Beavis & Butt-Head Really Did Put an End to Winger’s Career

Beavis & Butt-Head had a massive impact on pop culture following their debut in March 1993. Unfortunately for Winger, the dynamic animated duo also signaled an end to their career.

Former Winger guitarist Reb Beach touched on this in an interview on the In the Trenches podcast. When asked about whether Beavis & Butt-Head led to Winger disbanding in 1994, Beach said, "Absolutely, it did, hugely. As a matter of fact, we were on the road and we were selling out theaters. We were on the bus, and this kid said, 'Hey, you guys got to see this cartoon. I brought you a VHS of it.'"

Beach continued, "And so we put this thing on the bus... In the cartoon, they hung this kid from his underwear from a tree. He was wearing a Winger t-shirt, and he was overweight... His name was Stuart, and he was in every episode. And then they went to his house, and his parents were wearing Winger t-shirts, and the dog was wearing a winger t-shirt, and they were all nerds [laughs]."

He added, "And so, we actually saw a direct result of that thing. In the weeks that followed, we had to cancel the tour because people wouldn't be caught dead buying a ticket to a Winger show."

Beach details what he went through as a result. He said, "I sold all my guitars, 20 guitars. I just bought a house in Florida, sold that - I was only there for 10 months - moved back to Pittsburgh from Florida, which I wish I didn't have to do. And that was a really rough time."

Beach's next gig was playing in Alice Cooper's touring band, but that almost didn't happen. He recalled, "Kip [Winger] told me that Alice [Cooper] was auditioning people, and I didn't have enough money to get there. So Kip loaned me 500 bucks so that I could fly out and I could buy something cool to wear. I admit that I was nervous as a cat at the audition."

Of course, there was a force before Beavis & Butt-Head that helped turn the tide against Winger: Metallica. The band famously featured Lars Ulrich in the video for "Nothing Else Matters" throwing darts at a Kip Winger poster. (The clip is also featured in the 1992 documentary A Year and A Half with Metallica.)

"Metallica didn't help with showing in their biggest video they throw darts at a poster of Kip Winger," said Beach. "They would show it at their live show, and my friend who went to see them said the entire arena laughed at that part of the video where Lars throws darts at Kip."

Beavis and Butt-Head made headlines this past week when details were released on their new movie Beavis and Butt-Head Do The Universe.

Per Deadline, the new film is being dubbed "the dumbest space movie ever made." The plot? "Beavis and Butt-Head are sentenced to Space Camp by a 'creative' judge in 1998. Their obsession with a docking simulator (huh huh) leads to a trip on the Space Shuttle, with predictably disastrous results. After going through a black hole, they reemerge in our time, where they look for love, misuse iPhones, and are hunted by the Deep State."

It is also noted, "Spoiler: They don’t score."

All of this got us thinking about the always funny music video commentaries from the original run of Beavis and Butt-Head. Here are just six clips (and a fun bonus) that will surely make you LOL.  If you don’t, you’re clearly a bunghole.

“This chick has more teeth than most people.”  Classic!

From making fun of Boston (the band) to hippies, there’s something here for everyone.

The fact that this clip is prefaced by an appearance from Daria makes it all the better.

Masturbation jokes galore!

Beavis and Butt-head’s commentary on TP-ing someone’s house makes sense and will make you feel sorry for their bungholes.

Beavis and Butt-Head’s best commentary always came from the worst videos, and this video is terrible.

Fun fact:  This was at the 69^th Annual Academy Awards. Nice.