Mike Judge's greatest hits (and 'Idiocracy')

(Credit: The Kobal Collection)

Way back in 1992, MTV aired a short cartoon about two juvenile delinquents who liked to use a frog for a baseball. And sooner than you could say buttmunch, dillweed or Cornholio, "Beavis & Butthead" exploded into a controversial sensation that was fanned by the flames of the 1990s culture wars.

The man behind the crude humor and even cruder animation was Mike Judge, who would, over the next 17 years, introduce the world to an undiscovered American middle class ranging from the mundanity of "Office Space" to the yokels-next-door of "King of the Hill." With the May 27 debut of "The Good Family" and his upcoming release of "Extract," we take a look back at the shorts, shows and films that made Judge rule.

The Honkey Problem
Way before viral videos and flash animations ran rampant across the Internet, MTV’s Liquid Television delivered up some of the weirdest cartoons available. Here Judge got his start with this crude cartoon espousing the dangers of inbreeding and country music. 

Frog Baseball
When the Simpsons hit the scene in 1989, some viewers were outraged when Bart Simpson uttered, “Eat my shorts!” When Judge released this three minute cartoon about two 15-year-old, empty-minded miscreants whose boredom leads them to use a frog (then a dog) for a baseball, soldiers of political correctness nearly lost it.

Beavis & Butthead
From the Frog Baseball short on MTV’s Liquid Television, Judge’s nimrods, "Beavis & Butthead," landed a regular show, which swept into junior highs and locker rooms across America. Permanently destroying the diction of a generation, Beavis and Butthead were a cultural phenomenon gracing everything from mall posters to beach towels.

Beavis and Butthead Do America
Just when it seemed that Beavis and Butthead’s next piece of product placement would be a laser-carved image on the moon, the imbeciles hit the big screen in 1996. The patron saints of the acne-faced cavorted across the country taking their butt-obsessed (wise)cracks to the masses.

King of the Hill
Judge departed from MTV in 1997 to produce Fox’s second primetime animation series, "King of the Hill." The series about the Texan family headed by propane salesman, Hank Hill, offered a cleaned-up cross section of middle America and a downhome departure from the intellectual absurdity of "The Simpsons." Check out this pencil test from the beginning of the show's existence:

Office Space
Temporarily abandoning animation, Judge brought his early cartoon character Milton to life for his first live action feature. From the banality of the passive aggressive boss, Lundberg, to the items of flair at the cheesy chain restaurant, Judge created the most identifiable Kafkaesque, quasi-Marxist (no, not Richard) film about working in the 20th century.

Idiocracy
"Idiocracy" is Judge at his most subversive. The film, starring Luke Wilson, features a man who awakes 500 years in the future to see that America has been reduced to a country of anti-intellectual, fast-food craving consumerists. The film also makes fun of Fox News, which didn’t seem to go over well with the studio, who only released the film on 125 theaters for one day. Ouchies!

The Goode Family
Instead of satirizing the undereducated American middle class, Judge’s new ABC cartoon features the Goodes, a family of overeducated liberals who try to follow all the rules of political correctness. From driving hybrids to adopting a kid from Africa, the Goode family tries the greenest and the goodest in their neighborhood.

Extract
After the studio disaster of "Idiocracy," it looked like Judge’s film days were numbered. But he’s back with another live action, work-totally-sucks movie, starring Jason Bateman as a flower extract company owner who has two problems: a gigolo-craving wife and a best friend played by Ben Affleck.