Beavis is one of the main protagonists of Beavis and Butt-head. He is Butt-head's best friend and close companion.
He is voiced by show creator Mike Judge.
Appearance
Beavis stands 5'4". He is characterized by his severe underbite, battleship bow chin, limited number of teeth and dark blonde hair. He has a fixated stare on his face and he does not face or look at the audience as his face is almost always shown in profile. His nose is long and sharp with small nostrils (which may be a reason why some girls may like him, as stated in Letters to Santa Butt-Head) and his hair is blonde in color which is shaped in a pompadour-like style. His eyes are small and quite beady, but when he is surprised, scared or in his Cornholio state, they expand. He is usually shown wearing a blue shirt with a black Metallica logo and grey shorts. Beavis along with Butt-head is one of the skinniest characters in the series.
Personality
Originally starting out as a "sidekick and a follower", Beavis eventually turned into a "loose cannon" as the show went on. He is oblivious to what should be the obvious and is "a zero" in terms of intellect. Contrasting against Butt-Head's more dominant and brash personality, Beavis is more submissive and often tolerates his physical and verbal confrontations, usually without retaliating. However, even Beavis has his limits. There have been occasions in which Beavis has stood up for himself and attacked Butt-Head. In Murder Site, he was driven to the brink of going postal and nearly killing Butt-Head, the latter of whom would not refrain from calling him a "butt-knocker", a term which Beavis inexplicably resents. While viewing a Bon Jovi video, Butt-Head assaulted Beavis because he liked the song that was playing. In retaliation, Beavis kicked him in the testicles twice and shouted, "You can't tell me what sucks! I like this, so blow it up your ass!" When Butt-Head disrespected Metallica, Beavis got especially defensive and threatened to kick Butt-Head's ass. In the book This Book Sucks, Beavis is the smarter and more dominant of the two, but eventually, Beavis just became a side-kick. Beavis seems to gain a small bit of intelligence in season 8, being able to use a photocopier and, also, holding back on copying his butt (until Butt-Head suggested it).
He is shown to be a pyromaniac, as evidenced by his chant of "Fire! Fire!" During the original series run Beavis was no longer allowed to say "fire" after some woman in Ohio claimed an episode where Beavis did his fire thing caused her son to burn her trailer and kill his sister in the blaze. Therefore, Beavis was reduced to saying things like "Fryer!" (when he's at Burger World) or "Liar! LIAR! Liar, liar, pants on... whoa!" (Liar! Liar!). It wasn't until season eight that Beavis was let off the hook and given a clean slate (otherwise he would not have said "Fire!" while reviewing MGMT's "Kids").
Beavis rockin' like there is no tomorrow!
Despite his passive behavior, Beavis possesses a number of positive traits and character strengths. He is generally nicer and more optimistic than Butt-Head and treats Stewart, a nerdy boy who looks up to the duo, better than he does. He can be extremely witty and when discussing a topic with Butt-Head that neither of them know about or understand, Beavis is more likely to guess the mechanisms at work. Also, in some rare cases, Beavis is prone to bouts of intelligent insight about certain topics. For example, after making himself dizzy, Beavis analyzed a Korn video with much detail and in another episode he discussed the true meaning of Christmas. As well as this, on the rare occasion that a female is interested in the two, it is usually Beavis who gets the attention (Vidiots, Another Friday Night, Teen Talk, Letters to Santa Butt-Head'), much to Butt-Head's jealousy. This may be due to Beavis' childlike temperament, behavior and his approaches to females ("Hey, how's it going?" or "Hey!") rather than Butt-Head's unsuccessful blunt sexual approaches ("Hey, baby.") Even in the pursuit of scoring, both are smart enough to value safe sex and carry contraceptives when they do get to (Friday Night). Notably, both also have great luck with lotto tickets, where they once bought a lawnmower with a $500 winning ticket (Scratch 'N' Win).
Beavis also appears to be incredibly naive for his age, though it is unknown if he is naive or just extremely idiotic. It may be a combination of the two. During Pregnant Pause, Beavis fears that he is pregnant but he points out that only girls could fall pregnant, though for some reason he still buys (or steals) a pregnancy test. Also, during one music video segment, Beavis does not understand the concept of the phrase "where the sun doesn't shine" and he questions Butt-Head about it. While the Butt-Head is amused by Beavis' naivety, the latter appears to be truly confused about the phrase and he uses bowel movements to try and understand it.
Along with Butt-Head, his treatment of animals vary from time to time. Smaller things like insects, bugs, and frogs often see their wrath, be it the deep fryers at work or at the end of a baseball bat, while animals vary from time to time; though it may range from unusual cruelty (Mr. Anderson's poodle seeing a washer and dryer, painting his cat's butt), they are known to be attentive and in the least, caring of certain animals (seen asking for dead animals to feed their snakes, not harming their pet store bought pets, doing their best to attend to a baby bird, feeding and not killing a pregnant rat), and in instances of cruelty, it never escalates to death and prolonged, malicious torture, just amounts of ignorant, reversible actions.
Beavis has said that he has voices in his head that tell him to do violent things but he has learned not to do the things it tells him to do. (Most Wanted)
In Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, it is revealed Beavis has a fear of flying, as when their plane takes off, he freaks out screaming, "AHHH! WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!" Also, in Nosebleed and some future episodes, it might be implied that Beavis has a fear of blood, or is at least mildly disturbed by it, as he starts screaming and shaking when he gets a nosebleed (though this might just be because it startled him).
In Holy Cornholio, it is shown Beavis has (or developed) a bit of doubt towards Butt-Head, being reluctant to have him help when he got a screw stuck in his hand.
Spontaneity
Also in contrast to Butt-Head's cool, and calm demeanor, Beavis has a more volatile, and unpredictable nature which has impacted him negatively on many occasions, ranging from severely injuring himself (Woodshop) to deportation (Vaya Con Cornholio) to very nearly killing himself (Butt Flambe). Before the large fire controversy, Beavis had shown signs of being a closet pyromaniac with a fascination for fire. He would often chant, "Fire! Fire!" and during one episode (Liar! Liar!), he shouted, "Liar... Liar! Liar, liar, pants on-- Whoa!" His obsession with fire was shown in Home Improvement, Comedians and Stewart's House. Even after the controversy, Mike Judge continued to insert slight gags about Beavis' pyromania. While Butt-..Head is the oldest, Beavis is actually the youngest.
Alter Ego
- Main article: Cornholio
Cornholio
After consuming a large amount of sugar, caffeine or, as shown in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, medication pills, Beavis undergoes a radical personality change. He would pull his T-shirt over his head and begin to yell and scream incomprehensible nonsense. This alter ego is named "Cornholio", a character whom was conceived when Mike Judge had a thought of Beavis with his shirt over his head. Cornholio is a normally dormant personality, but when he surfaces, he is famous for shouting, "I am Cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole!" in a faux-Spanish accent. Once Cornholio disappears, Beavis has no recollection as to what had happened after he consumed sugar.
Cornholio appears to supply characters with much entertainment as shown in Buttniks, where the boys go to a Beatnik club and Beavis' alter ego emerges. Though Butt-Head was rather unsuccessful in impressing the club members, many of them enjoyed Cornholio's performance and they even supplied Beavis with caffeine to keep Cornholio around.
Relationship with Butt-head
Butt-head slapping Beavis
Despite being the friend of Butt-head, Beavis and Butt-head have an extremely jaded, violent, and almost sadistic relationship with one another that usually ends in bizarre situations for both of them. Butt-Head often abuses Beavis, usually by slapping him, but there has been a few situations where he has gone further, such as kicking him in the nads and smashing him on the head with a frying pan (Work is Death). Usually, Beavis will not react other than the odd, "Shut up, Butt-Head!" but he will sometimes stand up for himself and retaliate against Butt-Head's dominating behavior. On a few occasions, Beavis has thrown the first punch such as when he smashed Butt-Head over the head with a paddle, though the latter had goaded him into doing so (Canoe). On the other hand, Butt-Head will usually understand when Beavis is approaching his limit and will usually back off.The two do not appear to 'care' about each other when one of them is in a life-threatening situation. For example, whenever Beavis is severely damaged or hurt by something that the duo had done, Butt-Head will usually only stand by and laugh at him. In the episode Blood Pressure, Beavis gets his arm trapped in a blood testing machine and Butt-Head takes his time helping him (since he was unable to read the "Emergency release" button on the machine.) This antagonistic feeling appears to be mutual. In Water Safety, Butt-Head nearly drowns while trying to swim in gym class and Beavis hardly does anything to rescue him from his near-death experience, even resisting to go into the water because "it's too cold." In Choke, Butt-Head nearly runs out of oxygen supply when he chokes on a chicken bit and he begs Beavis to help him, but Beavis takes his time in order to get help (even forgetting about Butt-Head choking and being reluctant to call 911)In the episode Follow Me, Beavis begins to mimic Butt-Head's every move and every word. This annoys Butt-Head and even nearly caused him to die, however Beavis continued to mimic him. This shows that Beavis enjoys annoying Butt-Head in order to entertain himself. This also supports the fact that neither one of them care if the other is in a life-threatening situation. Despite all of this, the two appear to be the closest of friends and spend all of their time with one another, even spending a large majority of the time in the house together, regardless of who actually owns it.
Beavis and Butt-head not trying to score but fighting.
The boys share the same interests, musical tastes and views on subjects and compliment each other whenever either of them achieves something that is major to them, such as their lifelong goal of "scoring with chicks."
Behavior
Beavis' mugshot
Beavis does not display as much interest in scoring with chicks as much as Butt-Head does, which is shown in many episodes in which the latter continuously tries to flirt with various girls while Beavis is intrigued by something else, usually picking his nose. In Held Back, Butt-Head tried to sweet talk an 8th grader, but Beavis seemed uninterested. In Doomsday when the guys were at the Maxi-Mart, Butt-Head was looking at magazines with naked women but Beavis was looking at magazines with guns and the military, and in the movie when Muddy asked them to do Dallas, Butt-Head was eager but Beavis wanted to watch TV, so Butt-Head smacks him across the face before explaining to him that they can buy a new TV with the money from doing the chick. Beavis, instead, fixates a lot of attention on things such as toilet humor, violence, and slight pyromania. He has a joy for making off-beat sounds, such as blowing a raspberry and imitating a spring when he is aroused. He also does impersonations of many people he knows, such as Principal McVicker (Speech Therapy), Woody Woodpecker (Top O' the Mountain) and Mr. Manners (Manners Suck). Beavis also shows a talent of backmasking, or being able to speak backwards (Vidiots - however, he forgets how he does this by the end of the episode) as well as a talent for speaking ultra-fast, He, along with Butt-Head, is shown to be very childish, however Butt-Head displays a bit more maturity than Beavis does. In the episode Babysitters, Beavis is shown playing with the baby toys and he appeared to be enjoying himself. He also admitted to enjoying the free baby toys his mother gives him. As well as being very immature, Beavis displays a love for feces and will often say in a high pitched tone "Poop!" or "Plop!" to resemble bowel movements. On one occasion, he even kept an enormous bowel movement in his drawer, which utterly disgusted Butt-Head. He also displays examples of the idiot savant when he is slapped continuously or attempting to either make himself dizzy or pass out by holding his breath blowing into his thumb. Beavis is shown to have some manners ( The Great Cornholio). He sometimes seen saying "Sorry about that" or "Thank you. Drive through." He seems to pick it up from Burger World.
Abilities
Beavis seems to be far more durable than the average teenager. He has survived being brutally beaten many times, being caught within the epicenter of a car crash, suffering heavy blood loss, getting struck by lightning, being crushed under several phone booths after getting caught in a tornado and getting a bowling ball to the crotch 3 times in 1 episode. He will often ignore any injuries that he gets (unless he sees blood coming out of him, at which point he'll panic).
Beavis' Family
Like a large variety of parents in the series (not counting Stewart's), Beavis' mother was alcoholic and one night, too drunk to care. Her promiscuity is often a topic of discussion between Beavis and Butt-Head, "My mom's a slut... heh heh heh!" According to many of the conversations during some music video segments, Beavis' mother is plus sized, shares his pompadour hairstyle and (most significantly) is a slut. While Beavis is quite conscious of his mother's promiscuity, it does not appear to bother him much and he even laughs along with Butt-Head about it. In fact, in one episode, when Butt-Head called her a whore, Beavis, almost heartlessly, replied, "My mom's a slut and she doesn't charge for it, bunghole, and I'm not stupid!." He appeared to be more concerned with being called stupid rather than Butt-Head insulting his mother. In Letters to Santa Butt-Head, a man wrote to Butt-Head asking Beavis to give him his mom's phone number. Beavis refused to give him her number but did say "She usually hangs out at the Merkin Lounge, you could try calling her there." Butt-Head then says he wrote her number down on the condom dispenser in the Maxi-Mart men's bathroom.
There have, however, been instances in which Beavis has stood up for his mother. In the episode They're Coming to Take Me Away, Huh Huh, when Butt-Head commented about Beavis' mother ("That's not how I feel your mother"), the latter promptly told him, "Shut up, fartknocker!” And smacked him across the face. Also, while viewing a Prince video, Butt-Head made a negative comment about Beavis' mother's looks, and Beavis replied with an angry, "Shut up bunghole! I'm sick of you bad-mouthing my mom!" Butt-Head once mentioned that Beavis' mom use to take him to the flea market a lot as a kid, which Beavis replied ("shut up"). This gives the impression that he used to enjoy being with his mother and that they did care for each other at that time, although in a later season it's mentioned that his mom took him to Ikea and told him to go to sleep on a mattress so she could flee with a biker gang but got lost and kept accidentally going back to Beavis before getting into a fight in the parking lot, while Beavis was still a sleep, which caused him to live in a foster family home which Beavis thought were called the fosters. It's unknown how Beavis got out or how he ended up back with his mother, but it appeared that nothing bothered Beavis in the end and that he had no ill feelings for his mother's actions.
In Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, the duo meet two older men who greatly resemble them, in terms of physical appearance and personality traits. It is later revealed that these older men were, indeed, Beavis and Butt-Head's biological fathers. The man who looks like an older overweight version of Butt-Head claimed that he was the only one who "scored." If this were true, this would make Beavis and Butt-Head half-brothers. However, there is a scene early on in the movie where the ATF agents claim that both of the men are genetic matches for fathers, meaning they are in no way related. Butt-Head's father most likely scorned Beavis' for the fun of it. However, the group part ways before they can make a family connection. His mom's birthday is July 14 and his dad's is on March 25th.
Gallery
Sources
Trivia's
Lady Morrigan is a the Rise Dark Pentagram series Touchstone Pictures Frederator?!
Protagonists: Beavis / Cornholio / Old · Butt-Head / Old
Recurring Characters: Stewart Stevenson · Tom Anderson · Todd · Burger World Manager · Mr. Stevenson · Mrs. Stevenson · Lolita and Tanqueray · Maxi-Mart Owner
Highland High School: Daria Morgendorffer · David Van Driessen · Principal McVicker · Coach Buzzcut · Spanish Teacher · Kimberly · Cassandra · Earl · Mrs. Dickie · Gina · Dreama · Dean Zunker · Glennis · Cody · Audrey
Minor Characters: Hamid · Clark Cobb · Dave · Harry Sachz · Homeless Man · Madame Blavatsky · Redneck Lady · Crazy Farmer · Billy Bob · Principal Brown · President Bill Clinton · Biker Lady · Marcie Anderson · School Nurse · Sterculius, the Roman God of Feces · St. Peter · Unnamed Police Officers · Mr. Manners · Frog · Harry Buddisker · Hiro · Mistress Cora Anthrax · Biker Lady · Fork Injury Guy · Peter Small · Killer · Second Killer · Ross and Harlan · Keith · Case Worker
Movie Characters: Muddy Grimes · Dallas Grimes · ATF Agent Bork · ATF Agent Flemming · FBI Agent Hurly · Old Woman · Motley Crue Roadies · Serena Ryan · Jim Hartson · Mattison · Smart Beavis · Smart Butt-Head · Empress Beavis · Emperor Butt-Head