Beavis and Butt-Head - There Goes the Neighborhood (VHS, 1995)

"Beavis & Butthead" may be the Laurel and Hardy of the '90s. Unlike Stan & Ollie who set out to do good, but things go badly, these two set out to do bad, and things get worse.

The video is a compilation of 8 animated episodes which originally aired on MTV, but without the music video portions. These episodes feature the duo's entanglements with Mr. Anderson, their clueless elderly neighbor who naively gives the boys work to do around his house. The result of course is disaster, but we are prevented from feeling too sorry for Anderson, since he's not so lovable or innocent himself.

This is a low form of humor which somehow works. Parts of this are genuinely funny-- the writers really know what they are doing, although it's presented as "schlock". The characters are parodies of real life people you are familiar with. Even though it's a "cartoon", I don't recommend it for young children-- we hear phrases like "This sucks", and "Ass-wipe"; sexual wordplay and offensive scenes. I would rate it PG-13.

I see Beavis & Butthead as a product of its time. People looking at this 30 years from now will see in it a reflection of the gradual degeneracy of the larger society. We've come a long way from the staid and innocent 1930s-40s-50s era. Unbelievably, Beavis & Butthead now seem rather mild compared to shows airing on MTV and Comedy Central in 2007.