OC HIGH / STUDENT NEWS & VIEWS : BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD : Freedom of Speech Doesn’t Apply to Cartoon Cretins

They are dumber than the Three Stooges combined, uglier than the Swamp Thing and definitely more profane than Andrew (Dice) Clay.

Who are these miscreants of society, you ask? None other than Beavis and Butt-head, the two overexposed cartoon characters on MTV who have taken America by storm. Carole Robinson, MTV vice president, claims the show is “a parody of two teen-age misfits whose antics take place in a cartoon world, antics they know are obviously unacceptable and not to be emulated in real life.”

But can we be sure that everyone knows that?

During the show, they sit immobile on their couch and critique music videos. But instead of giving two thumbs down to bad videos, as Siskel and Ebert do with videos, they moon the television set. It’s childish behavior not fit for national television.

Their pranks (such as frying up rats for french fries) are even more grotesque. Their pyromaniac tendencies have been linked to a death. In Ohio, a 5-year-old who started a fire that killed his younger sister attributes his motives to the show.

How are youngsters supposed to know not to copy Beavis and Butt-head?

Mike Judge, creator of this ‘90s terror, says: “This whole thing is a fad, and it’ll burn out. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Nothing to worry about? Somebody dying is nothing to worry about?

Let’s face it. Harmless fun, as Judge calls it, went out the window as soon as somebody got hurt. This show is corrupting today’s youth. What’s especially terrible about Beavis and Butt-head is that they advocate violence and cruelty to animals. Frog baseball and grasshopper executions are not exactly demonstrative of the John Lennon song “Give Peace a Chance.”

And whenever one of them commits a criminal act, they laugh in monotone. For those of you who have never heard it, it’s a million times worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.

Forget the First Amendment here. A show cannot exercise its freedom of speech when it sparks pyro-violence. But even more than that, this show has come to symbolize our degenerating society. Although MTV has said it will remove fire-related episodes from the show and has stopped offering it in prime time, the problem is still there.

The solution is simple. Turn off the television, or, parents, screen what your children are watching. School officials must take it upon themselves to teach children that Beavis and Butt-head are not role models. In Mission Viejo, public education officials have been lecturing against the show to counteract any ideas it might have planted.

Parents must also take action. They should contact everyone from Ralph Nader to their local congressmen. We must not stand for this type of pathetic entertainment. Petitions to pull this show off the air should be sent to President Clinton, if necessary. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can get on with our lives. And that would be cool.