^Monday • December 1, 1997
The Battalion
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e decline of western civilization
>eath of cartoon icons Beavis, Butthead represent upward swing in morality
lile the Thanksgiving
break offered an op
portunity to be
ikful for this country’s
sings, Americans had an
a reason to be thankful.
|s extra blessing was the
r-so-timely deaths of cul-
1 icons, Beavis and
on orviutihead.
les in six; Mthough their passing did
make the obituary pages of
vspapers across the coun-
Beavis and Butthead are
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John
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columnist
id. The last episode of MTV’s dreadful television
e its 18 ies aired last Friday.
scm One might expect that they would meet their end
n sniffing glue, eating paint chips or being stran-
foold by the likes of Jesse Helms. Beavis and Butthead,
ich i Afever, succumbed to the same phenomenon that
es of r p claimed the careers of countless other pop icons,
Macke lading Spuds Mackenzie, Alice Cooper and An-
Jcessor if :w Dice Clay — they ran out of shock value,
t twows Americans no longer seem surprised or amused by
bp cai ; antics of its two favorite juvenile delinquents. Per
es incia S jokes about flatulence, trashy women and
thwesta nib music videos are out of style. But, seeing as
Ban ssic subjects will always be funny, it is more likely
th Caro; it people are just sick of Beavis and Butthead. Since
mi, To® a love affair with Beavis and Butthead is over, what,
ssippi mis legacy of their tenure as comedy kings?
essee. Well, first Beavis and Butthead have made it chic to
univa 'stupid. They, more so than any other show in re-
o owns! nt memory have contributed to the dumbing down
m wfioi television. Watching an episode of “Beavis and
[eam-i itthead" is a very Pavlovian experience.Thirty min-
commil 68 of watching the pair’s antics will reduce even the
larrowed] ost brilliant mind into a giggling, slobbering fool.
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Engineering competition
displays student creativity
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Actually, dumbing down television was not the
show’s intention. The show was meant to satirize
MTV’s own viewers.
In an interview with the Austin American States
man, Mike Judge, the show’s creator said, “It [Beavis
and Butthead] was my response to the dumbing
down of television. That’s what it was a satire about.”
Whether or not, Beavis and Butthead’s viewers
ever got the joke, though, is unclear.
Another part of Beavis and Butthead’s legacy is
that they’ve made using the word “sucks” more ac
ceptable. Obviously, the duo did not invent the word,
as vacuum cleaners and math classes have always
sucked, but their frequent use of the word made it
popular. Sometime during the show’s four year
tenure, “sucks” moved from the being a semi-bad
word to becoming an acceptable description of an
object or event’s status.
For example, in Beavis and Butthead’s jargon, one
might say that the Clinton administration sucks. Prior
to Beavis and Butthead, one would never have de
scribed the Bush, Reagan or other previous adminis
tration as sucking.
However, the worst part of Beavis and Butthead’s
legacy is that they left us with that one guy who thinks
the boys are so funny that he has to emulate them,
constantly. Everybody, knows this at least one of these
guys. Some of you are unlucky enough to have him as
your roommate. These are the young men, who in their
best Beavis voice will walk around muttering things
like, “cool, cool!” and “I am Cornholio, I needT.E for my
bunghole.” These are also the intolerable young men
who eventually find themselves unable to communi
cate without taking on their Beavis and Butthead alter
ego. May God have mercy on their souls.
For all of the damage Beavis and Butthead have
done to American culture, they have accomplished at
least one good thing- they have given Mike Judge a ca
nyone
who
.wan
dered into G.
Rollie White
lov. 15 might
suspect they
had stum
bled into an
unscheduled
sporting
event. It
couldn’t be
Dave
Johnston
columnist
kitf
an Aggie basketball game since
Texas A&M students have never
been that excited about basket
ball. No, the shrieks, the crowded
stands and the painted butcher
paper draped around the colise
um were more reminiscent of a
high school game than any re
cent college event.
Indeed, the stands were filled
with high school students who
traveled from around the state
for this day-long event. Their
enthusiasm was so thick it
poured into the foyer, intoxicat
ing any innocent bystanders.
Students blew air boms, paint
ed their faces and shouted
cheers in support of their teams
competing below.
Despite all the clues, this
was not a basketball game or
any athletic event, but rather
an engineering compet ition.
The competition is a great
program to motivate high school
students, build their creativity
and help them learn.
The Texas Boosting Engineer
ing, Science and Technology
(Texas BEST) Robotics Competi
"f
nad 1 ’
tion pits teams from different
high schools against each other
as their remote controlled robots
try to achieve a specific goal.
Teams build their robots from a
kit of parts to meet a certain ob
jective. The robots compete at re
gional competitions, then the
winners attend the state compe
tition held on the A&M campus.
This year’s contest called for
teams to design a robot which
could pick up sticks (repre
senting dangerous dynamite),
carry them up a ramp and drop
them in a bucket. The team
whose bucket weighed the
most at the end of two minutes
won the match.
The contest allowed for plenty
of creativity. A wide variety of ro
bots competed. Some were me
chanical and utilitarian, but most
were loudly decorated. One
show-stealer dubbed “Defusor”
had been embellished with car
toon eyes, and waved at the audi
ence with his hinged “mouth” af
ter a victorious match. Each
robot was unique, as was the
strategy each school used to try
to win. While some competitors
simply tried to get the most
weight into their bucket, others
tried to block the opposing robot
from reaching its goal or at
tempted to lift their opponent’s
bucket out of reach.
Part pep rally and part UIL
meet, the event was both exciting
and encouraging to watch.
Spectators could not help
but lie excited by the charged
atmosphere as pairs of students
controlled their robots in head-
to-head duels. Yet it was also
encouraging and refreshing to
see young people who had in
vesting themselves in such a
positive undertaking.
Students develop team
working and problem-solving
skills, design experience, engi
neering knowledge and have
plenty of fun.
Too often students are bored
by school. Standardized tests,
crowded classes and stretched
budgets make it difficult for stu
dents to emerge from the school
system still excited about learn
ing. The BEST competition, how
ever, encourages creative thinking
and shows students a practical
application for their education.
This competition presents
students with a wonderful learn
ing opportunity, and more pro
grams like this would benefit
young people.
The Texas BEST program is
continuing to expand through
out the state, and instructors are
trying to create similar competi
tions in other states. Creative
teaching tools like this not only
help students to learn, but give
them more lasting and positive
memories. Sure, competition
was fierce and a few students
were disappointed with the re
sults, but none of the contes
tants seemed to regret the trip
they made or the work they put
in to their project.
Dave Johnston is a senior
mathematics major.
reer. Judge, whose first “Beavis and Butthead” anima
tion appeared on MTV in 1992 has proven that he is a
very funny man. His current project “King of the FJill” is
both funny and clever. Apparently, Judge has decided
to create a cartoon with some redeeming social value.
Making Mike Judge famous, however, is not
enough to negate all the harm Beavis and Butthead
have wrought. Fortunately, they are out of the cartoon
gene pool. If Americans are lucky, Beavis and
Butthead’s descendants and copycats will never see
the light of day. As it is, it will take airing two hours
worth of Julie Andrew’s movies for every episode of
“Beavis and Butthead” ever shown to repair the cul
tural damage done by the show.
As for all of the “Beavis and Butthead” fans out there,
sitting in a pool of your own drool, it is obvious what
you are thinking— “Huh, huh, this column sucks.”
John Lemons is an electrical engineering
graduate student.
MatL CALL
Mom Camp shows
beneficial intentions
In response to Kendall Kelly’s Nov.
25 “The Crying Game” column:
While I do not agree with Kel
ly’s criticisms of Aggie Moms’ Fish
Camp, there is one particular criti
cism I must strongly protest. Kelly
wrote, “I thought that the parents
who got satisfaction through their
kids’ accomplishments were a
thing left back in high school, but
apparently not.” Kelly, the end-all,
be-all of human existence is to
raise your children properly and
see them succeed. Thus, your own
success certainly does depend on
your childrens’ successes.
As a relatively new parent (I
have a 2-year-old), I must tell you
that pride in every one of your
child’s accomplishments is over
whelming. I have no doubt this
will not end when my child turns
10, 18, 24 or 36. If parents were
not concerned 100 percent with
their childrens’ successes in life,
they would not raise them with
the tools to succeed. This con
cern cannot shut off on the day
their kid goes off to college.
I am sure when you become a
parent you will look back at this
statement and blush. If not, I
worry for your children. I do not
believe you should criticize
mothers for taking pride in their
children, or whatever else you
wish to say about the moms tak
ing a weekend off to get to know
each other. Besides this one ma
jor misconception, I would say
Kelly needs to get beyond her re
bellious teenage years.
I have said since my days at
Texas A&M that college was 40
percent school and 60 percent
life. Learning to fall on your face
and pick yourself up without
Mom and Dad around certainly is
a major part of college life.
On the other hand, there is ab
solutely nothing wrong with a
mother and father being interest
ed in everything that is Texas
A&M. I did not have the advantage
of an Aggie Dad or Aggie Mom.
When I was going through my
fanatical year as a fish and driving
my family nuts with A&M this and
A&M that on holidays, my mother
took the time out to get together
with some other fish moms she
met through the Lubbock Aggie
Moms Club. She came to under
stand all of the fish were just as fa
natical. She also learned more
about why I was so fanatical.
Instead of the intolerance other
family members displayed toward
me, my mother understood and let
my nutty behavior slide. Kelly,
there is a difference between being
“involved” and being “interested.”
I feel sorry for you if your own
parents are not interested enough
in your college experiences to
take every opportunity open to
them to understand more about
A&M. On the other hand, if they
have been interested and your
problem is you feel you have not
escaped your parents, 1 am posi
tive later on you will appreciate
your parents’ attention. Being
close to your parents once you
have become one, even if they are
across the countiy from you, is
extremely satisfying.
Monte Turner
Class of’91
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opinion editor.
Child protection proves gender bias,
backward thinking in today’s society
Robby
Ray
columnist
O ne of the most com
mon and consistent
themes running
through the rhetoric of pres
idential campaigns and
policies in recent years is
the need to protect the chil
dren of this nation. The past
months and years have seen
a number of crimes against
children which show the
need for this sentiment.
The most recent is the
case of the elementary
school teacher who confessed and was convict
ed of sexually assaulting her 11-year-old stu
dent. For this heinous crime, she received a pal
try six-month prison sentence and three years in
a “rehabilitation center.”
This is foolish. Not only does she not want
to be rehabilitated, but she does not even
think she has done anything wrong. She
walked from a press interview in which she
said she and the victim still loved each other
into a courtroom where she told the court
through her tears she was sorry and it would
never happen again. One can only hope she
never falls in love with a serial killer, or she will
justify those crimes as well.
For the boy’s part, he defends the “relation
ship,” saying he had been the initiator and “all
that matters is that we love each other.” Two
things are instantly and painfully apparent from
this statement. The first is society has managed
to distort reality so children can be deluded into
believing they are emotionally capable of initi
ating and understanding sexual relationships.
But more relevant today is the fact a 35-
year-old woman betrayed her husband and
children to engage in what she had to have
known to be an illegal and unhealthy relation
ship with an immature, underaged boy. What is
even worse than all this is the court seemed to
accept her story and her justification for her
inexcusable behavior.
Another possibility exists. Could it be her
gender played a part in this time of equality? It is
fairly certain if a male school teacher were to get
an 11 -year-old girl pregnant, he would not get
off with a six-month sentence simply by saying
he still loves her. He would be, and should be,
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
He would be branded forever a child moles
ter, even if he was truly repentant, his career
and reputation ruined. If he had children, he
would likely never see them unsupervised
again. Police would alert the residents of any
new neighborhood to which he moved to try to
get a new start.
The pathetic sentence given this predator is a
poignant indicator of the difference between the
rhetoric of the leaders of this nation and the ac
tions taken by its people.
What is truly disturbing is when this verdict
was handed down, there was neither outcry
from the people of the nation nor the leaders
who make it their business to do all they can to
protect children. It seems, despite the talk, little
is actually being done.
Robby Ray is a senior speech
communications major.
d-
use
buy
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