Spawned from the wilds of underground animation, teenaged delinquents Beavis and Butt-Head first appeared in 1992 in a pair of 16mm shorts made by Mike Judge for a few hundred dollars with a simple Bolex camera. Over the following five years, the pair would become cultural phenoms, anchoring MTV’s flagship series, inspiring public outcry over a number of dubiously connected acts of childhood violence, and eventually going Hollywood, starring in their own blockbuster 35mm theatrical feature, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Their lives to date spent in cathode ray-illuminated squalor, making fun of brainy college rock and flaccid fantasy metal videos, Beavis and Butt-Head awake one afternoon to horror beyond any comprehension: their television set has been stolen. Thus begins an odyssey that will find the boys criss-crossing the United States of America, experiencing the greatest natural and cultural wonders this nation has to offer, embroiling themselves in shady criminal plots, and coming into contact with the upper echelons of political power, all of which they respond to with transcendently puerile dick and poop jokes. Bow down to the almighty bunghole! Prior to the feature, we will be screening a rare 16mm print of Wes Archer’s obstreperous animated short Jac Mac & Rad Boy Go!, a key influence on Mike Judge’s early filmmaking career. - Text Courtesy of the Chicago Film Society

35mm from the Chicago Film Society collection, permission Paramount

Preceded by: “Jac Mac & Rad Boy Go!” (Wes Archer, 1985) – 4 min – 16mm from Wes Archer