'Heh-heh!' Trading Cards Suck

Huh-huh, Huh-huh! Heh-heh, Heh-heh!

Total morons Beavis and Butt-head and their annoying laugh already have an album, a hit television show on MTV and successful comic books. But even student fans of the cartoon duo say they think their new trading cards--like their mind-numbing "huh-huh" laughs--suck.

"I own their CD," says Brian R. Blais '97. "I think Beavis and Butthead are a good diversion, but beyond that they're kind of senseless, and that's why they're funny."

"Besides," he adds, "I'm too cheap to buy the cards, and I wouldn't buy cards just to look at them."

Beavis and Butt-head are the animated, sex-starved adolescents created by cartoonist Mike Judge. The cards were created by MTV networks and Fleer Entertainment, a leading trading card company, as part of a growing amount of lucrative Beavis and Butthead merchandise, according to a statement released by Fleer earlier this spring.

"The success of Beavis and Butthead on-air as well as off, with a best-selling book, an album release and other hot merchandise, has made these characters a true media phenomenon," Lisa Silfen, director of consumer products at MTV, says in the statement.

The cards, which feature the two heroes in a variety of scenarios including "metamorphosis, holidays, childhood, tattoos, and Burger World," were released at the end of April in stores throughout the US and Canada. "I'm ashamed to admit it, but I find them rather amusing and I might be coerced into buying the cards," says J. Lewis Ford '97.

But Ford was virtually alone in his support for the new cards. The show may be for adults, but trading cards--even of the super-unhip Beavis and Butt-head--are kids stuff.

"I enjoy the show and I've seen the trading cards," says John L. Hoff '97, "but it's unlikely that I'll buy them."

"I'm a moderate fan of Beavis and Butt-head, but I would never buy the cards," adds Ami N. Wynne '97. "I would say that the 10 to 13 range seems better suited for the cards. I don't think older people would buy them."

The 160 cards include 10 "scratch-and-sniff chase cards," and are currently available at Newbury Comics in Harvard Square for $2.25 per pack of 10.

Peter J. Kreitchet, a comic book specialist at the store, says 83 packs have been sold during the first week. He terms that figure "respectable."

"I wouldn't call it a Beavis and Butt-head craze," Kreitchet says, "but there is a following out there with its own pulse, and there are people out there who want to buy it."