I was thinking of writing a song called, "Dammit, Son of a Bitch." Kinda goes like that, it's like, "Dammit, dammit, son of a bitch. Dammit, dammit, son of a bitch. Son of a BIIIIITCH, sonofaBITCHsonofaBIIIIIIITCH. Dammit, dammit, dammit."
    Butt-Head: That's pretty cool.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: This fueled both B&B and the audience watching them.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Beavis and Butt-Head, all the time. More so with Beavis.
    (watching Jersey Shore'')
    JWOWW: They just arrested Nicole!
    Butt-Head: Uh... For what?
    JWOWW: For being drunk and an idiot!
    Beavis: Wait, you can get arrested for being an idiot?
    Butt-Head: Yeah... You might want to lay low for a while, Beavis.
  • Conforming OOC Moment: At the end of an episode called "No Laughing", the students all laugh when the teacher announces that they'll be learning about private parts and masturbation during sex ed week, including Daria, who's notorious for being a solemn Deadpan Snarker who hates that kind of humour.
  • Content Warnings: Even some within episodes, like in "Stewart's House" and "Way Down Mexico Way", where it had warnings like, "If you're not a cartoon character, swallowing a rubber full of drugs will kill you," or in the case of the episode where they paint Tom Anderson's house — "Sniffing paint thinner is very dangerous. Just look at what it did to Beavis and Butt-Head." Later episodes had the warning that serves as the page quote (only it went like this):
    "Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They're not even human; they're cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested — possibly deported. To put it another way: Don't Try This at Home."
    • The first warning was:
      "Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, these little wiener heads make us laugh."
  • Continuity Nod: Given the type of show this is, there's not a whole lot of continuity. There are occasional exceptions. The most memorable is Mr. Manners/Candy. When he first shows up, Beavis and Butt-Head annoy him to the point that he attacks them, causing him to get into a fight with Van Driessen. When he shows up again he initially doesn't seem to remember them, until they piss him off again and he mentions that it took him six months to find another job. Unfortunately for him, this time he ends up picking a fight with Coach Buzzcut. It ends much worse for him.
    • In "Late Night with Butt-Head", Van Driessen says, "Great idea showing the decay of a rose, Cassandra." In "Animation Sucks", we see that Cassandra has drawn exactly that.
    • The two's first meeting with Todd starts with him running over their bikes in the Maxi-Mart parking lot, and then harassing them for it. In a much later episode he does the same thing, and reminds them that he told them not to leave their bikes lying around.
    • Their latest meeting with Todd results in them having to testify against him in court. Todd's attorney then attempts to discredit them based on their stupidity, referencing "Frog Baseball" and "Held Back".
    • During the ''Ghosts 'n' Stuff'" video in "Drones", they talk about Daria's absence:
      Beavis: I know Daria killed herself, I remember that.
      Butt-Head: Uh, she didn't kill herself, she just moved away.
      Beavis: Oh, really? Wow! That's kinda surprising.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: What all of "No Laughing" is about. After realizing that just expelling the duo would simply be an Unishment, McVicker instead forces Beavis and Butt-Head to go a whole week without laughing. Buzzcut takes advantage of this by scheduling sex ed that same week.
  • Cool Teacher: Van Driessen defies the principal for his students' sake, protects them with Berserk Button ferocity and happily works with them during his off-hours to encourage their interests. Most of the class seems to begrudgingly respect him for it, but his efforts are completely wasted on Beavis and Butt-Head.
  • Courtroom Episode: "The Trial", "Snitchers", "Sexual Harassment".
  • Cow Tipping: An episode of the same name has Beavis and Butt-Head try to do this. They succeed in the end, but Beavis gets crushed underneath the cow's weight.
  • Cozy Catastrophe: This trope comes into play in one of the revival episodes, when the duo mistake an evacuation for the apocalypse. Rather than being horrified at the idea of being the last two people on Earth, Beavis and Butt-Head seize the opportunity to loot the town and do whatever they want.
  • Crack Pairing: Discussed In-Universe in "Beavis and Butt-Head Meet God, Part 2" while watching Bananarama's "Venus" video:
    Butt-Head: These chicks should marry GWAR.
    Beavis: Yeah, yeah, that would be cool!
    Butt-Head: Their kids would be, like, the coolest people that ever lived.
    Beavis: Yeah, and they would rule Antarctica.
    Butt-Head: They would rule the entire world.
  • Crapsack World: One of the more subtle jokes of the show is how, as stupid and irresponsible as Beavis and Butt-Head are, the adults around them are even more irresponsible in dealing with them. Highland, Texas itself appears to be a filthy, crime-ridden town and populated mostly by assholes, idiots, and complete pushovers, even if one ignores the presence of the duo.
  • Crossover: With Celebrity Deathmatch, somewhat. (Due to the viewers' requests, the two appeared to fight each other.)
    • They appeared in one episode in The Brothers Grunt. Butt-Head made a cameo in The Head.
      • In the pilot, Butt-Head was trying to get footage of The Head, but he got kicked out.
    • They called in to the radio station in Airheads.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    • In Do America:
      Pilot: Get the hell out of the cockpit!
      Butt-Head: Huh huh, you said c—
      Pilot: [pulls Butt-Head out] NOW!
    • In "U.S. History", when Van Driessen tells them they will get an F if they don't present their reports.note 
      Beavis: Yeah, heh heh, "F" is cool...F-f-f-f-f-f-f-f—
      Van Driessen: An F would mean being held back.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: In "Graduation Day", Van Driessen decides to improve his students' self-esteem by holding a fake graduation ceremony in class, giving everyone a diploma and some words of encouragement. To Butt-Head, all he can get out is a hesitant "You have...many...qualities," and to Beavis, all he can muster is an unenthusiastic "And here's your diploma, Beavis."
  • Darker and Edgier: The Movie. While the film still has its comedic beats, the plot is much more serious than any other episode of the series. A criminal confuses Beavis and Butt-Head for the thugs who he'd hired thugs to kill his girlfriend Dallas. Dallas also hides an extremely dangerous biological weapon in Beavis's pants. The ATF learns this and starts to go after the duo. Beavis and Butt-Head are in actual danger during much of the film, although the main joke of the film is that they're completely unaware of all of this.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Fire in "The Special One." Even though he's a literal dumpster fire that looks like a demon whom Beavis regards as a dark god, all he commands for Beavis to do is get some exercise, clean up the nearby streets, and write a book report on The Call of the Wild. Even when Beavis has him extinguished, Fire is not angry at his betrayal and only seems more sad than anything.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Daria, who elevated this to a trope in its own right.
  • Department of Redundancy Department:
    Butt-Head: Whoa, this guy's completely naked! Huh-huh...
    Beavis: Hmm heh heh...why?
    Butt-Head: Uhh...because he doesn't have any clothes on?
  • Description Cut: In "Citizen Butt-Head", President Clinton's assembly at Highland High is described on a television broadcast as him answering spontaneous questions from randomly chosen students. The next scene is Principal McVicker meeting with the faculty of Highland High, asking if the hand-picked honor students are rehearsing their questions.
  • Dirty Coward: Stewart's dad is more than willing to totally sell out his son, such as in "Prank Call".
  • Dirty Harriet: She's a Fair Cop posing as a prostitute in "Feel a Cop".
  • Distaff Counterpart: The episode "Take a Number" includes a pair of girls who are by all accounts female versions of Beavis and Butt-Head. They take the same trademark positions that the duo do, giggle excessively, laugh at whatever innuendos they hear, enjoy heavy metal, and appear very sexually active. Unlike the boys, however, they're both fairly good-looking.
  • The Ditz: The duo, pretty much all of the time. Of course, this was intentional.
    • A notable example is in "Vidiots", when the two go to a video dating service, Beavis gives a fake name to the lady working there (Heraldo, which she interprets as Mexican), and she mistakes Beavis's sexual answers to her questions as romantic while Butt-head is doing his video, and tries calling Beavis, only for Butt-head to hang up on her. Shortly afterward Beavis answers the door for a woman asking to turn on 'the pleasure machine' (Butt-head, as he mentioned twice in his video); Beavis thinks she is talking about the TV and slams the door on her.
    • Even some of the other characters can be incredibly stupid at times, particularly Van Driessen. One noteworthy example is when he has the duo clean his house and tells them not to touch his irreplaceable 8-track collection.
    • Of all the characters on the show, only the Burger World manager comes close to matching the incompetence of the duo. Despite the fact that Beavis and Butt-Head have repeatedly screwed up on the job, got him injured, and generally destroyed the reputation of Burger World, the manager has continued to employ them. This is especially egregious considering the fact that he's an employer in a real world job with every right to fire them but chooses not to, as opposed to McVicker who, as a public school official, has no choice but to put up with Beavis and Butt-Head until they either graduate or choose to drop out of high school. It really says something about the Burger World Manager when unlike McVicker, he's not required by law to put up with the duo but still keeps them employed and repeatedly brings disaster upon both himself and his business.
  • DIY Dentistry: In "Nosebleed", Butt-Head tries to stop Beavis's nose from bleeding, but ends up using various stock remedies for things like hiccups and choking. At one point, Butt-Head tries shutting a door with a string tied to it. We don't see where the other end of the string is tied to, but it results in Beavis screaming and blood splattering everywhere to the point of the entire screen gaining a red tint.
  • The Dog Bites Back: For the first few seasons, Butt-Head was incredibly abusive to Beavis, and any injuries that came his way were either accidental or from a third-party. This includes (repeatedly) slapping Beavis during videos. At one point, Beavis finally snapped after a rapid series of such incidents, and took advantage of how Butt-Head was sitting. From then on, there was about a 1-in-3 chance of violent reprisal from Beavis.
  • Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: In "Tornado", Beavis and Butt-Head are sucked into a tornado and thrown back onto the ground unhurt, only to be crushed by falling objects.
  • Dope Slap: *whack* Dumbass.
  • Double Entendre: Much of the humor came from this.
  • Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: It's heavily implied that Beavis was drugged and raped by a grief counselor in "Drones".
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Buzzcut, although he's nowhere near as abrasive to students who aren't pushing his buttons.
    • He still threatens to "physically kill" the entire class if they don't shut up.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Butt-Head, when he gets behind the wheel during a driver's ed class. He actually makes the unflappable Buzzcut scream in terror as they hurtle into something.
  • Droste Image: Implied near the end of "Most Wanted," in which Butthead wants a tattoo on his butt, of a butt, which has it's own tattoo of a butt.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: One Running Gag has Beavis and Butt-Head constantly refer to long-haired men in music videos as "chicks". Sometimes they go as far as hitting on them.
  • Dull Surprise: Most of the voice acting in early episodes was rather plain if not outright apathetic, with the main exceptions being the titular duo. The acting improved greatly by mid-season 2.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Some of their comments on the music videos they watch, as well as on life in general, actually make a lot of sense, in a weird way. For example, their comments on Radiohead's Creep show they have a good grasp of song arrangements, dynamics and the subtleties of light and shade. Or as Butt-Head puts it,"Songs have to have the bit that sucks, or else the bits that are cool wouldn't be as cool."
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The series wouldn't evolve to its present format until around season 3. So the first two seasons will most certainly look like you're watching a slightly different show:
    • Earlier episodes are a completely different show from the later ones most viewers are familiar with. Rather than focusing on the consequences of the duo's stupidity in Judge's usual mundane style, the antics of the two are told in a wackier, more surreal tone, with Refuge in Audacity being more commonplace. In addition, the animation's even cruder than it already was in the later seasons, Butt-Head's voice is different, and there are stronger indications of Totally Radical (i.e. metal guitar riffs).
    • The first time Cornholio appears is in "Generation in Crisis", and there it's just Beavis playing around. In all future appearances, Cornholio is a separate persona that Beavis is completely unaware of.
    • The duo are more like stereotypical teenage metalheads in early episodes. Butt-Head originally had a strong Surfer Dude or Totally Radical voice and both would regularly call each other 'dude'. While these traits were still present in later episodes, they were rather downplayed.
    • In the early seasons, the music video segments often loosely tied into the episode's storyline and/or fit a sort of theme, such as an episode where they were forced to walk a long distance back from Mexico showing them soaking their feet while watching the Texas Tornados song "Adios, Mexico", a bunch of money on their couch in an episode that involved them committing theft from an ATM, a reference to chicken nuggets on a video played on an episode where Butt-head was choking on a chicken nugget, etc. This was completely abandoned in the later seasons.
  • Ear-Piercing Plot: Beavis and Butt-Head decide to each pierce one of their ears after a confrontation with Earl, who attacked them for making fun of his own earring. When they're unable to get piercings at the mall due to them not having written permission from their parents, they decide to crudely pierce their own right ears with a geometric compass and power tools. However, when they go back to the clerk at the mall to brag about it, she informs them that a man piercing his right ear means that he's gaynote , much to the boys' horror.
  • '80s Hair: Some of their classmates have mullets and fluffed-up hair. While this might've been appropriate when the show premiered (in early 1993), it was very jarring by 1997 (the show's final year before its 2011 reboot).
  • End-of-Series Awareness: Beavis and Butt-Head are some of the few cartoon characters to say they're dead at the end of their series. Then they got uncancelled over a decade later (2011), and again eleven years later (2022).
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: An episode in the 2022 revival takes place in an alternate universe where Beavis and Butthead never time traveled to the year 2022 like they did in the movie but instead lived and aged normally. While the two are unemployed losers who look older than they actually are due to excessive drinking and smoking, Steward bounced around from jobs after high school until finding employment with a home loan office. It's implied that he's married since he mentions having triplets.
  • Epic Fail: Has its own page.
  • Episode Title Card: Once an Episode.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • Beavis and Butt-Head can both be sadistic if they see someone being beaten, but they consider a explicit video of a woman giving birth as repulsive. Though this is obviously logical in nature, this has been one of the few times where the duo is surprised for things they consider "unpleasant".
    • They also think the cast of Jersey Shore are dumber than themselves.
    • In the music video segments, there were two occasions when they saw a video and immediately switched to something else rather than watch it. See Take That! below for specific details.
    • In the Halloween episode, "Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest", even Todd thinks Cornholio is messed up.
    • Beavis kicks Butt-Head for mocking him while watching and loving Katy Perry's Firework.
    • Buzzcut, like most of the staff except Van Driessen, despises the boys, yet he defends them after Mr. Manners/Candy attack Butt-Head in "Candy Sale".
    • Parodied in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade special. Beavis mistakes the spectators for homeless people and angrily questions why no one is giving them food, money, and shelter. But once Butt-Head suggests they're lazy, Beavis immediately starts insulting them.
    • In the final ad for Paramount+, even they seem at a loss for words at seeing Samara the ghost girl swaying to the strains of "Sweet Victory".
  • Every Episode Ending: A rock music sting. A few of the later episodes instead (or additionally) end with a really sappy clarinet bit.
  • Exact Words: While the boys are in the hospital for DDT poisoning at the end of "The Good Deed," Butt-Head declares that they will never do anything for other people ever again "for as long as [they] live," and Beavis agrees. They hold true to their words because they both flatline and die a moment later.
  • Expy Coexistence: Burger World is an obvious stand-in for McDonald's with the similarly designed rooftop and its logo being an upside-down version of the Golden Arches. However, one reaction segment has the duo watch a girl engage in a Big Mac eating challenge and they both clearly know what a Big Mac is, implying McDonald's exists in their world too.
  • Failed a Spot Check: In "Drones", the military completely overlooks the antics of the titular duo when they access the drone control center. Even when one of the officers is about to get in, he gets distracted.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: No matter how hard they try, or even how close they get, Beavis and Butt-Head will never score.
  • Fake-Out Fade-Out: Beavis and Butt-Head's reaction to this occurring twice in the Godley & Creme music video Cry is priceless.
  • Falling into the Cockpit: Literally happens to Butt-Head in The Movie (the cockpit of an airplane while it was plummeting), leading to this exchange:
    Pilot: Get the hell out of the cockpit!
    Butt-Head: Huh huh... you said--
    Pilot: NOW!!! (pulls Butt-Head out of the way)
  • Fantastic Racism: In "Animation Sucks", Van Driessen shows the class an animated film he created about green and purple characters who didn't like each other because they were different colors.
  • "Far Side" Island: In "Beavis and Butt-Head's Island", the two get stranded on an island in a fountain at the mall. They remain there for days, complete with tattered clothes.
  • Fat Bastard: Old Butt-Head as depicted in the 2022 revival has put on a lot of weight over the years, so much so that he needs a cane and a scooter to get around, and is no better than he was in his youth.
  • Fire-Breathing Diner: Beavis and Butt-Head eat tacos with 'Mexican Death Sauce' (which a taco stand owner put in the duo's order after they fed hot sauce to his dog) in "Way Down Mexico Way".
  • 555: According to "Screamers", Stuart's phone number is the typical set of numbers followed by 8989, although in "Stewart Is Missing", the given number is 555-9832.
  • Fingore: Both Beavis and Butt-Head have lost a finger on at least two occasions, both incidents involving saws.
    • One episode has a scene where Beavis cuts off the end of one of Butt-Head's fingers with a chainsaw while they're killing bugs.
    • In "Wood Shop", Beavis saws off his finger in wood shop class, leading to a massive amount of bleeding. When he gets it reattached at the end of the episode, he tries to pick his nose... And his finger snaps off in it.
  • The Freakshow: Featured in one episode where the duo are forced to pose as Conjoined Twins.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: Parodied in the episode "Freaky Friday." Beavis and Butt-Head get beat up in a convenience store and when they come to on opposite sides of a glass freezer door, they assume the sight of each other in it are their reflections and believe they've switched bodies. They then spend the rest of the episode wearing the other guy's clothes and trying to act how they think the other behaves. When they get into a fight, rather than beat each other up, they instead inflict violence on themselves since that would involve wrecking the other's body.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Be All You Can Be", when Sgt. Dick Leakey is getting the video to show the duo, there's a shot of the demographics each video is for. They include 'Whites', 'Blacks', 'Latinos', 'Other', 'Homosexuals', 'Discipline Problems' and, in Beavis and Butt-Head's case, 'No Future'.
  • Freud Was Right: The boys can find sexual innuendo in literally anything.
    • Huh huh huh, you said "thing".
    • Heh heh heh, and "sexual".
    • Huh huh huh, "in your endo."
  • Frivolous Lawsuit: Joe Adler. Though Beavis and Butt-Head are the ones who hire him. Twice.
  • Funny Background Event: In "The Spill", a volunteer expresses her concerns about whether or not she is able to truly help young chicks that have been victimized by oil spills. As she talks, Beavis and Butt-Head are beating the crap out of each other in the background over one of the oil-covered birds, believing that cleaning them will get the two a chance to score with said volunteer. It's doubly funny in that the volunteer's speech about the pitiful condition of the oil-covered birds could just as easily apply to Beavis and Butt-Head. Also when the bird they fight over flies out of their hands, she sees it and think that the boys have cleaned all the oil off and released the bird, becoming ashamed of her defeatist attitude unknowing that the bird just fled out of fear, oil on the wings or not.

    Tropes G to L 
  • Genius Ditz: Both Beavis and Butt-Head are incredibly stupid most of the time, but when they're commenting on music videos (and reality TV shows in the newer episodes) they can be surprisingly witty and clever with their comments.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: In the episode "Dream On", you can hear Beavis mumbling "Fire, fire". This was after Beavis' catchphrase was bowdlerised (to "fryer, fryer") because of "Comedians", aka the episode of actual pyromania it was falsely accused of in Real Life.
    • The infamous "shotgun" easter egg in Virtual Stupidity, where Butt-head shouts "Fuck you, Beavis!" (albeit bleeped with a car horn sound - still the only use of the F-word in the franchise) and bloodily blows off Beavis's head with a shotgun. The game was rated T for Teen.
  • The Ghost: It is implied that the duo live with their mothers, who are said to be prostitutes. They sometimes talk about them and call to them (mostly in the music video segments) but we never see them.
  • Gilligan Cut: In "Sexual Harassment", Jim Adler tells Beavis and Butt-Head he has reason to believe they can win their case of sexual harassment against Kimberly (see Wounded Gazelle Gambit below) without having to go to court. GUESS AGAIN!
  • Good Ol' Boy: Tom Anderson.
  • Grammar Nazi: Agent Fleming insists that Federal Agents never end a sentence with a preposition.
  • G-Rated Drug: In "Buy Beer", the boys wind up with 'near beer' instead of the real thing.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Beavis in his Cornholio persona. Oddly enough, in "No Laughing", Beavis seems incapable of learning Spanish properly. This was stated by their Spanish teacher, who said that they knew no Spanish other than what they learned at Taco Bell, and that Beavis couldn't get that right.
  • Grave Humor: In "Huh-Huh-Humbug", Beavis is shown his future tombstone which says "Here lies Beavis. He never scored."
  • Groin Attack: These two practically brought it to an art form.
    • The 2022 revival took this trope to an uncomfortable notch in "Locked Out". After they smash a window, Butt-Head forces Beavis to climb inside their locked house. Said window ledge still has a large, pointed wedge of glass in it. Cue Beavis getting speared despite his protests. Butt-Head then tries to climb in and also gets stabbed. Thankfully, they're up and walking in the next scene.
  • Gross-Out Show: "Sick" deserves special mention thanks to gratuitous shots of snot dripping out of their faces.
  • The Guards Must Be Crazy: Bill Clinton's bodyguards in "Citizen Butt-Head". One doesn't realize Beavis and Butt-Head aren't honor student material ("We got a pass, asswipe!") and lets them in with the others due to having a pass ("Shouldn't you be with the other honor students, bunghole."). Apparently their job isn't recognizing personalities but knowing whether or not people have clearance ("They have a pass."). Later they surround them with pissed looks in their faces and ready to pull their guns out due to their "testes 1-2-3" joke, thinking it's a code to assassinate the president ("Whoa! Those dudes look pissed!").
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Todd and Buzzcut are both incredibly violent towards Beavis and Butt-Head.
  • Halloween Episode: "Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest".
  • Hates Being Touched: Beavis. Don't touch me, asswipe!
  • Hearing Voices: In "Most Wanted", the escaped serial killer tells Beavis and Butt-Head that he hears voices telling him to hurt people. This gets Beavis going and he practically reveals that his voices are the cause of his destructive behavior.
  • Helicopter Flyswatter: Parodied in the opening scenes of "Do America".
  • Helium Speech: In one episode, Beavis and Butt-Head buy balloons and try this on themselves. Upon hearing each other speak in high-pitched voices, the duo come to the conclusion that "WE'RE NEUTEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRED!!!"
  • Hell Is That Noise: For Principal McVicker, Beavis and Butt-Head's incessant giggling is this, particularly in "Breakdown," where hearing it over the intercom causes him to get committed into a mental asylum. When Mr. Van Driessen sends them there to apologize and they end up worsening his condition, the boys continual giggling causes the teacher to break down as well.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Beavis and Butt-Head each seem to be the other's only real friend. Stewart would hang out with them, but they can't stand him.
  • Hidden Depths:
    • Surprisingly enough, the 2022 episode “Bone Hunters” suggests there is some potential in them. In their comical misunderstanding of paleontology, the eponymous pair gather up a bunch of meat bones from the garbage and build a dinosaur sculpture twice their size out of it, a display which genuinely attracts the interest of hipsters willing to pay to see it… which lasts as long as one would expect once they start fighting over the tiny pile of money they’d earned. Knowing Beavis and Butthead, even they probably don’t realize what they pulled off there.
    • One reaction segment reveals Beavis to be very knowledgeable about lizards. The fact that he's able to instantly identify a white-throated monitor at a glance and knows about the different dietary needs of other assorted monitors suggests he may in fact be capable of learning, provided he's interested in the subject and willing to dig deeper into it.
    • Beavis repeatedly shows he has a knack for pulling off difficult vocal tricks. He can speak backwards effortlessly, oscillate his voice naturally without electronic assistance, and do an impressive Metal Scream.
  • Hippie Teacher: Van Driessen; also a rare case of a male Granola Girl.
    • Also Dreama, the astronomy TA in "Let's Clean It Up".
  • Holding in Laughter: In "No Laughing", Beavis and Butt-Head were banned from laughing in school for a week. During Sex Ed, the teacher said some topics related to the subject and the boys hold in their laughter while he was talking.
  • Homage: The short segment Cinema Classics is clearly a homage to At the Movies right down to the clothes.
  • Honor Before Reason: Even though Beavis and Butt-Head's inability to even begin a standardized test could cause the school to lose funding and deprive many teachers of their jobs, Van Driessen still reports McVicker for cheating when the livid principal tries filling out their answer sheets himself.
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager: Or, as Bill Clinton describes the boys in "Citizen Butt-Head", "hormonally challenged".
  • Horrible Judge of Character: The titular characters pretty much latch onto all the worst people. Similarly, some people (especially in the movie) can't see the bad in them.
  • Hourglass Plot: Some episodes end with one boy suffering the misfortune that plagued the other. For example, "Pipe of Doom" has Beavis crawl into the pipe that Butt-Head spent the whole episode stuck in, only to get stuck himself, and "Choke" ends with Beavis choking on the same piece of chicken that nearly killed Butt-Head.
  • Human Mail: The pair attempt to mail themselves in one episode.
    • Also done in a video they watched: If I Only Had a Brain by MC 900 Foot Jesus.
  • The Hyena: Beavis and Butt-Head are constantly laughing. The only time they stop is if they're annoyed or more confused than usual.
    • Or when they're seriously threatened ("No Laughing").
    • Or when something has made them cry ("Door to Door").
  • Hypocritical Heartwarming: Mr. Candy found out the hard way that he doesn't have the right to manhandle Beavis and Butt-head... only Coach Buzzcut has that honor.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the titularnote  student film in "Generation in Crisis", Beavis asks if he could say 'nads'. The filmmaker, Ken Alder, tells him, "There's no censorship of any kind, this is an independant documentary film... with a generous grant from the ESCO Corporation." Beavis and Butt-Head then discuss censorship, and Beavis says something that gets censored anyway, complete with a Censor Box over his mouth.
    • Right before Beavis gets censored, Butt-Head says, "Censorship is cool. I like it when they put those black boxes over people's thingies." However, in "Safe House", they watch Pia Zadora's Rock It Out, which is set in a women's prison and starts with a scene of a woman shown from the back taking off her shirt, we get this exchange.
      Butt-Head: Whoa, that's the most naked I've ever seen a chick on TV.
      Beavis: Yeah, except for that damn body spray commercial they show every five seconds.
      Butt-Head: Those black boxes suck.
    • Similarly, when they watch the censored video for "Pop Song 89" by R.E.M. (the original features three female dancers and lead singer Michael Stipe dancing while topless):
      Butt-Head: How come they put those black things on all the girls' thingies?
      Beavis: Yeah. That sucks! How come they don't show boobs?
      Butt-Head: Yeah.
    • Butt-Head is sometimes guilty of hypocrisy, such as when he makes fun of Beavis for being a virgin and for having a slut as a mom.
      • Butt-Head mocking Beavis's intelligence isn't this to the same degree, because Butt-Head is slightly smarter then Beavis.
    • Occurs twice in the opening of "Speech Therapy", when McVicker tries to get the boys to stop swearing.
      Beavis: Yeah, school sucks.
      McVicker: You watch your mouth! You lil' pain in the ass...
      (moments later)
      Beavis: Yeah! Dammit! Dammit! Goddamn! Son of a bitch!
      McVicker: You little bastards! Watch your language!
  • I Banged Your Mom: Butt-Head is fond of this one, either because it's a good way to piss off Beavis or he's actually attracted to the woman. Or knowing Butt-Head, a little of both.
  • Idea Bulb: Rather flickering ones that look like night lights though. Before the censors intervened, matches being struck, or a hand attempting to light a lighter were both used. In one case, a nuclear explosion took the place of the bulb.
  • Ignorant About Fire: Until the Moral Guardians protested, the boys were often shown to have an affinity for fire and burning things. One scene that had Beavis setting himself on fire with a can of hairspray was edited out of reruns (including the DVD release), but he's still shown with singed hair and darkened skin afterwards.
  • I'll Kill You!: In "Close Encounters", Beavis and Butt-Head are sent to a group therapy session. There, the therapist gives Beavis a padded mallet and tells him to pretend a pillow is Butt-Head. A few seconds later, Beavis is smashing the pillow yelling "Agh! Die! I'll kill you! You son of a bitch!" In "Murder Site", Butt-Head wouldn't stop calling Beavis a 'buttknocker', and Beavis threatening to kill him (which gets him arrested).
    • When prank call victim Harry Sachz is directed to the Stevensons' house, he initially attacks Stewart. When Stewart's dad walks into the room holding a phone, Harry shouts 'It was you, wasn't it!? I'll kill you!'
  • I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: Sometimes, Beavis would go on and on about something and Butt-Head's only response would be, 'Beavis, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear any of that.'
  • Imagine Spot: Generally, they would fantasize about getting a bunch of chicks. In "The Future of Beavis and Butt-Head", the two imagine some careers, such as running a pornographic video store, working as a wrecking ball operator and destroying the school (with McVicker protesting) and joining the military.
  • Immediate Self-Contradiction: "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Huh, Huh" opens with the new school counselor introducing herself to the class, and assuring the students that while her door is always open, no one is required to see her. While she's been talking, Beavis and Butt-Head had been sticking various school supplies in their nose, ears and other parts of their face. When she sees what they've been doing, she demands "You two! My office! Now!"
  • Implausible Deniability: The plot of "Beavis and Butt-Head are Dead" happens entirely because Beavis says he and Butt-Head are dead on the phone to the school secretary when she calls to ask why they've been absent for so long. She never realizes that she was talking to Beavis and reports the news to McVicker and Van Driessen, who believe her without question.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: The boys went on trial for throwing eggs at Mr. Anderson's house in "The Trial". They were almost set to be pronounced not guilty when the plaintiff's lawyer noted that Butt-Head had called them "rotten eggs" instead of just "eggs". How did they know they were rotten? They could only stammer, and within a minute the jury pronounced them guilty. (Can you blame the jurors?) Ironically enough, this was the result of Butt-Head gaining a short burst of intelligence, apparently by an imaginary version of someone they saw on TV at the beginning of the episode.
  • Inherently Funny Words: The way they talk makes everything they say sound hilarious.
    • Uh huh huh huh huh, "in her."
  • In Medias Res: "Butt Flambé" begins with Beavis and Butt-Head going to the hospital, with the former sporting severe burns on his butt that are leaving him in terrible pain. What transpired to cause his injury is vaguely hinted at, but never revealed.
  • Innocent Innuendo: Inverted. Beavis and Butt-Head give Mr. Van Driessen a list of names for a petition he asked each student to take around the neighborhood. It's all double entendre joke names that go right over the teacher's head.
    Van Driessen: "Hugh Jerection. Ben Dover. Rosie Palm and her five sisters. Beavis and Butt-Head, couldn't you get the sisters to each sign their names separately?"
  • Insane Troll Logic: Pretty much the reasoning behind every Zany Scheme attempted by the duo.
    • A rare example where it wasn't them with the reasoning appeared in "Dumb Design" when the boys ran into a group protesting the teaching of evolution in school. The leader of it argued that evolution is often complicated and difficult to understand... which therefore means it's most likely not truenote .
  • The Internet Is for Porn: In "Cyber Butt", Beavis and Butt-Head pressure Stewart into going on a porn site on the school computer.
    • In "Tech Support", Butt-Head spends most of the episode trying to find a way to watch porn on a tech support company's computer.
  • Iron Butt-Monkey: Beavis in particular, but both he and Butt-Head suffer some serious physical abuse over the course of the show.
  • Ironic Echo:
    • In "Manners Suck", Mr. Manners tries to teach Beavis and Butt-Head some manners. Beavis gets him mad by accusing him of "touch[ing his] wiener" and strangles him.
      Van Driessen: Don't you dare lay a finger on my students! Beavis, did he hit you?
      Beavis: Yeah sir, he did. Thank you for your concern.
      Mr. Manners: Why you little dirtball!
      Van Driessen: Wanna touch my students, I'll touch you!
      [Van Driessen and Mr. Manners start slapping each other.]
      Mr. Manners: I'll get you, you little punks!
      Butt-Head: Uhh, no thank you.
      Beavis: Yeah. Thank you drive thru.
    • In "Right On":
      Gus Baker: Hey, do you use that kind of language at home? [Later, after Beavis mooned the audience] GET THESE LITTLE BASTARDS OUT OF HERE!
      Butt-Head: Uh, do you use that kind of language at home?
    • At the beginning of "Breakdown", McVicker is at a complete loss with how to deal with Beavis and Butt-Head:
      McVicker: What am I going to do with you two? I've tried everything from group counseling to death threats...
    • Later on, McVicker is a patient at a psychiatric hospital because Beavis and Butt-Head made him have a nervous breakdown:
      Psychiatrist: Mr. McVicker, what are we going to do with you? We've tried everything from group counseling to physical isolation...
  • Irony: In "Closing Time", the duo fry up some nightcrawlers because they're bored. When the health inspector comes in, they offer them to him, claiming they're the new curly fries. He declines their offer of some burgers, saying they've probably got worms now.Note 
  • Is That a Threat?: The Great Cornholio. "ARE YOU THREATENING ME!?"
  • It's a Wonderful Plot: One episode has a darkly hilarious take on this trope. An angel, Charlie, shows Butt-head how the world would be different without him, and pretty much everyone who knows him is significantly better off, including Beavis. The angel's goal isn't to inspire self-reflection or get Butt-head to change his ways, but to convince him to kill himself. Butt-head, for his part, learns nothing and laughs at Charlie falling off the bridge at the end.
  • Jeopardy! Thinking Music: In "Closing Time", Beavis and Butt-Head sing this as the health inspector studies the mess they made at Burger World.
  • Jerkass: Both Beavis and Butt-Head themselves often languish here, as they constantly cause chaos for their own amusement and if someone or something is not "like, cool or something", they are likely to run their mouth on that someone or something.
    • Several characters like Todd, Buzzcut and McVicker are willing to abuse the two out of enjoyment.
    • Stewart's father is also this, such as when Harry Sachz breaks into their home, he tries to pin the blame on Stewart to save himself. Thankfully, Mr. Stevenson gets what he deserves.
  • Jerkass Has a Point:
    • McVicker's frustration with the titular duo is justified as both Beavis and Butt-Head are constantly causing problems around the school.
    • The militant Buzzcut on the two's mishandling of the American flag and failure to come up with their written reports per detention in "Our Founding Losers":
      Do you know what I consider people like you, people who show such blatant disrespect for the morals and values which this nation was founded upon!? The enemy! That's what I consider you!
    • Beavis doesn't like it when Butt-Head calls his mother a slut, but sometimes he does admit that yes, she is one.
  • Karma Houdini: Despite their stupid destructive antics at school, work, Mr. Anderson's yard, and everywhere else, Beavis and Butt-Head ACTUALLY get away with it most of the time. And when they do get caught and penalized for it, they won't learn anything. (Huh huh huh huh. "Penal".) Retroactively, it makes many of the times they get beaten up in different episodes seem like Laser-Guided Karma. Of course, the dubious continuity has a lot to do with this as well. (However, given that they will likely never score and will continue to live in a destitute home in Highland, one could argue that they aren't Karma Houdinis in the long run.)
    • Moreso in the first three or so seasons. Once the show found its stride in season 4, the two had fewer Karma Houdini moments. And in the instances where they DID get away with their behavior, it was usually either because it had no long term consequences in the first place, or it was with the help of a secondary character like Van Driessen.
    • Whenever the thieves Ross and Harlan commit some art of robbery (i.e. the time they robbed the Stevenson house, breaking into Beavis and Butt-Head's house and steal their TV set in the movie, not to mention that they were also meant to be hired by Muddy to kill Dallas, and looting a office in the 2011 revival), they never get caught nor receive any comeuppance.
    • Todd apparently takes advantage of and beat up Beavis and Butt-Head and he never receives some sort of comeuppance for it and they would get in trouble with the law in his place... unless you count what happens to Todd in Virtual Stupidity as canon.
      • Nowadays, even if you don't count Virtual Stupidity as canon, he did get arrested and placed in prison during the episode known as "Snitchers".
    • Buzzcut and the crazy farmer from "Cow Tipping" also qualify.
  • Karmic Butt-Monkey: The titular Beavis and Butt-Head are a duo of Insufferable Imbeciles who constantly cause chaos. However, that chaos will often affect them, too (especially Beavis), or result in them both being injured or punished by authority figures due to messing with the wrong people.
  • Kavorka Man: Yeah, they wish. Although in "Letters to Santa Butt-Head", several (presumably more attractive) women write/vocalize an attraction to Beavis and want him for Christmas (which leads to Butt-Head questioning why there are "so many dumb chicks"). It gets better when a particularly sultry woman voices that she wants both of them for Christmas, leaving the two in shock.
  • Kick the Dog: Coach Buzzcut in "Young, Gifted and Crude", where he flat-out ordered his students to beat up a new student for no reason.
    • Butt-Head has several of these moments, but deserves special mention in "Copy Machine", where he tells Beavis to copy his butt (after Buzzcut had told him not to). This leads to Beavis getting trapped, which leads him to be severely wounded. Just to make it worse, after Beavis is freed take a wild guess at what Butt-Head suggests he do next...
    • Todd gets several of these moments, too.
    • The duo's treatment of Stewart definitely counts.
  • Lampshade Hanging:
    Beavis: So, um, are you gonna change the channel, Butt-Head?
    Butt-Head: Why bother? All we seem to get on this TV are bad videos.
  • Large Ham: Beavis, who just loves screaming and over-reacting. And don't get us started about Cornholio...
    • Butt-Head is more of a Cold Ham, but he had his moments in early seasons where both of the boys would scream about whatever they were excited about.
    • And those two are completely silent compared to Coach Buzzcut, who apparently lost his indoor voice in the military.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: While the duo often get away with their actions, Beavis and Butt-Head do also frequently suffer particularly fitting consequences. Such as getting their asses kicked by every attendee at a feminist conference when they attempt to solicit them, or being scared off by video scenes of a live birth after they barged into a female sexual health class and refused to leave.
  • Lighter and Softer: While remembered for being edgy in its time, it was eventually surpassed by shows such as South Park or Family Guy.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Billy Bob might seem like a Mighty Glacier, but "Bedpans and Broomsticks" reveals that he can run at the speed of a scooter, which he does to chase after the duo when they steal his scooter. He can also smash through walls to boot.
    • The earliest episodes of the show are generally far more edgy, featuring pyromania, drug smuggling, torturing, among other things. Perhaps in response to the controversies it caused, the later episodes were toned down in these aspects.
  • Limited Animation: In the first season.
    • Lampshaded on "Animation Sucks". As Mr. Van Driessen talks about how animators bring drawings to life, the camera focuses on Beavis and Butthead sitting absolutely still.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded when watching AC/DC's Highway to Hell video.
    Butt-Head: These guys always wear the same thing.
    Beavis: We always wear the same thing! I've been wearing this shirt for six months!
    Butt-Head: I've been wearing this shirt for seven months.
  • Literal Ass-Kicking: "I'm kicking your ass, Beavis. Huh huh huh."

    Tropes M to R 
  • MacGuffin: The stolen TV, in the movie. Technically, the whole plot is about them trying to find a new one (or get the money to buy a new one) but that becomes irrelevant to the story pretty quickly. Then they find it thirty seconds before the end.
  • Made of Iron:
  • Malaproper: The main characters are this all the time.
  • Man in a Bikini: "Babes R Us".
  • Mathematician's Answer: In "The Great Cornholio", Beavis and Butt-Head stop by Stewart's house to drop off his homework while he's sick with diarrhea. Mrs. Stevenson asks the boys if they've eaten breakfast, and Beavis says "I think I did once."
    • Also this exchange from "Customers Suck".
      Mr. Stevenson: Are your shakes made with real milk and ice cream or do you use that reconstituted shake mix stuff?
      Beavis: Yeah, heh heh heh heh heh.
      Mr. Stevenson: What do you mean? Yeah, you use the shake mix, or yeah you use the real stuff?
      Beavis: Yeah, heh heh heh heh.
  • Meat-O-Vision: In "Bedpans and Broomsticks", Billy Bob experiences this.
  • Media Watchdogs: Resulted in a tone-down of the violence and Beavis's pyromania, but it also became a source of jokes that got the point across just as well, even calling MORE attention to it than it would have by itself.
  • Mistaken for Brooding: In "Crying", Beavis's eyes water because of an onion in his chili dog. Butt-Head believes he is actually crying, so he proceeds to mock him for it. Even when they become elderly, Butt-Head is still heckling him over it.
  • Mistaken for Pedophile: When Mr. Manners/Mr. Candy lashes out at the boys for ruining his class presentations, they tell the teacher that he "tried to touch them".
  • Mock Cousteau: Heard in the beginning of "Couch Fishing" when they're flipping channels.
  • Mooning: They do this on rare occasions.
  • Moral Guardians: In-Universe example: Stewart's mother is revealed to be one in the episode where Stewart gets a satellite dish, much to Beavis and Butt-Head's frustration.
  • Mouse Trap: When a rat gets into their house, the duo try to deal with it using a large rattrap. Hilarity Ensues when they struggle to just get it set up and end up having it snap repeatedly on their fingers, their hands, their feet, their noses, and their ears! Then when they finally succeed, Beavis forgets about the trap, sees the nacho chip they left in as bait, and decides he could go for some nachos...
  • Mister Seahorse: In "Pregnant Pause", Beavis fears he may be pregnant after he starts suffering from fierce abdominal cramps. It's averted, though; he's too stupid to realize he just needs to take a really big dump.
  • MST: They had entire segments that did this with music videos. Probably the most famous example next to Mystery Science Theater 3000 itself.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: When President Clinton is scheduled to attend a Q&A assembly at Highland High, the faculty suggest killing Beavis and Butt-Head to prevent them from ruining the event. Principal McVicker decides against it, but tells the Secret Service that that the boys are terrorists that need to be killed on sight. Unfortunately, by then they are already at the assembly with the president.
  • Mushroom Samba: Particularly in the movie.
    • And even with Sugar and Caffeine. Do the words, "I AM CORNHOLIO!!!" mean anything to you?
  • Must Have Caffeine: It's how Beavis turns into The Great Cornholio.
    • (From the episode "The Great Cornholio", as Beavis has turned into him and left the classroom.)
      Van Driessen: Has Beavis been having any problems I should know about?
      Butt-Head: He ate like 27 candy bars, and then drank a six-pack of root beer.
      Van Driessen: That's odd, I just read about a study that said that sugar isn't supposed to cause hyperactivity.
    • (From "Buttniks" after tasting Cappuccino for the first time)
      Beavis/Cornholio: I NEED MORE CRAPPUCINO FOR MY BUNGHOLE!
  • Mythology Gag:
    • A weird one. An episode has a monster truck run over a row of port-a-potties. We're then introduced to Sterculius, the "Roman god of feces" who proceeds to drop a load of crap on the stadium. Cut to 2005 where Beavis and Butt-Head are hosting the MTV Music Awards. One clip has Butt-Head dressed up as Poseidon, and Beavis clearly dressed up as a sea horse. Despite this, Butt-Head tells him that he's supposed to be Sterculius, the "Roman god of feces and manure".
    • A revival season 1 segment is named "Virtual Stupidity", after the original series PC game Beavis and Butt-Head in: Virtual Stupidity.
  • Name and Name: The show's title is the two characters.
  • National Stereotypes: They don't think very highly of British people, as demonstrated when they watched Pink Floyd's High Hopes:
    Beavis: You know, I'd really like to go to England. You want to know why, Butt-Head?
    Butt-Head: Uh, okay.
    Beavis: Because, I think that, like, since you know how everybody's a wussy over there, you know I could just go around and kick everybody's ass. And then I could probably get some chicks.
  • Negative Continuity:
    • No matter what they're doing or how they've injured themselves in the actual episode, they'll be their normal selves for the music video segments. The one exception to this is "True Crime". During the Grace Jones video, they're shown with the money they had stolen earlier on in the episode.
    • In Mr. Van Driessen's first appearance, he actually gets killed by a monster truck. And then after that, he's still alive and well throughout the rest of the series. Justified in that this was in one of the two Liquid Television shorts that aired before the main series, which are considered Canon Discontinuity.
  • Never Learned to Read: Whenever Beavis and Butt-Head try to read, they typically mispronounce it. When they saw a sign that read "HORSE FARM: TRESSPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED", they thought it meant "whores and prostitutes".
    • In The Movie, there is a lever labeled "Master Station Control". The boys mistake "Master Station" for "masturbation", leading them to pull the lever.
  • Never My Fault: Whenever they both screw up something, Butt-Head always blames it on Beavis, who, being the stupidest of the two, apologizes.
  • Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Averted in the original series finale, "Beavis and Butt-Head Are Dead" (1997), when everybody thought Beavis and Butt-Head were dead (they were not). The only people to express remorse were Van Driessen and Stewart, while others were either glad or just indifferent.
  • Nixon Mask: Van Driessen wears one in the Halloween Episode, "Bungholio: Land of the Harvest".
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed/Captain Ersatz: Gus Baker, the Rush Limbaugh parody from "Right On".
    • The tattooed tough guy poet repeating "And then my friend you die, man" from "Buttniks" is Henry Rollins.
  • No Name Given: The Burger World manager is never named.
  • Non-Indicative Name: What Beavis sees firemen and fire trucks as. Because they don't actually cause fires and the hoses in the fire trucks don't spray fire. They spray water. Worse, they try to put out the fires. In Beavis' mind, they should be called watermen.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: The titular duo, of course, stick out from the rest of the characters with their Gonkish designs.
    • The old lady in "Couch Fishing" looks more like someone from an 80's cartoon than a character in the show.
  • Noodle Incident:
    Beavis: I killed a bunch of people once.
    • When they are watching videos, pretty much ANYTHING they talk about doing or happening to them or to people they know, meaning it takes place off-screen and not part of any regular plotlines, and which are generally never referenced again, would fall in this category.
    • In "Butt Flambé", Beavis taken to the hospital by Butt-Head due to burns on his butt, the cause is never revealed. (Although it's heavily implied, especially by the doctors laughing at the end, to have been a Farts on Fire attempt.)
    • In "Safehouse", we never find out why Todd was on the run from Leroy's gang and the police, or how either of them knew to look for him at Beavis and Butt-Head's house.
  • No One Should Survive That!: The duo are constantly doing stuff that could ordinarily kill a person (which is why the show has that warning that says that "Some of the things [Beavis and Butt-Head] do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested — possibly deported"). In one episode, Beavis and Butt-Head are swept up in a tornado, and when they are hurled out onto the ground, 2 phone booths fall on them with no lasting effects...the second one even had somebody in it.
  • Not Quite Dead: In the final episode of the original run, McVicker supposedly died from a heart attack or stroke. Now he's alive and (relatively) well.
  • Oblivious to Love: Beavis, against all logic and reason, manages to capture the attention of a girl named Glennis in "Weird Girl." However, despite her very obvious advances, he never gets the hint.
  • Obviously Fake Signature: One episode has the guys wanting to get their ears pierced, only to be told that they need parental permission first. What they come back with are two barely legible pieces of scrap paper in their own writing, with Butt-Head's stating "Just do it, huh-huh" and Beavis' stating "Yeah, yeah".
  • Oh, Crap!: In "Patients Patients", the dentist and the nurse have this expression when they realize the effect of giving Butt-Head nitrous oxide (better known as laughing gas).
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: When he thinks he saw Beavis crying over a television show (he actually sniffed an onion), Butt-Head rides him about it. For a long time. Until the day he falls over dead in an old folks home.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Not exactly uncommon given their one-track mind. For example, in the Big Damn Movie, Beavis has a conversation on the plane with a little old lady.
    Lady: Oh, hello, there. Are you two heading for Las Vegas?
    Beavis: Yeah. Heh heh. We're gonna score! Heh heh.
    Lady: Oh, well, I hope to score big there, myself. I'm mostly gonna be doing the slots.
    Beavis: Yeah, yeah! Heh heh. I'm hoping to do some sluts, too. Do they have a lot of sluts in Las Vegas?
    Lady: Oh, there are so many slots, you won't know where to begin.
    Beavis: Whoa! Heh heh heh.
  • Onion Tears: In "Crying", a post-uncancellation episode, Beavis tears up after biting into an onion; while his reaction is along the lines of what would naturally happen, Butt-Head proceeds to never let him forget this... even 80 years later when they are old and decrepit in a nursing home.
  • Only in It for the Money: From "Manners Suck".
    Mr. Manners: Listen, you little twerp. This is my job. This is how I make money. Don't screw with me.
  • Only One Name: The eponymous duo. Or Butt-Head, anyway, as Do The Universe reveals that Beavis is actually Beavis' surname, leaving his first name unknown
  • Only Six Faces: Of a different sort. The recurring characters all had unique designs, but the show had a habit of reusing the same model for different characters. One guy shows up as a bank manager, a health inspector and a grade school teacher, in separate episodes, all with different names. Harry Sachz from "Prank Call" is shot dead in two different episodes, and given a different name in the second. The serial killer 'Kyler' from "Most Wanted" later shows up as a mall security guard. In the episode where they were on trial, many of the people in the court resemble Mr. Anderson (since Anderson is the one suing them, it may be intentional).
  • Opening Narration: The disclaimer quoted above, added after the show became controversial.
  • Orphaned Punchline:
    Butt-Head: "So the guy's like, excuse me sir, I told you to put the flower in your buttonhole."
  • Out-of-Character Moment: In "Hard Sell", where the duo seethe advertisement about highly paid telemarketing job, Butt-Head, a moronic Jerkass, briefly says "Think of all people we could help with that money". They quickly laugh at this idea, so this was probably intentional.
  • Out of Focus: In the 2022 series, only Van Driessen and Tom (and Marcy) Anderson out of all the original supporting characters have been making appearances. However, a grown Stewart shows up in a alternate timeline. (Daria Morgendorffer had become affiliated with an entierly different universe of characters by this point; her non-availblity is tied in part to a Jodie movie that is in development at Comedy Central.)
  • Overly Long Gag:
    • During the music video for "Delivery", Beavis and Butt-Head, tired of videos with college students in the water, turn the television off, and we're left to stare at a black screen for quite some time, with the camera never cutting back to the boys at any point. Either Judge had a powercut or he was asleep on duty.
    • Not to mention those hard stares they do.
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: While watching Salt-N-Pepa's "Shoop" video:
    (in the video) SALT: "Ooh, girls, look at him. He is the cutest brother in here."
    BUTT-HEAD: "He's the only brother in there."
  • Padding: The insect court scene from "Lawn and Garden" is reused in "No Laughing" unaltered.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • Despite being a Sadist Teacher, Buzzcut is EXTREMELY protective of his students.
    • As is normally docile Hippie Teacher Mr. Van Driessen.
    • The title duo unintentionally get on the bad side of one in "Daughter's Hand".
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Incognito", when a classmate threatens them, Beavis and Butt-Head don hats and sunglasses, rename themselves "Crevis and Bunghead", and speak in British accents. Their antagonist's reaction? "Nice try, Beaver and Buttplug."
  • Parallel Porn Titles: In "Huh-Huh-Humbug", Beavis watches a porn parody of A Christmas Carol called Ebeneezer Screw, featuring "Bob Scratchit" and "Tiny Johnson".
  • Parental Abandonment: The boys' mothers are never seen; Butt-Head constantly insinuates that Beavis's mother is a "slut". Beavis himself seems to confirm this when he tells Butt-Head "My mom's a slut, not a whore. She doesn't charge money." The Movie reveals that their fathers are former heavy-metal roadies turned drifters.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In "True Crime", Beavis and Butt-Head found an ATM card left on the machine. Beavis guessed the password correctly.
    Michael Jordan: What I don't get is how they figured out my password: BALLS. How'd they know I was a pro?
  • Periphery Demographic (In-Universe): Many assume that the two characters only like metal videos, but sometimes other random videos will be enjoyed by them the most. They rocked out to videos by The Reverend Horton Heat, The Bee Gees and Bananarama. Butt-Head also called several New Age videos "The greatest video I've ever seen" just because they had nude models.
    • The duo also seem to enjoy Grunge quite a bit, despite the real life rivalry between Grunge fans and metalheads.
    • They enjoy rap music as well, though it does depend on who it is; they've enjoyed singers like Snoop Dogg and Coolio, but are horrified by Vanilla Ice.
    • Even if a singer/band and their music is not of the styles the duo tends to enjoy, they will like the video if there is anything sexual in it, such as when they really get into a Barry White video, with Butt-Head referring to him as "the horniest dude who ever lived".
  • Pixellation: While on Gus Baker's show, Beavis proceeds to moon the audience. When they watch a news report of said episode and its controversy, Beavis questions why his butt is all blurry. He then drops his pants and asks Butt-Head if his butt really looks like that.
    • Lampshaded in the True Life segment of the first uncancelled episode where porn on a person's computer is blurred out.
      Butt-Head: Dammit, the porn's all blurry!
  • Police Are Useless: The police in Highland are generally presented as either very incompetent or very trigger-happy, with no in-between. They usually do not keep a close eye on Beavis and Butt-Head's shenanigans and end up beating up and arresting the wrong person instead.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: Beavis and Butt-Head are extremely misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.
  • Poor Communication Kills: In "Oil Change", Beavis and Butt-Head are demanded to change the oil in the fryer at Burger World, so they visit an auto repair shop to ask for oil to change with. Because they didn't specify the context behind what they're doing, the mechanic thinks they're changing the oil in their car, so they're given motor oil, with which they proceed to fill the fryer in place of vegetable oil. Disaster ensues.
  • Power Outage Plot: "Blackout!" had the titular duo watching television when the power goes out. They head out to fix the problem (without realizing that the power's gone out) and end up in the middle of a near-riot. Van Driessen tries to get them to help out by directing traffic, but their stupidity only leads to a multiple-car pile-up.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Since the duo's trademark music video reviews wouldn't really work in the Marvel Comics adaptation, it had them read other Marvel comic books and snark at the panels.
  • The Precious, Precious Car: In "Car Wash", the boys get to wash their neighbor's car while the owner goes out for a jog. They decide to take it for a joyride. Guess what happens.
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • The show in general doesn't have the characters say anything that would necessitate a Sound-Effect Bleep, but in the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Beavis lets loose a Cluster Bleep-Bomb as he kicks a chair when he realises that he and Butt-Head are not in the voting for the Viewer's Choice Awards.
    • A similar thing happens in "Generation in Crisis".
  • Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With: In the movie.
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Beavis attempts this as they watch Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Gin and Juice" video, and is immediately countered by Butt-Head.
    Beavis: I'm a G. I'm a straight gee.
    Butt-Head: Yeah, you're a G for gonad. Huh huh.
    Beavis: Shut up, Butt-Head. Heh heh. You might get smoked if you keep that up. Heh heh. Watch yo back, homie.
  • Punk in the Trunk: Whenever Todd gets involved in the plot, chances are good that Beavis and Butt-Head will end up stuffed in the trunk of his car.
  • Put on the Bus: As of the 2022 revival series, Principal Mc Vicker, Todd, Stewart, and Coach Buzzcut have yet to appear hinting they have been taken out (with even Buzzcut being replaced with another P.E. teacher who is much nicer than Buzzcut hinting he may have been fired). So far, Mr. Van Driessen and Tom Anderson are the only reoccurring characters to appear in the 2022 revival series. "Smart" versions of Mc Vicker, Todd, and Buzzcut from another universe have appeared, however.
  • Pyromaniac: Beavis is. An early catchphrase had him gleefully shouting, "Fire! Fire! Fire!", which got the show in trouble with Moral Guardians when it was blamed for a child burning down his home. Later episodes had to be subtle about it. In "Way Down Mexico Way", he heavily emphasizes the first syllable in "fireworks". At another point, they see a music video which is slow-motion of a man casually jogging down the street while ablaze; while Beavis never used his former catchphrase, he apparently entered a state of nirvana and calmly and quietly threatened grievous bodily harm when Butt-Head said he was going to change the channel.
  • Quest for Sex: Several episodes revolve around Beavis and Butt-Head's attempts to score. They are never successful.
  • Rapid-Fire Typing: Parodied in "Temporary Insanity." The boys are confused for office temps by apathetic management, and put behind a desk. Beavis is put in charge of typing up documents, and Beavis spends his shift constantly clicking away at the keyboard. Beavis, being Beavis, doesn't actually type words so much as he just really loves pressing the buttons, so all he ever types is gibberish. By the end of his shift, he's just mashing the keyboard with his fists like a lunatic, and he winds up shorting out the computer.
  • Really Gets Around: Based on comments made by the titular characters, it sounds like Beavis's mom is quite promiscuous.
    Beavis: She's not a whore, she's a slut; she doesn't charge for it.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Utterly averted in "Crying" where Butt-head constantly mocks Beavis for crying while watching The Bachelor (the result of finding an onion in his chili dog while watching the show).
    "Huh huh. You were touched."
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The title characters.
  • Reviewer Standard Comparisons: Parodied brilliantly by Beavis while watching Korn's "Blind" video:
    Beavis (after making himself all dizzy): I think there's a problem with this video in that it's highly derivative of many popular bands within the genre. Although when viewed on its own merits, it does have a decent groove.
    Butt-Head: Uhh... Beavis?
    Beavis: However, what it has in groove, it lacks in originality.
    Butt-Head: What's your problem?!
    Beavis: One can't help but be reminded of such bands as Pearl Jam, White Zombie, Suicidal Tendencies and other bands that bear the mantle of so-called Alternative Rock.
    Butt-Head: You're talking like a dork, Beavis!
    Beavis: One is even reminded of Laurie Anderson when she wore curlers. This video speaks less to the heart and more to the sphincter. In closing, I think Korn would do well to learn more from- (Butt-Head slaps him to bring him back.)
  • Revival: Now they make fun of Reality Shows.
  • Rock–Paper–Scissors: B&B played it in "Substitute", with Butt-Head lying about the rules as an excuse to hit Beavis.
  • Room Escape Game: In the first episode of the 2022 revival ("Escape Room"), Beavis and Butthead get roped into participating in a Mummy-themed escape room puzzle by two teenage girls. Hilarity Ensues when the two fail to realize that the bathroom they ended up in isn't actually the escape room.

    Tropes S to Z 
  • Sadist: The duo (especially Butt-Head), Coach Buzzcut, Todd, and the Crazy Old Farmer.
  • Sadistic Choice: During "Massage", the boys are left with two choices. Either give a massage to a disgusting old man, or get arrested for disrupting the massage guy's business. They (very reluctantly) choose the old man.
    Beavis: Well, he does have boobs.
  • Sadist Teacher: Buzzcut, although he is still very protective of his students, even the ones who cause him the most misery such as Beavis and Butt-Head because according to him, only he administers the ass-kicking to his students.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: This tends to happen a lot with Beavis and Butt-Head when they think anything sucks and/or generally no reason at all.
    • In one instance, it was far more than just a matter of something sucking; it revolved around them watching a sexual education film that was meant purely for women... and for a good reason. Despite the fact that Van Driessen had warned them it'd be graphic, they insist on watching the film for "educational purposes". After witnessing the graphic birth on the film which was unseen to the audience, yet shown to Beavis and Butt-Head, they both react with shock and disgust, to the point they decide to forego watching anymore of the film and bolt out of the room. They even refuse Van Driessen's offer to let them complete it after what they saw.
  • Second-Person Attack: At least twice — once in the episode "Nosebleed", and again in the introduction to the 3D Jackass movie. Both times it's Butt-Head punching Beavis.
  • Seemingly Profound Fool: About three out of every five episodes.
  • Sentimental Music Cue: Sometimes, in the show's later seasons, a somber clarinet-driven musical cue would crop up. Naturally, this was done strictly for laughs. The episode "Bad Dog," for example, plays this music cue when their dog runs away, only to shift to the classic heavy metal guitar closing when Beavis and Butt-Head perk up and decide to get a new dog.
  • Sexual Karma: Beavis and Butt-Head are constantly attempting to score with chicks. These attempts always, without exception, end in failure.
    • In Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, it's revealed that there is literally no reality in the universe where the boys score. "Smart Beavis" finally breaks the cycle in the end and the accomplishment is so noteworthy due to the trope that he gets a medal for it.
  • Shared Universe: With its Spin-Off Daria, although it only briefly mentions Highland and never B&B.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Burger World is a reference to "Big Edna's Burger World" from UHF, with Burger World also being one of the places where Al frequently ate at in the Fat music video.
    • The restaurant is also based on the regional "Whataburger" chain (Judge worked at one in high school).
    • One of the dream sequences in "Dream On" features Beavis as a corrupt police officer kicking the ass of a "man walking by with a dog".
    • The AC/DC and Metallica shirts they always wear (in the original broadcast run, anyway... on home media they are replaced by other names — "Skull" and "Death Rock", respectively).
    • The title "Way Down Mexico Way" is a reference to the song "Hey Joe," most famously recorded by Jimi Hendrix.
    • The title "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Huh-Huh" is a reference to the novelty song "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaaa" by Napoleon XIV, which is about mental illness and institutionalization like the episode.
    • From Virtual Stupidity, tell Beavis to use the eraser, and he will say "Go Eraser! Go Eraser Go!"
    • They're BIG fans of GWAR.
    • The show features the store "George's Liquor".
    • In the first revival episode, "Werewolves of Highland", Idiocracy is visible but obscured on the theater marquee where the duo see The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
    • In "A Very Special Episode", when Butt-Head fills out the veterinary form, he mistakes the word "symptoms" as "Simpsons" to which he says that they're pretty cool.
  • Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Glennis from "Weird Girl." Her hair is dyed blue, she has a timid demeanor, barely speaks above a whisper, has no friends at all, and is widely regarded as a freak at her school.
  • Sick Episode: "Sick", in which Beavis and Butt-Head try to get prescription drugs in order to get high.
  • Signature Laugh: The duo's continuous chortling, which is a catchphrase in and of itself.
  • Similar Squad: Stewart has two friends who are nerdy and polite versions of Beavis and Butt-Head.
  • Skewed Priorities: Mr. Stevenson has his cell phone shoved in his ass. When it started ringing (Beavis and Butt-Head calling when they saw the police at Stewart's house), he wanted someone to get it thinking it might be his office.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Pretty hard on the cynical end.
  • Slipping a Mickey: Double subverted when the two slip a vial of "Spanish Fly" into what they think is a girl's milk, only to have her boyfriend drink it moments later.
  • Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: Downplayed. While they both act like brainless troublemakers, Butt-Head is the more aware and unrepentantly self-centered of the two. With Beavis, it's shown that he acts much nicer without Butt-Head's influence.
  • Smoking Is Cool: Todd the badass smokes, and during the music video segments, Beavis would occasionally be seen trying to light a cigarette.
  • Snakes Are Sexy: Beavis and Butt-Head certainly think they have sex appeal, considering they speculate that women get really excited looking at snakes in the zoo, especially in the case where a snake gets out. They're proven somewhat correct when, after causing a panic where they make the visitors think a snake escaped, one woman shudders giddily and says: "Ooooh, an escaped snake!"
  • Snap Back: The Running Gag of Beavis getting poked in the eye with a pencil, or losing teeth in acts of physical violence are always undone, sometimes by the very next scene.
    • This is most obvious in The Movie. Tom Anderson, his wife, and his camper trailer are hit by a wall of water that would easily kill a healthy person. In their next scene, they are both fine. Beavis and Butt-Head themselves wander in the desert until they collapse from dehydration, then get driven over half the country in Muddy's trunk, then jump out of the trunk at freeway speeds. They are perfectly fine in the next scene.
  • Social Services Does Not Exist: Beavis and Butt-Head are teenagers who appear to live on their own, which begs the question of how no one considered checking on their home life. One would even ask where their mothers are.
  • Soda Can Shakeup: In "Canned", Beavis and Butt-head tried to cause this with an unopened can of root beer. It never did explode.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep:
    • Used in "Scared Straight" when their class takes a field trip to prison and an inmate talks to them.
    • Also in "Generation in Crisis" when the filmmaker brings up censorship.
    • In their interview with Kurt Loder after the release of the film, Beavis gets mad and cusses out Butt-Head, which gets beeped out.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance:
    • Mocked in The Movie, as Van Driessen sings Lesbian Seagull over shots of federal agents kicking in doors.
    • Also on the series itself, which would open with a "sophisticated" jazz piece.
    • The end of "The Great Cornholio", where he leaves wandering the hallways with No Ending.
    • In "Drones", Beavis's rather harrowing anecdote about his school grief conselor Rick, during which it's all but stated that Beavis was raped, happens while deadmau5's peppy dance music "Ghosts 'n' Stuff" is blaring on the TV.
  • Spanner in the Works: Beavis and Butt-Head foil a terrorist plot without realizing it in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
  • Spell My Name With An S: The official spelling of Butt-Head's name has a dash in it, but it's often ignored.
  • Sperm as People: In "Beavis and Butt-head Do America", Beavis has a flashback to himself as a nose-picking sperm.
  • Spin-Off: Daria, King of the Hill (given how Tom Anderson could now easily be mistaken as an elderly version of Hank Hillnote ) and The Goode Family (the father sounds like Van Driessen and his son looks like a mix between Stewart and Bobby Hill).
  • Spit Take: When watching a particularly bad music video, a running gag would have Beavis spit his soda out on the side of Butt-Head's face.
    • Beavis spit while drinking (non-alcoholic) beer.
  • Split Personality: Beavis' alter ego is brought to the fore when he has too much sugar and/or caffeine.
    • "I am Cornholio, I need TP for my bunghole"!
  • Spoof Aesop: "Supersize Me" teaches us that 'Teen obesity kicks ass'.
  • Status Quo Is God: No matter what the characters go through, they will always be back to 100% by the next show. In the 2022 revival, this goes double for their alternate universe counterparts who never time traveled and grew old naturally. Beavis can be shown destroying his own kidney and a transplant kidney in one episode but be perfectly fine in the next. And if their apartment gets destroyed in one story by developers through legal means, it'll be fully intact by the next episode like nothing happened.
  • Sting: Happens several times when watching the Violent Femmes video Nightmares, whenever Butt-Head said "sucks", followed by Beavis screaming.
  • Stock Footage: Over the years their music video commentaries would use animation from the earlier seasons. It got kinda weird seeing the two characters go from round and colorful to disfigured and dark within a couple seconds. This is especially noticeable in the 2011 revival which, despite using cleaner, crisper animation for the stories, still uses 1990s animation for its commentary segments.
  • Stunned Silence: For a couple of videos (Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli), all they could do is stare in horror for several seconds before wordlessly changing the channel.
  • Stupid Evil: The duo hate or are at least indifferent to virtually everything that does not seem cool to them, including air.
  • Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: "There once was a man from Venus, / with a rocket ship for a... wiener."
  • Super Bowl Special: During the height of its popularity, MTV would run a special episode against the Super Bowl halftime show.
  • Superpowered Alter Ego: Beavis's is The Great Cornholio, who emerges when Beavis has too much caffeine, sugar, or other stimulants.
  • Surprisingly Creepy Moment: The end of "Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest" takes a dark turn. Most of the episode seems regular, with the boys getting up to their usual antics, just on Halloween. Then a very unsettling farmer who constantly giggles sinisterly in a soft-spoken voice gets ahold of them, seemingly zombifies Butt-Head, and together they slice Beavis to pieces with chainsaws. The whole sequence is genuinely very creepy and not played for laughs at all.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Quite a few times, perhaps unsurprisingly since this show is way more realistic than many of the trope's contenders.
    • In "Dumbasses Anonymous", a bartender refuses to give Beavis and Butthead any beer, stating that they look underage and don't have any ID to prove otherwise.
    • In "Green Thumbs", the duo try to buy stuff from the Maxi Mart using poorly made Counterfeit Cash. The shop keeper sees right through their deception and yells at them to get lost.
    • In "Liar! Liar!", Butthead tries to beat the lie detector by holding his breath. However, he ends up holding his breath for a really long time and he eventually passes out from oxygen deprivation.
    • In "Tobacco Farmers" Beavis thinks that cigarettes are tobacco seeds and throughout the course of the episode, eats as many as eighty cigarettes. At the episode's end, he goes to the doctor and learns that not only does he now have a small tumor on his tongue, but his risk of heart disease has been raised, and possibility of low fetal birth weight. Of course, he doesn't think this has any correlation with the "seeds", rather that he got beaten up so badly that it gave him cancer.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In the 90s series, there was a chubby brunette student with glasses named Dean Zunker who would sometimes make casual, friendly conversation with the pair. In the 2022 revival, there's a chubby black student named Cody who fills in that similar niche where he occasionally stops to talk to Beavis and Butt-head casually, with the only difference being that Cody is far more condescending to them and clearly looks down on the two.
  • Take That!:
    • To anyone who stands still long enough, but one memorable example was when Beavis and Butt-Head went to a poetry reading, and Beavis ended up drinking some incredibly powerful cappuccino, triggering his Cornholio persona. The beret-wearing poetry snobs, of course, thought his insane ranting was genius. They stayed for hours listening to his "I am Cornholio, I need TP for my bunghole" glossolalia. He started to tire as the caffeine wore off, and the crowd started to leave... so of course the guy Beavis was sitting with dosed him with another almost-lethal cappuccino.
    • Judge was told by MTV that Kip Winger had forbade the network from making fun of Winger videos, and the channel restricted the show from ever making fun of the band's videos again. In response, punching-bag Stewart wore a Winger shirt. Judge later learned that Winger didn't have a problem with the show.
    • With the return of the series, Judge also targets YouTube Videos and other MTV shows like Jersey Shore. Their first vic-er, choice since their return: The Situation and Snooki.
    • In the first video segment of the revival series (less than 5 minutes into the first episode!), Beavis goes off on an extended rant about fire, in a Take That to the Moral Guardians who censored the "fire" statements in the original show.
      • This also applies to the episode, "Doomsday", where the duo believe the world has ended. Beavis notes one of the perks is that no one will tell him, "Oh, no, don't burn that!"
    • While watching Ministry's "Just One Fix" video, Beavis says that it would be cool to see someone puke. They do.
      Beavis: "Yeah, but I didn't ask for blood in it. That was beyond the limits of good taste."
    • At least twice during the music video portions, B&B encountered something they found so awful, they simply stared in silence for a few seconds and immediately changed the channel. One time, it was Vanilla Ice, the other was Milli Vanilli. Honestly, who could blame them?
    • In "No Laughing", Beavis and Butt-Head's Spanish teacher reveals that despite being in his class for almost a whole school year, that the only Spanish they know is what they learned at Taco Bell, and that Beavis can't even get that right.
  • Talkative Loon: Beavis, whenever he becomes Cornholio. But then, Beavis isn't playing with a full deck in the first place, so the sugar/caffeine just makes him even more insane than he already is.
  • Tempting Fate: Every time someone asks Beavis and Butt-Head not to touch any belongings or cause any harm, you know how this will end up for them. Special mention goes to the doctor from "Wood Shop", who warns Beavis not to play with his reattached finger for the next couple of months... only for Beavis to ignore his warning by picking his nose with it, making it fall off again.
    Doctor: Luckily, we were able to reattach your finger. You almost lost it forever. Now remember, you're not to use that finger under any circumstances whatsoever for the next 10 to 12 weeks. You are very lucky.
  • They Killed Kenny Again: There were episodes where the boys have died or episodes ending with the boys facing certain doom.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: When the boys realize they're not going to like the current music video they're watching, they'll unenthusiastically remark on how much the music, the video, and the band look like they're going to suck. Sometimes, they will switch channels just for that.
  • This Loser Is You: Pretty much the ultimate example. Beavis and Butt-Head are stereotype of metalheads, which is a majority of their fans.
  • Those Two Guys:
    • Ross and Harlan, the thieves who claim themselves as movers in "Stewart Moves Away" and steal the boys' TV in the movie.
    • Beavis and Butt-Head themselves could be considered this In-Universe.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: The end of "Holy Cornholio", in which Butt-Monkey Stewart goes off to have sex with dozens of beautiful female cultists — the same ones who were trying to mate with the duo through much of the episode.
  • Toad Licking: Beavis once tried to lick the back of a toad to get high.
  • Toilet Humor: Lots of it, both literally and figuratively.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • The stupidity of the title characters can reach extreme levels.
      • The most literal example of "too dumb to live" occurs when the duo take a driver's ed class. After watching a video about road safety, Butt-head practices driving... which means immediately flooring it onto a main road and driving headlong into a tractor trailer.
      • There's even one episode where they forget how to pee.
      • In a wood shop class, Beavis cut his finger off with a table saw. It wasn't by accident when he and Butt-Head decided to slice up random things from around the classroom with the saw; it was because he just felt like touching the saw. And when it gets reattached, he picks his nose with it and it falls off again.
      • Butt-head once got stuck after crawling inside a pipe. After taking the entire episode to get him unstuck (eventually having to resort to a rescue crew), Beavis went and got himself stuck in the same pipe.
      • In one of the revival episodes, Beavis tries to photocopy his butt, only to break the screen and get stuck. After eventually being freed, Butt-Head suggests he photocopy his butt so they can see the damage done. Beavis immediately does and it gets stuck again.
      • If they weren't Made of Iron, they would be dead.
    • Harry Buddisker, the health inspector in "Closing Time", takes Beavis and Butt-Head at their word that the earthworms in the Burger World deep-fryer are "seasoned curly fries". He then eats them as he is shutting the place down for numerous flagrant health violations.
  • Took a Level in Dumbass: Inverted; in the later episodes, they seem to have become much smarter in their mockery of Jersey Shore.
  • Trash of the Titans: In some episodes, their house is littered with trash and crushed soda cans, and in others, it's relatively clean.
  • Treadmill Trauma: One episode had the two visit a gym. At one point, they try the treadmill...by turning it up to its maximum setting before jumping onto it. Beavis goes first and gets thrown right into the wall, taking off some of the paint. Cut to later and the wall now has several patches of paint missing from where the two apparently impacted it.
  • Two Decades Behind:
    • For being teenagers in the '90s, Beavis and Butt-Head make an unusual amount of references to old television, such as The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island. One music video segment even has them discussing My Three Sons, which ended in 1972 and isn't well remembered. On the other hand, the two do watch a lot of TV in general, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility for them to have seen reruns of old shows(which were all over syndicated TV in the daytime). Indeed, one episode had them watching a (fake) episode of Gilligan's Island. Another episode began with them watching Leave It to Beaver, which inspired the rest of the episode with Beavis, Butt-Head and other various characters as stand in for the cast of that show. It's evident that reruns of old TV shows is part of their daily television diet.
    • The boys' love of heavy metal was already a few years out of date in the early '90s, with Grunge becoming the teen rock genre of choice.
    • Played for Laughs with Stewart's Winger t-shirt. Given his sheltered upbringing, he probably thinks liking Hair Metal is rebellious.
  • Two-Teacher School: Van Driessen and Buzzcut are shown teaching a wide range of subjects and the duo are rarely seen in any other teachers' classes, especially after the first couple seasons when Mrs. Dickie and Mr. Herrera were phased out. A new unnamed female science teacher (voiced by Laraine Newman) was introduced for the revival season and became another exception.
  • Ultimate Job Security: Virtually every workplace related episode had the duo doing things that would under most circumstances get almost any employee fired, yet this inexplicably never happened. Then again, it's just as inexplicable they were even hired in the first place. They're usually the only employees even shown at the place, which suggests a staffing shortage that may be keeping them employed.
  • Uncancelled: Briefly returned to MTV after a 14-year hiatus (2011). Are set to return again, this time to Comedy Central (2021).
  • Unfortunate Names: A lot of Highland residents have these, much to the amusement of Beavis and Butt-Head.
    • Here's a little gem from "Prank Call", where they were looking through the phone book for someone to call:
      Butt-Head: Uh, Taylor, Bob... no... uh... M-Matthews, Al...
      Beavis: No. Come on, Butt-head.
      Butt-Head: Uh... Sac... Sachz. Harry... (starts laughing) "Hairy sack."
      Beavis (also laughing): Yeah. Hairy sack.
      Butt-Head (still laughing): This is gonna be cool.
    • Mrs. Dickie (the science teacher), Dick Gaylord (career counselor), whose names trigger hysterical laughter from Beavis and Butt-head.
    • Daniel Butkis, a student who gets teased about his name in "No Laughing". Later in the episode, we learn that Buzzcutt's entire roster, sans the duo, for that particular class seems to be made up of these.
    • Harry Buddisker, a health inspector whose name is mispronounced as "Harry Buttwhisker".
    • Betsy Wiener, a member of the "Decency in Media" group who blames music videos as the cause of the titular duo being struck by lightning, when they were actually watching a PBS documentary and trying to re-create Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment.note 
    • Sgt. Dick 'The Rooster' Leakey, who attempts to recruit the duo to join the Army, only for them to enlist as 'Major Woody' and 'Private Parts' before stealing the bullets and a live grenade.
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists: The titular duo have the combined IQ of a brick and cause all sorts of mischief.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
    • Of a sort. Butt-head's name goes without comment for the entire series, at least by those who know the duo personally. Those that don't either mishear it, or think it's an alias. Lampshaded in "Holding" where a cop thinks the names "Beavis and Butt-Head" sound like porn names.
    • In "Incognito", Beavis and Butt-Head anger a student who carries a gun to school, and everyone treats the whole issue as normal, especially Daria.
  • Vengeful Vending Machine: "Beavis and Butt-Head Vs. the Vending Machine" features the pair trying buying a bag of pork rinds from a vending machine, only for it to get stuck. The rest of the episode revolves around them trying to get it out.
  • Verbal Tic:
    • Schoolteacher Mr. Van Driessen puts "mmkay" at the end of a lot of his sentences.
    • And then there's the titular duo's endless guttural laughter.
      • Heheh eheheheh you said 'tit'.
      • Forget that, he said titular.
    • McVicker with his trademark "uhhhhhhhhhhhh".
    • To a lesser extent, Butt-Head's tendency to start most sentences with "Uhhh," and tag "like" and "or something" to the end of clauses.
    • Beavis also had "Hey, how's it goin'?" and "Yeah, me too".
  • Very Special Episode: "A Very Special Episode" where the duo are tasked with nursing a baby bird back to health. Given the nature of this show however...
  • Vitriolic Best Buds;
    "Shut up, buttknocker!" *whack*
    "Ow! Don't call me that, bunghole!" *kick*
  • Vocal Evolution:
    • Quite noticably. Compare Beavis and Butt-Head's voices in "Frog Baseball" to any of the post-Season 2 episodes.
    • Also, McVicker sounded completely different in his second appearance, "No Laughing".
    • Stewart also had a higher pitched voice until about Season 5, though this is on account of his voice actor, Adam Welsh, hitting puberty — he had just turned 13 when Stewart first appeared.
    • Beavis' voice is also noticeably deeper in the revival, no doubt due to Judge trying to recreate the character's nasal, gravelly voice after having aged fifteen years. It's especially noticeable when he's yelling.
    • Buzzcut's voice is much quieter and less belligerent in his first appearance than it would become; he also has a stronger Texan accent.
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: "Nice Butt-Head" has Butt-Head take medication that lowers his aggression and makes him far more pleasant, polite, and studious. It creeps Beavis out so much that he eventually loses his temper, gets violent with Butt-Head, and demands he go back to insulting Beavis and kicking his ass for the most mundane things. He gets his wish when he performs a Heimlich maneuver, excising all the pills out of Butt-Head and causing the latter to revert to his Jerkass ways.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • We never do find out what happened to Mr. Van Driessen in The Movie after he's arrested.
    • At one point in Virtual Stupidity, it is mentioned that McVicker had been missing for a few days, but this is never explained at the end of the game.
  • What Were They Selling Again?: The duo believe that the Plain White T's "1 2 3 4" music video is an example of this. They conclude that it's a commercial for erectile dysfunction.
    Butt-Head: This is like one of those commercials where you don't know what it's for.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: While many sites label the town of Highland as being in Texas, Mike Judge himself says that he ambiguously tried to place it in a fictional area around the eastern New Mexico/western Texas region, to try and make it seem that the boys could be living anywhere. Averted in the 2011 revival, which confirms that Highland is in Texas.
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Butt-Head once mentioned that he has a cousin named "Richard-Head".
  • Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: This is how the duo can sometimes defeat people who are antagonistic toward them.
    • In "PTA", all they had to do was be present and annoying enough while physically doing nothing to the point McVicker loses it and gets into a fight with one of the parents while getting Buzzcut in legal trouble simply by casually mentioning how he was abusive to them.
    • They also do the same with Mr. Manners/Candy by just standing there while the salesman physically threatens them. Then they get to happily sit back and watch while Van Driessen or Buzzcut makes the save for them and starts fighting or pummeling the motivational speaker.
    • In the Christmas Episode, they just walk off while refusing Charlie's suggestion for Butt-Head to kill himself and afterwards, Charlie slips and falls into the river while trying to protest Butt-Head's decision.
  • With Friends Like These...: Beavis and Butt-Head themselves. The latter often hits, insults, neglects and is downright abusive towards the former. Whenever Beavis is getting beaten up or is in a life-threatening predicament, Butt-Head never cares about what's going on with him in the slightest with his amoral nature, making it very ambiguous as to why those two are friends in the first place aside from having some shared interests in music, food, and women. One episode even shows that if Butt-Head wasn't in his life, Beavis would have been a still dimwitted, but much friendlier person.
  • The Woobie: In-Universe, Butt-Head actually approaches this when he buys a Russian mail-order bride, who is repulsed by him, abuses him and has loud sex with Todd in his car outside their window. Beavis obliviously keeps asking why Butt-Head's wife is doing it with Todd, until he angrily cries, "Dammit, Beavis, she's not really my wife!" He is cheered up quickly when Beavis concludes that since she's doing it with Todd, and she's Butt-Head's wife, that he and Todd are related.
  • World of Jerkass: With some exceptions (such as Stewart, Mr. Van Driessen, Tom Anderson, and Cassandra), every single character is either unpleasant, insane, or both. Beavis and Butt-Head themselves frequently cause mayhem with their outlandish behavior and don't give a damn as long as they're engaged in anything interesting.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Buzzcut (although he is very protective of his students) and Muddy Grimes (who spends half of The Movie trying to hunt down and kill the boys).
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Played for laughs in "Sexual Harassment". The boys whine that a girl is "harassing them" by being too hot and try to sue her, only for their own stupidity and the law to nip the whole thing in the bud.
  • Wounded Gazelle War Cry: Again, played for laughs, but in "Whiplash". Butt-Head tries to get run over by a bus in order to sue the bus driver for a ton of money. Of course, it fails, and in fact, it ends up getting both him and Beavis injured.
  • Writing Around Trademarks:
    • The 1993 album The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience has them on the cover with Beavis wearing a "DEATH ROCK" shirt and Butt-Head wearing an "MTV" shirt, instead of their usual AC/DC and Metallica shirts. Neither band appears on the album. Butt-Head wears a "SKULL" shirt in a picture in the liner notes.
    • The "Skull" and "Death Rock" logos are used whenever Beavis and Butt-Head appear in merchandise outside of the cartoon, because using AC/DC and Metallica would generate legal issues.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: A few characters attempt to treat Beavis and Butt-Head as misunderstood, troubled teenagers, hoping to draw out their hidden good sides. Problem is, Beavis and Butt-Head really ARE just as stupid, selfish and incompetent as they appear, there are no hidden depths for anyone to find.
  • Yandere: Glennis from the "Weird Girl" episode. She develops a crush on Beavis, but when he doesn't appear to return her feelings (because he's too stupid to even realize she has them in the first place) and expresses his exuberant love for fire, she burns down the Honors' trailer seemingly in an attempt to get his attention.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: Hilariously enough, there are a few times where Beavis and Butt-Head do come very close to scoring, from attracting women to them via a video dating service to becoming leaders of a sex cult. However, their stupidity always ensures the obvious hints fly over their heads and they miss their chances.
  • Yet Another Christmas Carol: "Huh Huh Humbug" has Beavis in place of Scrooge. Anderson, Van Driessen and Buzzcut are the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, respectively. The McVicker family stand in for the Cratchits, and Butt-Head is Jacob Marley. In this, McVicker is forced by Beavis to work at Burger World.
  • You Get What You Pay For: In "Cleaning House", Van Driessen hires our heroes to clean his house as a way of teaching them the value of hard work. He only gives them a dollar each for their work, but in the end, Van Driessen gets what he deserves when he sees that Beavis and Butt-Head destroyed his irreplaceable 8-track collection.


"Uh huh huh huh. That was cool."

Waldorf: So these two punks make silly comments about everything they watch, huh?
Statler: Hey, that's what WE do!
Waldorf: At least we have a life!
Both: Doh-hoh-hoh!

Alternative Title(s): Mike Judges Beavis And Butthead

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G for Gonad

Beavis, a lily-white Texan, fails to convince Butt-Head that he is a "straight G" from Compton who knew Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (5 votes)

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Main / PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy

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