At first glance, it would just seem like an ordinary court case in your average small town. But when the judge says that the two defendants have been found guilty of destroying their high school science fair, the brown-haired half of the duo obliviously exclaims “Yes!” It’s as typical a reaction as one would imagine from Beavis & Butt-Head, in the new Paramount Network film Do The Universe that puts the braindead pair into a modern setting.
Normally when developing an older IP relaunch it’s the natural inclination to update and evolve the characters somewhat, but what makes this film click is surprisingly how much B&B remain their classically stupid selves in spite of how different everything is for them. This is essentially the “movie pilot for a batch of new episodes scheduled soon to premiere on Paramount streaming. Hopefully we can get some new music videos in there, but as for their basic adventures, I think this is a nice start to them.
The MTV-born and raised pair are still as crude, rude and happily nihilistic as ever, laughing at innuendo they imagine almost everywhere and fixated on hooking up with girls but forever being shot down. Their latest mishap, believe it or not, inspires the judge to send them to space camp in the hopes that positive reinforcement is the medicine they need. If B&B (once again voiced by creator Mike Judge) were expecting to become savant-like masters of handling the rocket tech (because of how phallic all of the equipment looks) and falling in love with the head astronaut Serena Ryan (Andrea Savage), they’d probably agree with this “punishment”. Eventually the duo are invited aboard an actual space mission, and as one would imagine they mess up things so bad that Serena is driven to launch them into the cold black depths of the galaxy.
So as our two favorite dumbasses shoot through a black hole time-warp into the future of 2022, they’re determined to find Serena and score with her, who’s now the state governor and doesn’t want any evidence re-appearing that she tried to murder two teenagers in space, so now she’s got to kill them all over again. Meanwhile, B&B are greeted by alternate versions of themselves, the “Smart Beavis & Butt-Head” who warn our heroes that they’ve got to repair the rift in time lest all of the universes collapse. So which mission is the duo going to prioritize more? Go on, you can guess.
Similar to Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, this new film also has a cat-and-mouse dynamic with the duo unaware of the gravity of their situation. Both movies also share an underlying message: Beavis and Butt-Head are completely unredeemable. There’s a running theme of the people around them foolishly believing that somehow these two can actually learn something or become genuinely inspired to do good, and every single attempt at giving them a chance to better themselves ends in complete disaster.
Mike Judge wants you to understand that these boys are utterly doomed. The judge’s leniency and the space crew’s naivete cause a rupture in the space-time continuum. A campus professor (voiced by Tig Notaro) and her students make genuine efforts to introduce B&B to social consciousness and their white privilege, which of course results in the two thinking they’ve got permission to do whatever they want and they go on a crime spree. When that gets them sent to the pokey, and Beavis as Cornholio gets all the other prisoners demanding T.P. for their bungholes, the warden completely misreads this as something inspirational. Even as the world changes, these boys are destined to remain nacho and metal-obsessed horny losers out of the mid 1990’s. This is of course the draw, as there’s a charming bliss in B&B’s ignorance, happily trapped in their own stupid little world.
While thankfully this has never been a heartfelt or sentimental series, this movie does make an effort at giving B&B a more nuanced look at their friendship. Of course it does this in the most dimwitted and clueless manner possible, which is totally appropriate and doesn’t violate the core atmosphere of the show too much. Only Beavis could gain significant character development from chatting with a Siri, to Butt-Head’s irritation throughout the story.
To tell the truth, even if you’re not familiar with Beavis & Butt-Head, I’d still give Do The Universe a recommendation regardless. It’s a decent introduction I feel to newcomers as it covers the duo’s basic character beats, while also delivering some of Judge’s usual razor-sharp social spoofing. They may be as moronic as ever, but it’s still a slyly intelligent property. After all, if we’re all trying to learn more and develop ourselves, by default doesn’t that all make us a little dumb?
But what was your take on it? If you’ve headbanged to this Paramount toon, let us know your thoughts on it on FAN’s social media spots!