Beavis and Butt-Head
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"What in the hell?"
— Tom Anderson

"Hey, wait a minute. You two look kind of familiar. Ain't you them kids that have been whackin' off in my toolshed?"
— Tom Anderson upon seeing Beavis and Butt-Head

Thomas "Tom" T. Anderson is a major character in Beavis and Butt-Head. He is an elderly man who lives near Beavis and Butt-Head. He has a wife named Marcy Anderson. Standing 6’3” and weighing 250 lbs., Tom is a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. A staunch conservative, he is often seen drinking beer or doing work with his tools.

Tom has often been the victim of Beavis and Butt-Head's actions. They have cut down a tree that fell on his house, spray painted his pet dog, painted his pet cat's butt, taken his riding mower and steamroller for a joyride, inadvertently run him down with a war drone after breaking into the drone's control room, stolen his golf balls and later sold them back to him for money, filled up a pre-dug pool with concrete (only to get themselves stuck in it), ruined his golf clubs, ruined his house by doing a sloppy job painting the outside of it, stolen his identity, caused him to be wrongfully arrested by the FBI twice, and have even gone to the store as an errand for him only to wind up buying stuff for themselves instead of what he wanted. In one of the most memorable episodes, the duo took over for him at his yard sale and sold everything he owned, including a Purple Heart (evidence of his war heroism). In another episode, the boys took his bowling ball and they blew it up with dynamite. This caused the police to arrest Anderson because the bowling ball came from him. He was screaming during his arrest and then dubbed by the nickname of "The Mad Bomber."

Anderson has been known to yell "What in the hell?!" and "Damn it!" when he gets angry, which appear to be his catchphrases. Because of Beavis and Butt-Head, Tom Anderson's lawn, his house, and even his good name have been ruined (the town thinks Tom Anderson is a bad neighbor.) Beavis and Butt-Head have gotten Tom arrested before, in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, in Ball Breakers, and possibly in Locked Out. He has also revealed that he may have an estranged son in the episode Hunting Trip that has yet to appear onscreen.

Tom Anderson is also confirmed to be alive in the timeline where Beavis and Butthead grew old, as shown in Stolen Valor. Despite this, he looks as healthy as his counterpart from his main timeline.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

Tom Anderson and his wife were going on their trip until Beavis and Butt-head showed up. Beavis and Butt-head ruined their vacation right from the start.

The duo destroyed Tom's TV, destroyed the Hoover Dam, causing Tom and his wife to be washed away, having their camper destroyed by the ATF and getting a full body cavity searches, causing a traffic accident, getting kicked out of the Whitehouse, Beavis masturbated in his camper, and getting arrested by the ATF for being accomplices getting 60 years in jail while his wife gets a full body cavity search. Their camper is towed away.

After the movie, Tom and his wife return home after having been proven innocent of the charges.

Characteristics

Because of Tom's poor eyesight, he is often unable to recognize the two without a working pair of glasses. He often says things like, "Are you those kids that have been whacking off in my toolshed?", "Are you the two that painted my cat's butt?", etc. The two always lie and he falls for it. They manage to get away with it and pick on Tom.

He is also considered to be quite talkative, usually talking about his days back in the service.

Due to his mild senility, Tom doesn't remember their names. Tom once reported to the police that: "One of them calls himself Butthole and the other one Joe." and that he believes that the duo are "oriental". He also mistakenly believed their names were Buford and Bernardo.

According to Tom, every Thursday, he orders a large fries, pie, and a large coffee before he goes to the foot doctor.

In the episode "Steamroller", he is able to knock a man down with a single punch, which suggests that he is relatively strong for an old man. However, in the episode "Daughter's Hand", a man was able to defeat Tom in a fight. In the episode "The New Enemy", he attacks the duo when they approach him stuck in their "raccoon trap" with raccoons around them.

Tom Anderson's War Stories

Anderson is known to talk about his past war stories mainly based on maintenance of various devices and appliances:

1. In the middle of a beach battle off the coast of Incheon, Korea, while operating the boat he decides to return from the middle of an amphibian invasion to repaint the boat they were on, citing the appropriate way to primer and paint a boat. He also provided his subordinate a letter to his wife consisting of instructions on how to properly maintain an oil furnace. He concluded with the boat lasting another 6 months before sinking in the Sea of Japan.

2. During the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge, while on the way to the battle in their jeeps, Tom was critiquing his men about the Jeeps windshield wipers not working properly and began removing one of them all the while the bombing was commencing. He concluded with the fact that the whole wiper motor had to be replaced.

3. While surrounded behind enemy lines by Communist soldiers in a Korean farmhouse, Tom was fixing a sink for a man named Hon-yong and pointed out an incompatible pipe used in his sink, all the while Hon-yong and Anderson's fellow Marines were killed, yet Tom was more concerned with finding the turn-off valve. He concluded with finding the valve near the water heater to find the T and P valve on the water heater incorrectly placed, citing that the farmer could have received burned had he not been killed.

Appearances

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10

Season 11

Movies

Quotes

  • "Hey, you look kinda familiar. You ain't the kids that spray-painted my dog last week, are you?"
  • "Well, I can see you boys ain't like the usual hooligans hanging around here. Like these two fellas, uhh, Buffcoat and Beaver."
  • "One of 'em calls himself Butthole. The other one's name is Joe, I think. I believe they were oriental."
  • "Hey, you look kind of familiar. Aren't you the ones that ran off with my riding mower last week?"
  • "What I'd give for five minutes alone with those two little bastards who took my mower."
  • "Ain't you them boys that've been whackin' off in my tool shed?"
  • "Y'know, it doesn't get any better than this. This here is God's country. Unspoiled-BWAAAAH! (gets washed away by huge tidal wave)
  • "Boy, what I wouldn't give for five minutes alone with them two little bastards- (Butt-Head smacks into his windshield, causing Tom to scream in terror) BWAH!
  • "Must be one of them damn buzzard-hawks!"
  • "Hey, what the hell's going on here?"
  • "What in the hell?!?"
  • "Damn it!"
  • "...They're like a couple of spider monkeys!"
  • "Hope you had enough, you damn ungrateful bastards!"
  • "Get the hell off my property, you son of a bitch!"
  • "And if I ever see that damn dog of yours peeing on my yard again, I'm gonna shoot both of you!"
  • "You and I are gonna tangle!'
  • "Dammit! Get the hell out of here, you damn sons of bitches!"
  • “Boy, I’ll tell you what, Dusty. I felt like a one-legged cat tryin’ to bury turds on a frozen pond out there today,”
  • "HUH?! UUAAH! WHAT?! PULL YOUR DAMN PANTS UP, BOY!!! I DON'T WANNA SEE THAT, DAMMIT!!! GET OUT OF HERE, AND IF I EVER CATCH YOU WHACKIN' IN HERE AGAIN, I'M GONNA HOG-TIE YOU!!! Ahhh, dammit! Now I gotta straighten up in here, god damn it!"
  • "TAKE YOUR DAMN PANTS WITH YOU!!!"
  • "HEY! GET YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF ME!"
  • "It's probably those two them boys Bufford and Bernardo"

Trivia

New tom anderson i mean new glasses guy

Hank Hill

  • It was revealed in Good Credit on his credit card that Tom's middle initial is the letter T.
  • Tom Anderson strongly resembles Hank Hill from Mike Judge's later show, King of the Hill - both were based on the same person from Judge's youth. In this case, Tom was obviously the inspiration for Hank Hill.
    • Both characters have an important possession called "Betsy" - Anderson's is a shotgun, Hill's is a guitar. The two also have the same voice, except Tom's is deeper and Hank's is clearer.
    • In Beavis and Butt-head Do America, Tom praises butane gas in a scene, while Hank praises propane (and ironically, Bobby once tells Joseph that Hank says that butane is a "bastard gas").
    • Also noted, that during development of King of the Hill, Hank Hill was supposed to be the son of Tom Anderson; however, FOX was unable to get Tom because he belonged to MTV. Judge had to give Hank a different father, Cotton Hill.
    • Whenever Hank Hill screams, he yells "BWAAAH!"; Tom also screams like this on a few occasions, particularly in Do America.
  • Interestingly, even though he is often nice to Beavis and Butt-head, he is one of the Bosses in the SNES Video Game where he shoots apples at you and you have to throw the apples at him to defeat him. He also appears as a boss, of sorts in the Sega Genesis video game. He runs over the duo's concert tickets, with his lawnmower, during the prologue. Then, later, he rides his mower and throws beer cans, at the duo, when they are on his property. After being defeated, he is knocked out, allowing the duo to swipe his tool shed key.
  • Mike Judge says he was inspired to create Tom because of an old man he met during his and his brother's paper route in his childhood.
  • In "Good Credit", the marquee sign at the entrance of the hotel where Tom Anderson is attending a reunion says "Welcome Tulsa Odd Fellows", suggesting that he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
  • As revealed in "Beekeepers", Anderson is still alive in the 2020s, implying that, despite his issues and the grief the duo have caused him over the years, he is a healthy man.
  • It is revealed in the episode "Hunting Trip" that Tom Anderson has an estranged son that he neglected by ignoring him. Since Tom Anderson drove his son away, he feels this guilt in his later years. In the same episode, it is also hinted that Tom Anderson might have wanted to participate in a musical but was disapproved by his father.
  • In the episodes "Hunting Trip" and "Spring Break", Tom Anderson is revealed to be an incompetent soldier in the Korean War, caring about the state of the vehicle he is driving rather than the battle he is in. This alone might have ironically saved him on more than a couple of occasions, despite almost getting blown up by artillery in "Spring Break". Both of these flashbacks are shown in the cold open before the episode starts.
    • Tom Anderson's incompetence has also proved fatal to people around him, as shown in the episode Warehouse (Cold Open) when he is repairing a faucet sink in the middle of a battle. Sadly, the civilian Korean owner of the house, was killed because he was out in the line of fire, all thanks to Tom Anderson wanting to make repairs instead of keeping him safe.
  • Tom Anderson is also revealed to be alive in the Old Beavis and Butthead timeline, as shown in the episode "Stolen Valor".

Sources

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