Mike Judge Is Reportedly Trying To Take Back ‘Beavis And Butt-Head’

Mike Judge is reportedly making a move to reclaim the rights to Beavis and Butt-Head from Paramount, potentially putting one of rock and metal’s most beloved animated parasites back under the control of the bloke who created them.

According to a new report from Puck, Judge has informed Paramount via his lawyers that he intends to exercise his termination rights over the franchise. Under US copyright law, creators can in some circumstances reclaim rights to work 35 years after an original grant takes effect.

That timing is where things get interesting (per Lamb Goat).

Although Beavis and Butt-Head premiered as a full MTV series in 1993, the characters first appeared a year earlier in Judge’s short Frog Baseball, which aired through MTV’s Liquid Television. If the relevant rights agreement dates back to 1992, 2027 could mark the point where Judge is able to make his move.

Nothing has been transferred yet, and the exact legal outcome will depend on the original agreements involved, but the possibility alone is significant.

Why Metalheads Still Give A Sh*t About ‘Beavis And Butt-Head’

For anyone raised on MTV in the ’90s, Beavis and Butt-Head and heavy music are welded together.

Beavis wore Metallica. Butt-Head wore AC/DC. More importantly, huge stretches of the show involved the pair sitting on a couch and brutally dissecting music videos.

That format gave rock and metal acts exposure while simultaneously making absolutely nobody safe from being called terrible.

The franchise returned in 2022 with Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe and a new streaming series, with Paramount still currently carrying both the revival and the original show.

Judge reclaiming the rights wouldn’t automatically mean the end of the current incarnation either. It would instead potentially reshape who controls the franchise, where it lives and what happens to it next.

And there’s no shortage of material waiting for Beavis and Butt-Head in 2026.

Three decades removed from their first couch bound assaults on MTV, metal has only become stranger, heavier and more visually deranged.

If Judge does ultimately regain control in 2027, handing those two idiots another generation of music videos to tear apart feels almost inevitable.