Beavis and Butt-Head, "The Rat/Spill": making a difference... in my pants

Quick Take: Beavis and Butt-Head, "The Rat/Spill"
"That rat dude really likes you. You must be a metrosexual or something." - Butt-Head

Review: Beavis and Butt-Head, "The Rat/Spill"
(S0106) One of the things I like most about Beavis and Butt-Head is how straightforward the stories are. This isn't a comedy like Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm, where a bunch of different plot threads tie together at the end of an episode. Mike Judge starts with a simple conceit and builds a series of simple yet hilarious jokes around the concept.  

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"The Rat" is a prime example of this. The guys discover a rat in their house. That's it, that's the premise. Nothing more, nothing less. Hilarity ensues when the guys, unable or unwilling to kill the rat, decide to make it their pet.

We are so used to seeing Beavis and Butt-Head on their couch, in front of the TV, that it's sort of a shock to the system when they leave the living room. I'm sure they must have shown other rooms in Beavis and Butt-Head's house during the show's original run, but I don't remember any specific instances. I guess I just always kind of assumed their house only had one room.  

"The Rat" gets the boys off the couch and into the kitchen. The kitchen in Beavis and Butt-Head's house looks a lot like you would expect it to. It's pretty filthy and littered with half empty soda bottles and discarded plates of nachos.

The premise of the second vignette, "Spill", isn't much more complex than "The Rat" is. Mr. Van Driessen asks for volunteers to accompany him to the Gulf of Mexico. He is going to "rescue the chicks" -- some of whom are "just filthy" -- from an oil spill. Beavis and Butt-head's hands shoot into the air. Van Driessen, of course, is talking about saving wildlife, but the boys assume the "chicks" are hot girls.

"Spill" features an extended meta-joke in which a volunteer named Maya rants about growing up without parents and lacking hope for the future. She's talking about the oil covered birds, but she could have just as easily been talking about Beavis and Butt-Head.