Beavis and Butthead book fails to deliver

In print, MTV's dynamic duo proves itself to be just as dumb, but half as funny

Riding on the imminent grunge movement and anti-intellectualism that was dominating pop culture in the early '90s, a poorly animated cartoon sporting hideously inane humor began playing on MTV. The protagonists were two teenage boys, driven purely by heavy metal and sexual frustration, to acts of cruelty and extreme idiocy. Naturally, MTV's Beavis and Butthead became largely popular, garnering prime-time scheduling, t-shirts, soundtracks, video games and eventually a movie.

In some strange project abstractly related to the film, Beavis and Butthead do America, MTV Books published a poorly designed, cheaply produced guidebook called Beavis and Butthead Travel Log, which supposedly serves as the duo's observations while touring our great nation.

As expected, the book contains as little factual information as possible, with its only features being the inane duo themselves, and a listing of bizarre towns from each state, such as Tightwad, Missouri, or Kaka, Arizona. The humor runs thin really quickly, even for a die-hard fan, although there are several impressive references.

For "Nevaduh," under "People you should visit," the Log has listed Siegfried and Roy. Intermixed within a reference to the Mike Tyson ear biting incident, the two also insinuate that Siegfried and Roy look gay. This is by no means an original idea, except that the two most sexually frustrated cartoon characters making fun of the two most sexually ambiguous live performers has some merit to it.

In Washington D.C., they suggest visiting the president's daughter, adding that since she lives in the White House, she's more likely to be horny. Then they rationalize having sex with Chelsea Clinton in order to become the president's son.

Floriduh, Miami is under the Cool Cities category, along with a plug for MTV's highly popular The Real World series. Beavis and Butthead try to make sense of the ridiculous premise behind the series with the following conclusion: "Take a bunch of whiny white kids and maybe like, one Spanish dude, and a black chick. Oh yeah, and a gay dude... And then put 'em in a really nice house and listen to their stupid arguments. And that's supposed to be America or something."

Every other attempt at humor eventually degenerates into a joke about defecating, or some sort of encounter with members of the opposite sex. These topics, taken directly from the television series, exemplify all the printed text within Hugh Hefner, Bon Jovi, and a host of other landmarks and public figures, but not with enough style or humor to justify publishing it. The only really unifying theme of the book is that it's all done badly.

In retrospect, Beavis and Butthead never had a chance in written material, as their capital assets were their horrendous animation, awkward pauses in conversation, and spastic behavior, which are all lost with a mere transcript of the two. Their trademark laughing, along with their vapid, yet nuanceful interplay of insult and violence are irreplicable in printed text. The entire concept of Beavis and Butthead in printed media is pointless and empty, and no attempt at a humorous book about them will ever succeed.