10D
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Monday, August 18, 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Beavis and Butthead book is, like, moronic, heh, heh
By Andy Obermueller Kansan staff writer
I felt guilty laughing at The Butt Files: Beavis and Butthead's Guide to Sci-Fi and the Unknown (Pocket Books, $12). Reasonable people, or at least those able to walk upright, should not laugh at such jejune drivel. The book, like the show, is so utterly debase and crass that the only acceptable response is laughter.
The book is written in the illiterate vernacular of the dim-witted duo, which surprisingly is difficult to read. The Butt Files is wholly irreverent and in bad taste, in line with the show's normal presentation of bathroom humor
Butt-head
Spoken English is rich in dialectic variance. The artfully reconstructed speech patterns of African-Americans in Huckleberry Finn or To Kill A Mockingbird required skilled authors with trained ears. Readers, some of whom may never have paid attention to African Americans and their manner of speech, were enlightened by the insight of Mark Twain and Harper Lee.
Beavis
Even the spoof of the Northern accent and dialect in the movie Fargo required some brain wattage of the viewers to decipher the humor.
But Beavis and Butthead's 'dumbspeak' is neither artful nor intellectual. It's just
Everyone has heard someone dumbspeak and
BOOK REVIEW
not been enlightened by it. If I'm going to spend $12 for something dumb, I'll give it to Congressman Jim Ryun's campaign fund.
Beavis and Butthead, in this, their fifth book, attempt to explain mysteries such as the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and "Why Butthead Sucks." Each page contains a reference to pornography, genitalia or scoring.
Removal of the "heh-heh-heh," "sucks," "nads" and other innumerable vulgarities would happily reduce the size of the book. "Uhh" and "heh-heh" account for about 23 percent of the copy. No subject, of course, is taken seriously, and no substantial humor is ever presented.
For example, the section explaining genetic engineering, spelled "engine-earring," begins, "Umm, heh-heh, genetic engine-earring is when scientific dudes do experiments on animals. They like, put 'em together scientifically and, like, make brand-new animals out of em, heh-heh."
That the authors, show writers Greg Grabianski and Aimee Kellor, recognized "brand-new" was a compound modifier and that "like" should be in apposition and offset by commas is especially telling.
It's disturbing that a livelihood can be made by literate writers who whore what famed editing professor John Bremner called "this beautiful bastard language."
The meretricious marketers at MTV have distributed Beavis and Butthead's noisemaker likeness on video games, CD-ROMs, lunch boxes and t-shirts. There are more Internet links to Cornholio than there are to Al Gore.
Aren't we surrounded by enough stupidity without invading the last bastion of intelligence, the bookstore? Can we hold nothing sacred?
A Beavis-and-Butthead book is, at best, an oxymoron. He-heh. He said. "moron."
Or something.
NEW YORK — Television is humming a new toon. Lots of toons, in fact.
Let Disney stockholders whine how *Hercules* hasn't proved as heroic at the box office as expected. On television, animation is showing unprecedented muscle.
The Associated Press
Range, too. From the cuddlesome "Rugrats" on Nickelodeon to the racy HBO romp "Spicy City," from the nutty calm of "Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist" to the delectable gross-out of "Beavis and Butt-head," toons are all over the TV landscape.
Cartoons characters animate TV networks
The lone new hit on any broadcast network last season? Fox's animated spoof of suburbia, "King of the Hill."
The most talked-about upcoming series? The animated "South Park," a sort of "Peanuts" with a potty mouth that premieres in August on Comedy Central.
This month, the Cartoon Network, epicenter of animation's movers and shakers, has added two new half-hour series to its weeknight lineup: "Johnny Bravo" and "Cow & Chicken."
In addition, the channel is unveiling new segments of its popular "Dexter's Laboratory."
The Cartoon Network is, of course, a virtual mecca for all manner of animated species. Owned by Turner Broadcasting System (and hence by Time Warner), its vast library accommodates everyone from Bugs Bunny to Scooby Doo to Fred Flintstone.
For children and adults alike, toon time is 8 p.m. EDT, Monday through Friday.
But the network is also a breeding ground for new toons.
"We're ramping up on the original programming side," said Cartoon Network president Betty Cohen.
"If the character in a cartoon was funny, another cartoon would be
She explained the network has taken its cue from bygone days, when cartoons were produced not in wholesale lots for series television but, one by one, to appear at movie houses as a warm-up for the feature.
Betty Cohen Cartoon Network president
made with that same character," Cohen said. "This way, a character could be tinkered with and evolve over time.
"We figured if we really want to create enduring characters, not just flash-in-the-pan series, we should consider that same approach."
—With his buff physique and strawberry-blond pompadour, the title character of "Johnny Bravo" (aired each Monday) cuts quite a figure. Unfortunately, women agree the figure is zero.
It seems to be working. In fact, the network-commissioned "World Premiere Toons" development effort spawned the prototype cartoons that grew into the "Johnny Bravo," "Cow & Chicken" and "Dexter's Laboratory" series;
At the same time, Johnny's dolitish grandiosity makes him lovable to viewers. After all, they can enjoy his bluster and rebuffs from a comfortable distance.
That is, Johnny is a washout with the ladies, who are clearly unimpressed by his Elvis-like swagger, shades and "oooh. mama" come-on.
—Tuesday brings "Cow & Chicken," which proposes that a scrawny, irascible chicken could be big brother to a 400-pound cow who, despite her predolescence, has a bodacious udder that's always getting in the way.
These unlikely siblings are the children of human parents and attend public school with their human chums. Oddly enough, the fact that they are farm animals never comes up.
—Wednesday, "Dexter's Laboratory" presents new tales of the gnatsize boy genius with the unaccountably Slavic accent and his bandy-legged big sister Dee Dee. Back for a second season, "Dexter" last year was the Cartoon Network's highest-rated series.
—Thursday, "What a Cartoon!
Show" highlights previously aired
"World Premiere Toons" shorts.
—And Friday, you can see it all again in a two-hour block of repeats. The Cartoon Network's nightly 8 o'clock showcase, which launched last week, helped prompt a TV Guide issue celebrating "Animation's New Wave."
Meanwhile, the hip West Coast magazine Buzz has proclaimed "Toons Rule!" In Good Housekeeping, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan hailed "The Simpsons" as the realest show on TV.
And a New Yorker column declared that cartoons on TV have become the form in which we permit ourselves to enjoy poignancy and sass and human weirdness.
No wonder. Cartoons are immune to actors' egos and exempt from nature's physical laws.
Cartoons are also liberated from the rut entrapping most TV comedy. They are a zero-base endeavor. Each toon originates as blank frames where the lines, colors and motion can be introduced according to the artist's vision.
By contrast, before you even come up with an idea for your new sitcom, you're likely to be saddled with a star, a living room and a laugh track. With all the preconditions, how could most sitcoms NOT be like every other?
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