Editing Beavis and Butt-Head (section)

==Controversies==
In its heyday, ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' became a lightning rod for controversy over its content. "The downward spiral of the living white male surely ends here," John Leland wrote in ''[[Newsweek]]'' in 1993.<ref name="The New York Times 1993 r887"/> The show was blamed for the death of two-year-old Jessica Matthews in [[Moraine, Ohio]], in October 1993. The girl's five-year-old brother, Austin Messner, set fire to his mother's mobile home with a [[Lighter|cigarette lighter]], killing the two-year-old.<ref name="nyt2">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/10/us/cartoon-on-mtv-blamed-for-fire.html|title=Cartoon On MTV Blamed For Fire|date=October 10, 1993|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=October 29, 2010|agency=[[The Associated Press]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100516072740/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/10/us/cartoon-on-mtv-blamed-for-fire.html|archive-date=May 16, 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> The mother later claimed that her son watched an episode in which the characters said "fire was fun".<ref name="nyt2" /> However, the neighbors stated that the family did not even have [[cable television]] and would thus be unable to view the show.<ref>{{cite web|last=Sommerlad |first=Joe |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/beavis-and-butt-head-25th-anniversary-mike-judge-mtv-tv-comedy-animation-offence-a8243906.html |title=Beavis and Butt-Head at 25: How MTV's original dumbasses stormed America and changed comedy forever |work=The Independent |date=March 7, 2018 |access-date=June 1, 2021}}</ref>

As a result, all references to fire were removed from subsequent airings and prompted the show to a later time slot.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-14-ca-45776-story.html|title=Child's Death Prompts MTV to Retool 'Beavis'|date=October 14, 1993|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=December 13, 2019}}</ref> The creators found a censorship [[loophole]] and took delight in sometimes making Beavis scream things that sounded very similar to his previous "Fire! Fire!" (such as "Fryer! Fryer!" when he and Butt-Head are working the late shift at Burger World) and also having him almost say the forbidden word (such as one time when he sang "Liar, liar, pants on..." and pausing before "fire"). There was also a music video where a man runs on fire in slow motion ("California" by [[Wax (rock band)|Wax]]). Beavis is hypnotized by it and can barely say "fire". However, MTV eventually removed the episode entirely, leading it to be locked away in the MTV vault. References to fire were cut from earlier episodes—even the original master tapes were altered permanently.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sonic.net/~goblin/9beavis.html|title=Heh-Heh-Heh... Heh-heh-heh... you said heh-heh-heh... Gobblin'...|last=Joost|first=Wesley|work=Goblin Magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990209193025/http://www.sonic.net/%7Egoblin/9beavis.html|archive-date=February 9, 1999|url-status=dead}}</ref> Other episodes MTV opted not to rerun included "Stewart's House" and "Way Down Mexico Way". Copies of early episodes with the controversial content intact are rare, and the copies that exist are made from home video recordings of the original broadcasts, typically on [[VHS]]. In an interview included with the [[Beavis and Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection|''Mike Judge Collection'' DVD set]], Judge said he is uncertain whether some of the earlier episodes still exist in their original, uncensored form.<ref name=":0" />

When the series returned in 2011, MTV allowed Beavis to use the word "fire" once again uncensored.<ref name="RS-2011-08-03">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/exclusive-mike-judge-on-the-return-of-beavis-and-butt-head-190874/|title=Exclusive: Mike Judge on the Return of 'Beavis and Butt-Head'|last=Greene|first=Andy|date=August 3, 2011|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111116041646/http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/exclusive-mike-judge-on-the-return-of-beavis-and-butt-head-20110803|archive-date=November 16, 2011|access-date=February 15, 2022}}</ref> During the first video segment, "[[Werewolves of Highland]]", the first new episode of the revival, Beavis utters the word "fire" a total of seven times within 28 seconds, with Butt-Head saying it once as well.<ref>{{Cite episode|title=[[Werewolves of Highland]]|series=Beavis and Butt-Head|network=MTV|date=October 27, 2011|season=8|number=1}}</ref>

In February 1994, watchdog group [[Morality in Media]] claimed that the death of eight-month-old Natalia Rivera, struck by a bowling ball thrown from an overpass onto a highway in [[Jersey City, New Jersey]], near the [[Holland Tunnel]] by 18-year-old Calvin J. Settle, was partially inspired by ''Beavis and Butt-Head''.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/10/nyregion/youth-is-held-in-death-from-bowling-ball.html?pagewanted=all|title=Youth Is Held In Death From Bowling Ball|last=Levy|first=Clifford J.|date=February 10, 1994|work=[[The New York Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727153138/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/10/nyregion/youth-is-held-in-death-from-bowling-ball.html?pagewanted=all|archive-date=July 27, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> The group said that Settle was influenced by the episode "Ball Breakers", in which Beavis and Butt-Head load a bowling ball with explosives and drop it from a rooftop.<ref name="nyt" /> While Morality in Media claimed that the show inspired Settle's actions, the case's prosecutors did not. It was later revealed by both prosecutors and the defendant that Settle did not have cable TV, nor did he watch the show.

MTV also responded by broadcasting the program after 11:00&nbsp;p.m. and included a disclaimer, reminding viewers:
<blockquote>Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh.</blockquote>
This was later changed to:
<blockquote>Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They're not even human. They're cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: don't try this at home.</blockquote>
This disclaimer also appears before the opening of their [[Sega Genesis]] and [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|Super NES]] games as well as their [[Windows]] game ''[[Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity]]''.<ref>{{Citation|title=Beavis and Butt-Head (TV Series 1993–2011)|publisher=IMDb|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105950/crazycredits|access-date=December 13, 2019}}</ref>

They were famously lambasted by [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Ernest Hollings|Fritz Hollings]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[South Carolina|SC]]) as "Buffcoat and Beaver".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://ew.com/article/1997/08/15/end-beavis-and-butt-head/|title=Dude... This Sucks– We mourn the loss of fresh Beavis and Butt-Head episodes|last=Jacobs|first=A.J.|date=August 15, 1997|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817124842/https://ew.com/article/1997/08/15/end-beavis-and-butt-head/|archive-date=August 17, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> This subsequently became a running gag on the show where adults mispronounced their names. For example, one character on the show, Tom Anderson, originally called them "Butthole" and "Joe" and believed the two to be of Asian ethnicity (describing them to the police as "[[Oriental]]"). In later episodes, Anderson uses the Hollings mispronunciation once and, on at least one occasion, refers to them as "Penis and Butt-Munch". [[Bill Clinton|President Clinton]] called them "Beavis and Bum-head" in "Citizen Butt-head", as well as in the [[Beavis and Butt-head Do America|movie]], where an old lady (voiced by [[Cloris Leachman]]) consistently calls them "Travis" and "Bob-head". In "Incognito", when another student threatens to kill them, the duo uses this to their advantage, pretending to be exchange students named "Crevis and Bung-Head". The bully, seeing through the disguises, calls them "Beaver and [[Buttplug|Butt-Plug]]". In "Right On!", when the duo appear on the ''Gus Baker Show'', host Gus Baker (a caricature of [[Rush Limbaugh]]) introduces them as "Beavis and Buffcoat". And in the original series finale, "Beavis and Butt-head Are Dead", a news reporter refers to the two boys as "Brevis and Head-Butt". In the Season 9 episode "Locked Out" Tom Anderson mistakes Beavis and Butt-Head for honest and responsible boys, and blames "Buford" and "Bernardo" for the alleged damage to the paint on his new truck, though Beavis and Butt-Head lied about the damage.

Beavis and Butt-Head have been compared to [[Savant syndrome|idiot savants]] because of their creative and subversively intelligent observations of music videos. This part of the show was mostly improvised by [[Mike Judge]]. With regard to criticisms of the two as "idiots", Judge responded that a show about straight-A students would not be funny.