In the history of MTV’s original programming, no scripted show utilized the network’s music video output quite like Beavis and Butt-Head, whose central slacker duo often rails against pop music’s biggest hits while kneeling at the altar of heavy metal. Alongside showcasing mainstream releases, the twice-revived series remains a conduit for music that can be classified best as MTV-famous, if not necessarily radio-friendly across the country.
As such, so many of the songs showcased in episodes of this all-time great animated TV series are now forever bound to my memories of seeing and hearing Beavis and/or Butt-Head’s rabid excitement, palpable disgust, and hilariously awful singalongs. So hop on the closest busted couch with a tray of questionable nachos and read on.
“Put Your Mouth on Me" - Eddie Murphy
Seen In: Season 2’s “The Butt-Head Experience”
For many, Eddie Murphy’s musical career began and ended with “Party All the Time,” but Beavis and Butt-Head reminded us all that 1989’s “Put Your Mouth on Me” existed, even if they changed the channel before the verse actually started. “Didn’t this guy used to be in the movies?”
“Parklife” - Blur
Seen In: Season 5’s “Lightning Strikes”
For all that Blur’s “Song 2” was as inescapable as oxygen for a span in the 1990s, other singles such as their “happy little tune” title track to 1994’s Parklife weren’t quite as pervasive in the zeitgeist. Perhaps because it inspires people like Beavis to want to change the channel before the first lyric is completed. But if they all came with the pair riffing on Family Feud, that might be different.
“Psychobilly Freakout” - The Reverend Horton Heat
Seen In: Season 5’s “What’s the Deal”
The Reverend Horton Heat made their music of choice clear with their debut album single “Psychobilly Freakout.” While the original track later made its way onto Guitar Hero Smash Hits, I still remember it best with Mike Judge’s Beavis instantly parroting the title back. The track also earned this A+ Butt-Head description: “It’s like country music, but it’s like country music after you’ve been, like, playing centipede for like 24 hours.”
“Liar’ - Rollins Band
Seen In: Season 4’s “Liar Liar”
Henry Rollins is an artist whose performances are always enhanced plenty-fold by actually seeing him in action, so it’s no surprise MTV was fond of the band’s early ‘90s efforts, such as their spoken-word-turned-to-hollering hit “Liar.” That lack of surprise extends to the chaotic, paint-splattered video making its way onto Beavis and Butt-Head’s television, leading to one of Beavis’ classic non-fire-related freakouts: “Yes! Lie! Liarrrrr! Yes!”
“Hay Fever” - The Trash Can Sinatras
Seen In: Season 3’s “True Crime”
Scottish band The Trash Can Sinatras’ 1993 single “Hay Fever” completely escapes my memory in any respect beyond the rapid-movement visual effect utilized in the music video, which gave Beavis and Butt-Head’s animators a chance to do the same with Butt-Head. While also letting Mike Judge poke fun at Brit-pop and the titular characters’ geographical ignorance.
“California” - Wax
Seen In: Season 5’s “Another Friday Night”
With no disrespect to the band Wax, I’ll admittedly only recognize their 1995 single “California” if somebody says, “The one with the music video of a guy on fire running in slow motion.” Also known as “Beavis’ utopia.”
“In These Arms” - Bon Jovi
Seen In: Season 3’s “Car Wash”
Bon Jovi was as radio-friendly as acts could get throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, but instead of any all-timer karaoke-ready classics, the boys landed on the band’s 1993 release “In These Arms,” which goes about as well as one would expect. Which is better: Butt-Head jokingly asking if Jon Bon Jovi is actually Jane Fonda, or Beavis’ raspy warbling? Right, it’s both.
“Neighbor” - Ugly Kid Joe
Seen In: Season 3’s “Scratch ‘n’ Win”
Hard rock outfit Ugly Kid Joe — or Ugly Kid Chode if you’re Butt-Head — made their Beavis and Butt-Head debut with the music video for their 1992 single “Neighbor.” More memorable to me than any lyric in this song is Butt-Head cheering on the dude in the armchair as he digs between his toes and eats whatever he comes away with.
“I Love You” - Vanilla Ice
Seen In: Season 6’s “Babysitting”
Three seasons after the lads watched “Ice Ice Baby,” Beavis and Butt-Head spent a lot of time giggling upon seeing Vanilla Ice once more for the track “I Love You.” Beavis rarely sounds more studious than he did with this summation: “They’re always, like, putting this guy down and you know, like, making fun of him, and saying he sucks and stuff. But you know, um, he really does suck, and this is one of those times where everyone is right.”
“Scatman” - Scatman John
Seen In: Season 6’s “No Service”
Few novelty songs represent the ‘90s quite like Scatman John’s semi-self-titled 1994 oddity “Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop),” and few songs have made Beavis fly instantly off the Cornholio-adjacent handle quite like that same track. Which isn’t to say either of the teens liked it, although they came to appreciate the idea that the song might have been about poop. Always with the silver lining, these two.
“Reflections Of Passion” - Yanni
Seen In: Season 5’s “Pregnant Pause”
“Whoa, look at that, it’s Geraldo!” A declaration that sounded more optimistic than Beavis and Butt-Head’s eventual realization that they were actually watching a video from Yanni, whose ‘90s street cred was just south of Kenny G’s. Amusingly, It’s a video where Butt-Head trolls Beavis by turning the TV louder and claiming something cool is about to happen, but it never does, and we all lose.
"Everybody Get On Up" - Carmen Elektra
Seen In: Season 2’s “No Laughing”
Model and Baywatch vet Carmen Electra likes throwing back to past career moments, but popping up on Beavis and Butt-Head probably isn’t a go-to memory for her, just like the single “Everybody Get on Up” probably isn’t a go-to memory for anyone who didn’t watch this episode a bunch.
“Torture” - The Jacksons
Seen In: Season 2’s “At the Sideshow”
One of the relatively rare Jacksons singles to be lead by someone other than Michael, “Torture” is the kind of song I probably couldn’t recognize in a lineup without Beavis and Butt-Head calling out for Tito. Given how quickly they change the channel, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the end of this song. But how about that Tito, amirite?
“Ultra Twist!” - The Cramps
Seen In: Season 5’s “To the Rescue”
Psychobilly legends The Cramps debuted their 1994 single “Ultra Twist!” on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and less than a year later, its leather-clad music video made it to Beavis and Butt-Head’s TV, where they mistook it for an episode of Tales from the Crypt. At the time, I appreciated Beavis’ impressions of the Cryptkeeper and his grandmother more than the song, which has since been, uh, rectified.
“Old Timer” - that dog.
Seen In: Season 5’s “Tainted Meat”
The ‘90s punk band that dog., fronted by Yellowjackets theme co-writer Anna Waronker, may not be the most familiar, but Beavis and Butt-Head fans likely remember the hot dog stand-set music video for “Old Timer,” in which Beavis freaked out over the use of a fryer — “Fryerrrr!” — and divulged his not-so-sanitary use of hairnets.
“Devil’s Johnson” - Ethyl Meatplow
Seen In: Season 3’s "Young, Gifted, & Crude"
“Scummy people are cool. . . Slimy people rule.” Beavis and Butt-Head’s wit and wisdom knows no bounds. Although the rest of their take on early-’90s dance-rock band Ethyl Meatplow consisted mostly of both teens making sure they heard the name of the song correctly, so I guess that counts as a bound.
“Mean Machine” - Sugar Ray
Seen In: Season 5’s “Bang The Drum Slowly”
Before becoming an entertainment industry mainstay, Mark McGrath and Sugar Ray churned out offbeat and self-aware hard rock tracks like 1995’s “Mean Machine” (with a video directed by McG). Even more enjoyable than the song is Butt-Head’s candid enjoyment of watching the band members’ synchronized dance moves.
“Twiggy, Twiggy” - Pizzicato 5
Seen In: Season 5’s “Lightning Strikes”
A band I’ll admit to being almost completely unfamiliar with outside of the context of Beavis and Butt-Head, the genre-mashing Japanese pop group Pizzicato Five gained some ocean-crossing fandom from the video for their single “Twiggy, Twiggy” showing up on MTV. While it unfortunately features a bit of cheap foreign-language humor, the clip is perhaps most memorable for Beavis mistaking someone in the video for a character from the ‘60s sitcom My Three Sons. A reference teens are making in every generation.
“Judge The Hot Fudge” - The Didjits
Seen In: Season 5’s “Choke”
The theatrical punk band The Didjits never really cracked into the mainstream, but one of their closest calls was when the 1993 single “Judge Hot Fudge” confused Beavis and Butt-Head into thinking they weren’t watching a legitimate music video. Because if “it was serious, it would suck.”
“The Right Kind Of Love” - Jeremy Jordan
Seen In: Season 2’s “Burger World”
Pop star Jeremy Jordan landed arguably his biggest hit with 1992’s “The Right Kind of Love,” as featured on the Beverly Hills 90210 soundtrack. And while I watched that show as well, I mostly remember the song for being a classic hate-watch track for Beavis and Butt-Head, causing Beavis to repeatedly demand Butt-Head change the channel. Thankfully for all, it worked.
“Show Me Your Soul” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Seen In: Season 2’s “Sign Here”
A single from the 1990 smash rom-com Pretty Woman, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Show Me Your Soul” delivers all the white-boy funk fans desired from the band at the time, and even earned some of Beavis and Butt-Head’s funk-deficient dance moves from the show’s earliest years. It's nowhere near as overplayed as the rest of their hits catalog.
“Pride and Joy” - Coverdale and Page
Seen In: Season 5’s “Temporary Insanity”
Former Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale teamed up with Led Zeppelin legend Jimmy Page for the 1993 collab album Coverdale-Page, and the results can be summed up best by Beavis and Butt-Head’s own convo during the music video for “Pride and Joy,” in which they talked about classic bands who keep the same name despite only having one original member still performing. Granted, Beavis mistakenly thought this was just a severely pared-down Zeppelin, but still.
“Monkey Business” - Skid Row
Seen In: Season 3’s “Ball Breakers”
Skid Row may have taken the hair metal world by storm with their debut, but the first track off of their sophomore album (which was also a hit, to be sure) did little to impress Beavis and/or Butt-Head, though it makes for a truly classic video segment. Not so much for calling Masked Singer vet and high-note legend Sebastian Bach a girl, but for making fun of his performative aggression, for putting them to sleep, for inspiring Butt-Head to fart, and so on.
“Only One” - Goo Goo Dolls
Seen In: Season 5’s “Spare Me”
Goo Goo Dolls hit it big with the 1995 hit “Name,” but A Boy Named Goo’s first single is the less-celebrated “Only One,” whose makeshift island-set music video sparked Beavis and Butt-Head’s simple-but-memorable convo about what three items they’d take to a desert island. Beavis’ answer: some crackers, a swimsuit, and maybe some cheez whiz to put on the crackers. Butt-Head’s answer: “three chicks.”
“Cantspeak” - Danzig
Seen In: Season 5’s “Animation Sucks”
With a video that makes Beavis and Butt-Head say plop a lot, and also gives the former a chance to make a kitty litter-related confession, Danzig’s 1994 single “Cantspeak” is as chill as the hard rock band gets, sparking Beavis to boast that he could whoop Glenn Danzig, which is about I’d pay to see.
“Black Sunshine” - White Zombie
Seen In: Season 2's "Home Improvement"
Neither MTV nor Beavis and Butt-Head ever shied away from a banging White Zombie video, with both of the band’s debut album singles airing on the animated series. Even though the popularity of "More Human than Human" pretty much eclipsed everything else, no one can deny the power of "Black Sunshine," which held the show's teens rapt and silent for half of its runtime.
“The Animal Song” - The Europeans
Seen In: Season 3’s “Canoe”
Beavis and Butt-Head dipped back a decade to showcase The Europeans’ 1982 single “The Animal Song,” which ranks among the duo’s most hated videos that they inevitably still watched more than 90 seconds if only to talk about how much it sucked. Among Butt-Head’s most zen lines ever, even if he had to repeat it while yelling: “Just because something’s cool doesn’t mean something else doesn’t suck.”
“Cool Kids” - Kix
Seen In: Season 3’s “Kidnapped”
95% of the time when either Beavis and/or Butt-Head devalues a song’s existence in the first five seconds, it’s a spot-on assessment that makes for a fun segment. Kix’s 1983 music video for “Cool Kids” did not deviate from the formula. The Season 3 spot featured one of the duo’s sickest possible burns: “These are supposed to be cool kids? I’d hate to see the uncool kids.”
“Martin Scorsese” - King Missile
Seen In: Season 3’s “Plate Frisbee”
No, the song isn’t called “Martin Scores Easy,” Butt-Head, and maybe this dude shouldn’t settle down. King Missile’s 1992 single “Martin Scorsese” is a one-of-a-kind violence-soaked screed about the Oscar-winning director that quickly amped Beavis up with its talk about grabbing necks and twisting noses. Not the most melodic track for car radio singalongs.
“Crazy Love” - Gruntruck
Seen In: Season 2’s “Friday Night”
“It doesn’t even suck,” is about as good of a compliment as one can earn from Beavis and Butt-Head, and landing a spot on the MTV hit was indeed a move in the right direction for the grunge band Gruntruck, especially given how much the duo thought they rocked with the video for “Crazy Love.” And had I ever heard it anywhere but on the show, I’d have likely quoted them.
“Ebeneezer Goode” - The Shamen
Seen In: Season 3's "Kidnapped, Part II"
The Scottish electronica group The Shamens released the track “Ebeneezer Goode” in 1992, which didn’t quite have the impact in the U.S. that it did in the UK. But Beavis and Butt-Head fans know it as a song that provided the soundbites of Beavis saying “naughty, naughty” a bunch of times with a British accent, as well as him having a faux seizure.
“The Night The Master Comes” - Electric Sun
Seen In: Season 3’s “Meet God”
Psychedelic rockers Electric Sun made exactly zero fans out of Beavis and Butt-Head with the cheeseball video for their 1985 track “The Night the Master Comes,” whose opening hilariously makes Butt-Head say, “Uh-uh” before any actual words come out. And when those words did emerge, they repeatedly addressed how awful it was right up until the channel was changed.
Will we ever get to see a live-action Beavis and Butt-Head series with Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day reprising their insta-classic Saturday Night Live sketch to sit and watch music videos in live-action like MST3K? They donned the outfits again on the red carpet for Gosling’s Fall Guy premiere, so one can only hope. In the meantime, check out all the episodes available to stream on Paramount+.
