BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO CHRISTMAS
Original Airdate: December 19, 1995

Two of cinema’s most wholesome classics tackled by MTV foulest duo…

BACKSTORY

Beavis and Butt-head debuted in the short film “Frog Baseball”for Spike and Mike’s Twisted Animation Festival in 1992. MTV saw the potential in the characters and got the short aired on the channel’s late-night indie animation showcase, Liquid Television, followed by a full blown series beginning on March 8, 1993.

The short that started it all

Beavis and Butt-head was an TV instant smash, spawning their own successful CD , The Beavis and Butt-head Experience, featuring previously unreleased tracks by Megadeth, Nirvana, Anthrax and chart-topping duet with Cher, as well as a positively received, record-breaking theatrical film, Beavis and Butt-head Do America, in 1996.

America Done

Unfortunately, that success was somewhat bittersweet, as Mike Judge’s duo found themselves at the center of much controversy. They were consistently held up as political scapegoats for the decline of American values, and were even blamed outright for inspiring events that led to the death of at least two children.

You probably could use a nostalgic pick-me-up right now

After an Ohio boy set his mobile home ablaze, killing his two-year-old sister, it was ordered that any instance of Beavis and Butt-head using fire, or even saying the word “fire,” be omitted from the airwaves. As a result of being under such scrutiny, many episodes have never rerun in their original form.

Doing what they do best

Worse still, other issues, such as the licensing issues to the music video interstitials, comprehensive DVD sets continue to elude the duo. Rare VHS tapes, out-of-print discs and pricey bootlegs still circulate eBay and fetch a tidy sum. Making for an even more unique circumstance, in 2010 Mike Judge took MTV up on its standing offer to return Beavis and Butt-head to the airwaves following the end of production on his highly successful King of the Hill. Almost 14 years after the episode “Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead” the eighth season of Beavis and Butt-head premiered on October 27, 2011.

BREAKDOWN

Look, I loved Beavis & Butthead just as much as any boy my age, back then on the cusp of teenagery and puberty. But I let that go a long time ago. This site’s made me good at that, letting things go. I just had assumed PG butt puns and masturbation jokes wouldn’t hold up alone wouldn’t hold up for me. That said, I’m fairly relieved to report I was wrong!

I’ve only caught a few eps of the recently reinvigorated show on MTV, so I’m also happy to say I liked it. Liked it just fine. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined these two could be elevated to “classic character” status, but there’s still something lovable about these two juvenile, oblivious dicks that refuses to die.

Better than the juvenile name implies

I’m equally happy to report that Beavis and Butthead Do Christmas is still profoundly giggle-worthy, and that’s made more impressive once you consider that it willfully commits two of my Christmas Special Cardinal Sins: Parodying A Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life. While Beavis and Butthead’s Christmas special does both, it somehow succeeds, seemingly by just not giving a shit. Or rather, refusing to acknowledge the lessons and morals conveyed in either sacred Xmas tome, as well as being far less direct in their send ups.

Get it?

Huh-Huh-Humbug, the first segment of this multi-part special kicks off with some startling Holiday imagery.

That’s a dead rat on a burger grill in case you weren’t already in the Xmas spirit

We then find Beavis and Butthead hard at work at Burger World on Christmas Eve. Both are scolded for slacking off, however, Beavis gets a more specific dressing down by the manager.

Leave him alone, mustache – he looks happy!

“What would happen if you actually applied yourself?” he’s asked by a man with really no no right to give anyone else shit about life decisions.

 Imaginary role reversal

Beavis lets his imagination take flight and envisions himself as the manager of Burger World. But with great power, comes great responsibility, so Beavis commands his workforce to stay late, now consisting of Butthead and their principal Mr. McVicker so he can go home and masturbate. Ah, the simple pleasures…

Winner of six Tonys!

Unfortunately, Beavis’ screening of “Ebenezer Screw” is interrupted by a ghostly apparition. And it’s some one all too familiar…

I know that pose

Enter Butthead Marley, a spirit clad in chains and VHS tapes, sent to warn Beavis of an impending visit of three ghosts. What’s great is how neither of them seem to care at all about the sacrosancnt roles they’ve been cast in.

Technically, he was alive five minutes ago

Even Butthead wants to check out the Holiday porn, and I don’t know about you but I for one can wholly relate to Beavis’ plight, that of simply wanting to get back to his rudely interrupted jerk session. But it is not to be…

Right when the adult thespian is about to unveil her goodies, The Ghost of Christmas Past emerges, played by none other than Hank Hill- I mean, neighbor Tom Andersen.

 “That boy ain’t right.”

He takes Beavis on a soul-searching look his previous Christmases throughout the years. Thankfully, I can show you the whole joke.

lol

And that’s it. Andersen tries to convey the importance of helping people, over say, doing anything  but watching TV. But hey, we all (all men) know what it’s like to be nursing an erection. You don’t have all the blood in your brain and can be less than receptive to new ideas, thus Christmas Past’s advice falls on deaf, blueballed ears.

 Descending like a lesbian seagull

Back to the porn! But only briefly, for it is time for everyone’s hippy-dippy educationalist, Mr. Van Driessen, as The Ghost of Christmas present! What I realized here is that Beavis and Butthead don’t have a whole lot of characters in their universe to cast. I’d initially wondered why Principal McVicker was shoehorned into being a Burger World employ earlier. Now I get it:  He’s Bob Cratchit – DURR!

More disturbing than the kids, his wife looks exaclty like him

Who were they going to use, Daria? (Fear not, she appears later.) Despite looking to be in his late 60s, it turns the McVickcers are a bunch of preteen little Vivkers out there, and they’re all starving and missing their pops this Christmas Eve. The man of the house sneaks home on his break to deliver Christmas tidings: Day old burger and temporary tattoos. Van Driessen reasons that this pitiful situation is Beavis’ fault, but all he can see is an employee stealing and vows to fire him next chance he gets.

Hope you like Lisa Frank and diabetes

Exit another ghost with zero lessons earned. Maybe it’s time for someone a little more stern, shall we say?

“What is your major malfunction, numb nuts?!”

Hooray, it’s my favorite character from the show, the Phys Ed. coach! Whom I only just learned is actually named Bradley Buzzcut… Seriously?

He trained the ghost who then trained Patrick Swayze

Before we move on, It’s worth pointing out that Mike Judge has been the voice of EVERY character so far. The coach smacks Beavis around and fully letting him know that his life is headed nowhere, but it’s to no avail. Beavis has his own vision of the future and it’s considerably more awesome.

 Robo-manager

Please notice that this here’s a dream sequence within a dream sequence! You may call it sloppy storytelling, I call it the precursor to Inception. Anyway, Beavis imagines himself as a managerial cyborg who kills complaining Burger World patrons. Quite touchingly, it ends with him shooting Butthead in the dick.

 Not the future we want, but the one we deserve

Clearly, Beavis is failing to conceptualize what’s happening here, but if there’s anyone who can make the tough decisions, it’s the goddamned Coach! Warning Boys: This is brutal

 “Show me no more, spirit!”

Just when Beavis is arriving at his vaginaless epiphany, he’s awoken at midnight in Burger World by Butthead. Beavis regales Butthead with the details, learning only that in the future he’ll probably be the boss. In true Dickensian fashion, the episode ends with, the boys both come to the conclusion that “working on Christmas Eve is cool.”

 G’night everybody!

The two segments in Beavis and Butt-head Do Christmas are bridged together with a “Letters to Santa Butthead” segment. Rather than bore you with the details, why don’t I just show it to you until MTV has it removed. Wanna get to the next segment because it’s my favorite of the two.

The It’s a Wonderful Life parody kicks off with the voices of Highland praying to the Gods to “get rid of,” okay, “kill” Beavis and Butthead. The pleas are so numerous and heartfelt, Heaven has no choice but to act while the duo flips through several Holiday staples of 90s television.

 RoboClaus, a B & B Holiday tradition

Charlie, the boys’ guardian angel, tries to get their attention through their prefered deity of television, but they ignore him after realizing Christmas probably isn’t best spent watching TV anyway… and they’re far better off going on a quest for chicks.

Or chick magazines

 Sadly, Wet Hooters ceased publication in 2008

On a dilapidated bridge, Beavis and Butthead meet Charlie and acknowledge him for the first time. He informs them he’s here to kill them, however, he’s new at this whole “murder thing” and it would make things it much easier if they just killed themselves.

 Reckless horseplay

Obviously, the assume a world without them as totally sucking, so Charlie opts to take Butthead on a journey to see what the world would look like without him in it.

Without Butt-head, Burger World is no longer devoid of customers

First, they come upon Tom Andersen’s house. With Butthead no longer around to destroy his yard, the entire neighborhood can enjoy an ornate Holiday presentation. This disagrees with Butthead, so he destroys it anyway.

 Still very much not Hank Hill

Next we see gang at Highland High. Not only has Principal McVikers managed to keep his hair…

Note that frown, upside down

Daria has found a nice boy to date, now that her taste in men is no longer corrupted by these Men of Farts and Fire. To Butthead, this scenario is also filled with suck.

La-La-La-La-Laa

Lastly, we come upon a soup kitchen where Stewart is working. However, in this alternate reality, everyone’s favorite Winger/Unicorn lover (he’s wearing an equally atrocious Poison t-shirt) is a bit of a dick, actually, and he now bosses around a subservient Beavis.

Who wears the Winger shirt now?

To make matters worse, Butthead learns that, without his influence, Beavis has never once heard, nor used, the word “bunghole” in his life! The horror.

Hobo sanity

This now unacquainted duo breaks out into a fight that is put out by nearby homeless men who end up punching Butthead. Once warped back to the bridge, they both agree the world sucks without them in it.

The world has been reBeavised

Charlie begs to differ, but in one last maniacal attempt to convince the two to commit suicide, he ends up killing himself by falling of the rickety, icey bridge.

Good luck, Chuck

How’s that for a spin on a time-honored classic? Huh-Huh

Beavis and Butt-head were no strangers to controversey hot button topics, however, Christ was still a subject too thorny to broach.

Butt-head plays the part deftly, and we can even see a street Santa in one scene as well. Alas, the real deal is a total no show here.

Honestly, this is a difficult one to write about here. I genuinely approach each special looking for warmth, some mild Holiday tradition, and a little Christmas spirit. Beavis and Butt-head Do Christmas works primarily because it proudly lacks all of that. Despite my preconceived notions about the characters, I loved it, and that should really count for something. But should I really recommend it to people looking looking to heat the cockles of their Holiday hearts?! Fuck it, how many of you pay attention to these ratings anyway?

PRODUCT INFORMATION (Support the Site!)

Beavis and Butt-head have been pretty tough for both fans and MTV to nail down on DVD. For one, the music video portion of the show makes the full, uncut and chronological a licensing nightmare. Secondly, two companies have released B&B DVDs, and it seems smaller single-disc sets released by Time-Life (seriously?!) are much less altered than the episodes found in all three Mike Judge Collections released by MTV that purport “Director’s Cuts” inside. You can find Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas on three different DVDs, although each presents its own problems, the single disc version is long out-of-print and Vol. 3 of the Mike Judge Collection Vol. 3 presents the special out of order. Examine your own levels of nerdiness and sort it out for yourself, won’t you?

Yesterday’s Christmas Special
SNOWY, XMAS IMAGERY FROM DISNEY MOVIES

2010′s Dec. 3 Christmas Special
GIFT WRAPPED

2009′s Dec. 3 Christmas Special
A WISH FOR WINGS THAT WORKED

An animated gift for almost any smartphone

If there’s anything I have too much of on my hard drive, it’s used and unused cartoon Christmas art. Next to optimizing it for the web, I’d say I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year scaling and tinkering the shots I pulled into the perfect iPhone Wallpaper. So, this year I’m turning that frustration into my gift to you guys! Simply, tap and hold any image below on your iPhone/iPod Touch, save, head to the Photos app and assign them using the “Set as Wallpaper” function on the left. The rest of the work has been done for you.

From How the Grinch Stole Christmas

From Pluto’s Christmas Tree

From Bug’s Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales

From Frosty the Snowman

From Invader Zim’s The Most Horrible Xmas Ever

From A Wish for Wings that Work

From The Christmas Toy

From It’s Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown

From A Claymation Christmas Celebration

From The Christmas Toy

From Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales

From How the Grinch Stole Christmas

From Invader Zim’s The Most Horrible Xmas Ever

From It’s Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown

From Mickey’s Christmas Carol

From A Fat Albert Christmas

From Fraggle Rock’s The Bells of Fraggle Rock

From How the Grinch Stole Christmas

From Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol

From Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town

From Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

From A Muppet Family Christmas

From The Snowman

From Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

From Mystery Science Theater 3000′s Santa Claus

From Mickey’s Christmas Carol

From Ren & Stimpy’s “Stimpy’s First Fart”

From Toy Tinkers

And for a taste of what’s to come on A Cartoon Christmas 2010…

Hope that makes it a little easier to decorate your smartphones this Holiday season. Stay tuned, A Cartoon Christmas is just getting warmed up!

MISTER MAGOO’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
Original Air Date: December 18, 1962

SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Everybody’s favorite sightless moron finds Christ-like redemption after a visitation from three ghosts in TV’s inaugural animated Holiday special that could be best described as downright Dickensian!

BACKSTORY:
What better way to kick off the Animated Christmas Advent Calendar than with the first ever made-for-television animated Christmas Special?! Well, okay… admittedly, I could count about a billion specials I’d rather watch, write and read about, but you gotta pay Mr. Magoo his due. Television studios were unsure of the viability of TV animation, and I sort of admire the balls of using a cartoon character, who was basically one big blind joke, as a Christmas-themed testing ground for the entire medium of TV animation.

Which role will Jim Backus be more fondly remembered for: Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island or the voice of Mr. Magoo? The answer, when the last baby boomer dies

What Mister’s Magoo Christmas Carol lacks in quality animation, political correctness and consumptive longevity, it made up for in sheer timeliness! Its success paved the way for Rankin/Bass’s Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer two years later, and A Charlie Brown Christmas three years later. So yeah, if you care at all for Christmas specials, or any televised animation, from The Flintstones to Family Guy, have a little respect for Magoo, will ya?

BREAKDOWN:
Like most adaptations of A Christmas Carol, United Paramount Animation had to figure out a way to cast its altogether likeable character in the role of Christmas’s biggest asshole. Whereas adaptations like Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol found an easy fit, with Yosemite Sam in the shoes of Scrooge, take a look at what other ensemble franchises resorted to in order to avoid the decision entirely.

With nary a villainous Muppet in the bunch, A Muppet Christmas Carol had to call in the services of Sir Michael Caine to play the notorious curmudgeon. And Disney had to drag Scrooge McDuck out of the comic pages and onto the screen for an unprecedented starring role (he’d only previously appeared in a single animated cartoon) even though 1983′s Mickey’s Christmas Carol was more notably the titular Mouse’s first appearance in a theatrical short in three decades!

So how did United Paramount Animation go about turning an otherwise likable, doddering old fart with poor vision into literature’s most notorious dick? By presenting A Christmas Carol as a play within the special.

Oh Mr. Magoo, you’re so handicapped!

Mr. Magoo crashes his car on Broadway, barely finds the theater, puts on his costume, and following a few comical acts at the expense of the visually impaired, he’s finally ushered on to stage to star in the part of Ebenezer Scrooge for the duration of the special.

It’s a good thing too, ‘cause Magoo’s Scrooge says some pretty horrible shit

A novel idea, to say the least, although its legacy has ironically taken a dump on itself: To incorporate more commercials for airings within the last decade, the opening sequence has been cut entirely!

Also out of character: Gerald McBoing-Boing in a rare speaking role!

Anyway, Magoo, I mean, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts… Actually, it all unfolds pretty typically… Seriously, need I bore you with the details of just how Christmas Carolly Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol is?

The Ghost of Christmas Present – CHECK

The Ghost of Christmas Past – CHECK

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – CHECK

Visits own grave – CHECK

Well wishes from window – CHECK

True meaning of Christmas – SOLVED!

Some liberties are taken with Chuck Dickens’ source material, but it’s only some light streamlining that should only provoke the ire of pompous jerks who prefer their Christmas Specials hardbound and 200 years old.

This gay group is singing about robbing the graze of Mr. Magoo – TRA-LA-LA!

I never found the songs all that memorable, but you’ve got some pretty quaint low-fi musical numbers here, a highlight being the closing number where Jim Backus lays out his vocal ineptitude in such a hilariously, cringe worthy manner, it’s almost admirable for its honesty alone. (Plus Mr. Show nerds will finally know what the “Razzleberry Waterfall” is reference to!)

Oh, and looky there! The entire cast comes out to take a bow. The perfect bookend to the play-within-a-show, meta-presentation? Possibly. But I’m pretty sure it’s due to the writers going through a severe bout of comedic withdrawal, having not made a blind joke for 45 minutes.

You can go home now

None, but any tale generosity on or around JC’s B -day is worth a single cross, right? Actually, if I say that it’s because Charles Dickens novel is so old it was written before the birth of Christ, I bet there’s a handful of people who will take my word for it. So, let’s justify it that way… OH! But the special does contain a mosaic shot of a Tree Star that I consider to be nothing short of DIVINE:

WOW!

Zero. Which, if not out of courtesy for the source material, would be otherwise unacceptable.

I guess. It’s almost unfair, since even the worst version of A Christmas Carol somehow perfectly embodies the season… But I refuse to give it a “5 out of 5 Ball” pass, so as not to encourage lazy network suits devoid of ideas into making further adaptations. Enough with the Dickens, K?

PRODUCT INFORMATION (Support the site!)

Amazon offers a standalone edition of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol and in The Original Christmas Classics Boxed Set, which also features Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and several more. Both present the special uncut, and are dirt cheap. If you’d like to read a more in-depth history on the creation of the historic special, Oxford Press has recently published a 128 page, hardcover book entitled, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, the Making of the First Animated Christmas Special.