Beavis and Butt-head's Excellent Creator

Meet the man who fathered America's favorite teenage cretins

Comments (0) By M.V. Moorhead Thursday, Dec 19 1996

"I mean, you don't want Butt-head saying 'censorship sucks,'" notes Judge.
Judge will even admit that those of us who have seen a touch of pathos in Beavis and Butt-head's cultural and spiritual impoverishment aren't necessarily insane. "When you can see Butt-head just fail miserably in front of a girl, in his mind he's still this cool, smooth guy, but maybe you can see the laugh is a little cover-up for how pathetic it all is. But it's got to be real nondeliberate, it just has to happen kind of organically, for lack of a better word."

Judge likes some episodes more than others. "When we're doing scripts for a season, we'll do five in two or three days, and if it's one I really like, then I'll really pay a lot of attention to it," he says. "Like there's one coming up next year called 'Nosebleed' that I think's gonna be a classic, so I spent a lot of time on that.

"But some episodes, like 'Eating Contest' or 'Beavis, Can You Spare a Dime?', I'm not that into." Caught in this frankness, Judge hastens to add that in his sights the show's writers are all really good, "but lazy writing on my part or anybody's part happens, where you put in some scatological joke, and there's nothing other than the joke.

"An example of where it works well is in the movie, where the vultures are humping. It doesn't get a laugh because the vultures are humping; it's funny because Beavis and Butt-head are about to die, and Butt-head's like [weak Butt-head voice:], 'Beavis, look, uh-huh-huh-huh . . .' His mind still hasn't gotten out of the gutter even though he's about to die.