OVERTHINKING That SNL Sketch w/ Beavis & Butt-Head

Yeah, you know the one...

Welcome to the debut of a new semi-regular

Letters From African America

segment called OVERTHINKING — where I’ll not only overthink a singular topic, but also construct a paranoid conspiracy theory about it.

Know what I can’t stop thinking about? Even now, after the cosmic wheel of content has moved on to newer trends? That SNL sketch with Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day dressed as Beavis & Butt-Head:

Which says a lot — because like most comedy writers, I tend to consume humor the same way construction workers walk into… well, anywhere before saying something like, “I coulda built this cathedral better.”

But not only did I thoroughly enjoy this sketch (and even laugh out loud, alone, in my living room like a deranged clown), I’ve also fallen down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories of my own design in an attempt at understanding what’s really happening in it.

Because after watching it a few times, one cannot help but wonder — WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING HERE?!… HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT ONLY ONE MAN NOTICES THESE TWO BIZARRE CHARACTERS IN THE AUDIENCE?!… and… HOW ARE NONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE SHOCKED, OR EVEN LAUGHING?!

But, before I fully convince you that this sketch is a complex exploration of our collective fears around artificial intelligence, the rise of “fake news,” and corporate America’s obsession with pre-existing intellectual property — let’s start off small by…

BREAKING DOWN THE PREMISE

SNL’s “Beavis & Butt-Head” creates a scenario that works just as well in sketch comedy as it does in The Twilight Zone.

In fact, the sketch easily could have opened with Rod Serling calmly entering frame to describe a man driven mad by the site of a real-life cartoon character that only he seems to notice no matter how hard he tries getting others to.

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For more on the connection between comedy and The Twilight Zone, listen to my interview with

Mike Sacks

, who sites Rod Serling and Late Night with David Letterman as the two main influences of his comedy writing career:

[Mike Sacks] Is The Genre

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For my generation of rapidly aging millennials, there is no better example of this premise being used for comedic effect than with the being known as “Chicken Boo” from the original 1993 run of The Animaniacs.

And personally, nothing has defined my humor more than this recurring sketch highlighting the growing mania of someone who can’t get their peers to notice the giant chicken in the room.

In the case of this SNL sketch, we have MIT Professor Norman Hemming (Keenan Thompson) who, in the middle of a News Nation interview, notices the bizarre sight of a man in the audience (Ryan Gosling) who looks exactly like Beavis from the 90s MTV cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head; and later, a second man (Mikey Day) who looks exactly Butt-Head — effectively making Gosling and Day the “Chicken Boo” of the sketch.

It’s a hilarious and absurd premise that could theoretically be placed in any situation to work. But the writers, in their infinite wisdom, understood that this absurd premise reaches comedic ecstasy when set somewhere serious, like a live interview on an important topic.

So now, within a live studio audience sketch show (Saturday Night Live), we have the facade News Nation interview (the sketch) — which is parodying a real news network (News Nation) that arguably feels fake due to its newness as a brand and surface level centrist goals. And on top of that — the topic of discussion is A.I.

While I take a deep breath to recover from opening that multi-media Russian doll, let’s slowly unpack this by…

DIVING DEEPER INTO THE DETAILS

The sketch begins with Heidi Gardner playing a reporter named Bobbi Moore — who, to my understanding, IS NOT AN ACTUAL PERSON!

And that’s kinda weird, right? I mean, there’s no reason Heidi couldn’t play an actual News Nation reporter like Keleigh Beeson. And yet, here she is, playing someone purely invented. Someone… artificial.

Anyway, Bobbi’s first lines are:

BOBBI MOORE: Welcome to News Nation. I'm Bobbi Moore. In tonight's livestream town hall, we'll discuss the potential power and pitfalls of the coming A.I. revolution. You won't want to miss this.

Here we learn that the sketch technically isn’t live television. Instead, it’s live streamed for the internet.

We then cut to this title card—

—which seems innocent enough… until you consider that it could be hinting at something sinister at play within the sketch itself.

Take Bobbi Moore’s first question to MIT Professor Norman Hemming (who ALSO ISN’T BASED ON AN ACTUAL PERSON), for instance:

BOBBI MOORE: Professor, you've been very outspoken about the threat A.I. poses. Can you explain your stance to the average American?

It is during this question that Norman sees Beavis in the the crowd. And Beavis seems a bit… intimidating, doesn’t he? Almost as if he’s threatening Norman during a question about A.I. being a threat.

Norman is, of course, shocked to see a real-life cartoon character in the crowd. Which progresses into his concern over why no one in the audience seems to mind, and how Bobbi Moore herself does not seem to be aware of the Beavis and Butt-Head cartoon.

Which, finally, leads me to a few…

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Having thought about this sketch for many days, I’ve reached a few possible conclusions as to what is actually going on:

• THE SKETCH ITSELF IS A SIMULATION AND THE ACTUAL NORMAN IS STUCK IN A COMPUTERIZED HELL WHERE HE IS BEING TORTURED BY ALGORITHMS UNDER THE GUISE OF CLASSIC I.P. CHARACTERS.

• EVERYONE IN THE SKETCH IS ACTUALLY MEETING VIA V.R. GLASSES, AND SOME GLITCH HAS MADE IT SO THAT TWO MEN IN THE CROWD APPEAR AS BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD ONLY TO CERTAIN PEOPLE.

• THE SKETCH IS NOT WHAT WAS ACTUALLY TAPED IN THE STUDIO, BUT RATHER IS WHAT VIEWERS SEE ON THEIR DEVICES. MEANING, THE DIGITAL VERSIONS OF OURSELVES THAT GET RECORDED FOR TIKTOKS AND LIVE STREAMS ACTUALLY LIVE SEPARATE LIVES WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THOSE RECORDINGS ON A LOOP. AND IN THE CASE OF THIS RECORDING, SOMETHING WEIRD HAPPENED WHEN THE PERSON VIEWING IT ACCIDENTALLY OPENED PARAMOUNT + AT THE SAME TIME.

I could keep doing this forever. But for now, I need a nap. I look forward to hearing your theories whenever I wake up.

- Tim

Craving more? Check out some of my text interviews here or listen to episodes of my You Are The Genre podcast!