Audio By Carbonatix
In honor of MTV’s 30th Anniversary this week, we’re reflecting on the network’s best moments from the past three decades. Today: Our favorite music videos riffed on by Beavis and Butt-head. The duo tackled something around 250 different videos throughout the show’s eight seasons, and although it’s coming back, the original will undoubtedly be our favorite.
10. Type O Negative – Black No. 1″
“This is a cross between Danzig and my butt.”
Regardless of how you feel about Type O Negative, B and B’s mockery of Peter Steele’s voice is spot-on hilarity.
9. David Byrne – “Angels”
“Didn’t this guy already do this song?”
David Byrne’s “Angels” certainly does sound like a particular Talking Heads song, and the boys nailed it here.
8. Yanni – “Reflections of Passion”
“Check it out — she’s leaving him because he sucks.”
Yanni has always been easy fodder for mockery, but Beavis and Butt-head still manage to pull a few witty comments out on this video, even if most of it falls a little flat.
7. Archers of Loaf – “Web in Front”
“It’s like in all these videos now — they just get a couple weird dudes and just shake the camera and just do a bunch of crap.”
It’s true that during the heyday of the first “college rock” video movement, most videos did indeed feature someone running around with a camera filming the band doing a bunch of crap. They could have probably tagged twenty different bands with this comment.
6. Tom Waits – “I Don’t Want to Grow Up”
“It’s like he can’t write songs, but he can sing.”
Sometime Beavis and Butt-head can just nail a joke so well, you don’t even notice it the first time you hear it. Case in point: The above comment about Tom Waits’s “I Don’t Want to Grow Up,” is so reverse-spot-on that we’re still laughing about it a little.
5. Pavement – “Rattled by the Rush”
“If you’re going to be horrible, at least kick ass, like Jesus Lizard. They suck, but they kick ass.”
It’s no secret that Beavis and Butt-head weren’t into the likes of Pavement, Jesus Lizard or Archers of Loaf, but there’s no denying that Pavement’s videos were terrible and boring.
4. Grim Reaper – “Fear No Evil”
“These guys suck so bad they have to go to their concerts in armored vehicles.”
Beavis and Butt-head made fun of pretty much every single Grim Reaper video, but this one is our favorite because of the armored cars and Wolverine comments.
3. Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated”
“…”
The only video we know of where they don’t say a single thing.
2. Metallica – “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Sit your ass down, Lars, and play the drums like you’re supposed to.”
Beavis is always wearing a Metallica shirt, so it makes sense that Butt-head would make fun of Metallica as much as possible, including calling James Hetfield a cowardly lion.
1. Enuff Z’nuff – “Fly High Michelle”
“He looks like that Peter Frampton chick.”
This video is so utterly terrible, it’s hard to believe that Beavis and Butt-head were able to say anything about it, but the fact that they call them “chicks” through most of the video is the best approach they could have taken.
