History Creator / MikeJudge

His latest work, created with Brandon Gardner and ''Silicon Valley'' alum Creator/ZachWoods, is the Creator/{{Peacock}} StopMotionAnimation series ''In the Know'', a gentle satire of Creator/{{NPR}}.

His most recent work is the Creator/{{Cinemax}} animated series ''Tales From the Tourbus'', loosely based on the AnimatedMusicVideo he created for Music/ZacBrownBand's 2012 single "The Wind".

!!Trope appearing in his work

* CreatorProvincialism: While not a longtime native of the state (having only begun residing there once his career started to take off), just about half of his work is set somewhere in Texas.

* DescendedCreator: Voices anywhere from [[TalkingToHimself one to five characters]] in all of his animated shows. In some cases, he'll even do some of the music.

* TalkingToHimself: Judge voiced the title characters and several others (most notably Tom Anderson, David Van Dreissen, Coach Buzzcut, and Principal [=McVicker=]) whom they interact with on ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', as well as Hank Hill and Boomhauer in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoTheUniverse''

Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is a prolific Ecuadorian-born American filmmaker, cartoonist, animator, voice actor, musician and former engineer, best known for creating the animated shows ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Beavis and Butt-Head]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' as well as the live-action movies ''Film/OfficeSpace'' and ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}''.

Durring ''Hill''s run, Judge made three live-action films, ''Film/OfficeSpace'' (self-adapted from his animated shorts), ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'' and ''Film/{{Extract}}.'' The first two were {{acclaimed flop}}s (the latter even moreso, as Fox got cold feet when they saw just how many real-life corporate brands the film flagrantly skewered and tried to shuffle it off to the DVD rack as fast as they could) and have since developed similar cult followings while the third quickly fizzled out of the public consciousness and seems to have put a damper on his career in live-action features. He would eventually make a return to live-action with the Creator/{{HBO}} series ''Series/SiliconValley'', which he co-created with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, directing several episodes himself.

Judge's follow-up, which he co-created with Greg Daniels, saw him going in the complete opposite direction with the SliceOfLife sitcom ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' for FOX, starring propane ([[RunningGag and propane accessories]]) salesman Hank Hill and his friends and family. The show was ''famously'' low-key and lacking in any sort of wacky or outlandish situations, being closer to that of a live-action movie than an animated (or even live-action) TV series with only slight exaggeration for comedy. Despite disinterest from fans of his previous show, heavy competition from other FOX animated shows, the network [[ScrewedByTheNetwork frequently shifting timeslots]], it was a huge hit, running for [[LongRunner 12 consecutive years]] and developing a strong cult following thanks to reruns airing on Creator/AdultSwim. Judge has hinted that this, too, may see a revival soon.

* TalkingToHimself: Voiced the title characters and several others (most notably Tom Anderson, David Van Dreissen, Coach Buzzcut, and Principal [=McVicker=]) whom they interact with on ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'', as well as Hank Hill and Boomhauer in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Most of his work tends to hover over either side of the middle of the scale, and whichever side it falls on varies from project to project. ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' is almost entirely cynical, bordering on misanthropic, while ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is almost entirely idealistic, but with its tongue firmly in its cheek for much of its humor. His live action movies such as ''Film/OfficeSpace'' tend to spend most of their runtimes on cynical or even bitter observational humor, but still have [[EarnYourHappyEnding happy]] (or at least {{bittersweet|ending}}) endings.

* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Despite being mostly self-taught and, by his own admittance, not all that skilled as an artist, he's a lot closer to technician. All of his work contains great attention to detail in its look, dialogue and direction. His animated work in particular strictly adheres to anatomical correctness and subtle body language (for example, the style guide for ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' insists that Hank never look anyone directly in the eyes) while involuntary pauses or thinking sounds are written into the scripts of his live-action films.

The shorts were instantly popular and earned Judge more animation work, first from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', who commissioned several more ''Milton'' shorts, and later Creator/{{MTV}}, who ran the shorts on their animation showcase series ''Liquid Television''. Eventually, they proposed a spin-off series starring the two reckless teenagers from ''Frog Baseball'', and thus ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' was born.

Equally as popular with college-aged audiences and even a few high-profile entertainment personalities for its witty, subversive humor as it was controversial among MoralGuardians for the title duo's juvenile, often destructive antics (such as setting things on fire and huffing paint thinner), it was nonetheless a massive success, becoming a seminal piece of 90s pop culture and running for seven seasons, ending with [[TheMovie a film]], ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica'', which Judge co-directed. In 2011, it was briefly revived for one season.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: A common topic of his work, though nowhere near as brutal and in-your-face as most examples. Usually, it takes the form of people too wrapped up in their own optimism to know when it isn't working (Mr. Van Driesen from ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'') or well-meaning people who turn out to be no less egotistical as the conservative characters (most of the one-shot characters on ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill''). It helps that Judge apparently comes from a very liberal family, meaning his opinions on it are clearly well-informed and not just reactionary. On the other hand, it's generally agreed that ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodeFamily'' largely flopped because it's humor was almost entirely derived from making fun of fundamentally progressive people for just being progressive.

Judge's follow-up, which he co-created with Greg Daniels, saw him going in the complete opposite direction with the SliceOfLife sitcom ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' for FOX, starring propane ([[RunningGag and propane accessories]]) salesman Hank Hill and his friends and family. The show was ''famously'' low-key and lacking in any sort of wacky or outlandish situations, being closer to that of a live-action movie than an animated (or even live-action) TV series with only slight exaggeration for comedy. Despite disinterest from fans of his previous show, heavy competition from other FOX animated shows, the network [[ScrewedByTheNetwork frequently shifting timeslots]], it was a huge hit, running for [[LongRunner 12 consecutive years]] and developing a strong cult following thanks to reruns airing on Creator/AdultSwim until 2019. Judge has hinted that this, too, may see a revival soon.

Judge's follow-up, which he co-created with Greg Daniels, saw him going in the complete opposite direction with the SliceOfLife sitcom ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' for FOX, starring propane ([[RunningGag and propane accessories]]) salesman Hank Hill and his friends and family. The show was ''famously'' low-key and lacking in any sort of wacky or outlandish situations, being closer to that of a live-action move than an animated (or even live-action) series with only slight exaggeration for comedy. Despite disinterest from fans of his previous show, heavy competition from other FOX animated shows, the network [[ScrewedByTheNetwork frequently shifting timeslots]], it was a huge hit, running for [[LongRunner 12 consecutive years]] and developing a strong cult following thanks to reruns airing on Creator/AdultSwim until 2019. Judge has hinted that this, too, may see a revival soon.

* CastOfSnowflakes: Thanks to his characters designs' heavy reliance on anatomical correctness and caricature, no two characters in his animated works look alike.

Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is a prolific Ecuadoran-born American filmmaker, cartoonist, animator, voice actor, musician and former engineer, best known for creating the animated shows ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead Beavis and Butt-Head]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' as well as the live-action movies ''Film/OfficeSpace'' and ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}''.

Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is a prolific Ecuadoran-born American filmmaker, cartoonist, animator, voice actor, musician and former engineer, best known for creating the animated shows ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' and ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' as well as the live-action movies ''Film/OfficeSpace'' and ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}''.

The shorts were instantly popular and earned Judge more animation work, first from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', who commissioned several more ''Milton'' shorts, and later Creator/{{MTV}}, who ran the shorts on their animation showcase series ''Liquid Television''. Eventually, they proposed a spin-off series starring the two reckless teenagers from ''Frog Baseball'', and thus ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead|Beavis and Butt-Head]]'' was born.

The shorts were instantly popular and earned Judge more animation work, first from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', who commissioned several more ''Milton'' shorts, and later Creator/{{MTV}}, who ran the shorts on their animation showcase series ''Liquid Television''. Eventually, they proposed a spin-off series starring the two reckless teenagers from ''Frog Baseball'', and thus ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' was born.

Equally as popular with college-aged audiences and even a few high-profile entertainment personalities for it's witty, subversive humor as it was controversial among MoralGuardians for the title duo's juvenile, often destructive antics (such as setting things on fire and huffing paint thinner), it was nonetheless a massive success, becoming a seminal piece of 90s pop culture and running for seven seasons, ending with [[TheMovie a film]], ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica'', which Judge co-directed. In 2011, it was briefly revived for one season.