Beavis and Butt-Head have been ruining Tom Anderson's life and property since the '90s, yet the Paramount+ revival shows he hasn't learned anything.
The following contains spoilers for Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head Season 1, Episode 3, "Roof/River," now streaming on Paramount+
Beavis and Butt-Head locked Tom Anderson in his tool shed. He hired them to paint the trim of his house and they covered it in heavy metal graffiti. He hired them to prune his tree and they knocked it over and onto his house. He caught them throwing eggs at his windows and testified against them in court. He asked them to watch over his yard sale only to have everything he owned sold, including his Purple Heart. Why, after all the trials and tribulations, does Anderson still trust the destructive teenagers to do any job for him?
Beavis and Butt-Head are back in their third series run after debuting on Paramount Plus with a new movie; this time as Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head. Tom Anderson is back as well. He's still a neighbor of the boys and a precursor to Hank Hill from Judge's possibly soon to be rebooted King of the Hill. In fact, Judge told San Diego Comic-Con audiences (via THR) that "At one time, I thought Hank Hill was Tom Anderson's son." But Hank has far more sense than Anderson, who returns in the third episode of the new season and for some reason is still entrusting Beavis and Butt-Head with menial tasks.
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In Season 1, Episode 3, "Roof/River," Anderson has to go to the barber to get his ears lowered and asks Beavis and Butt-Head to sign for two Amazon packages he's expecting, including his new hearing aids. Why Tom couldn't go to the barber after the packages arrived or simply put off the appointment until the next day is probably foolish to even try and contemplate. Even more, he gets into his car after saying "I knew I could count on you" to Beavis and Butt-Head. The guys who spray-painted his dog and painted his cat's butt, who took his mower for a joy ride, who filled up his new pool with concrete, who have consistently been ruining his life and destroying his property since 1993. WHAT?!
As funny as the running gag of the boys messing with Anderson is, his line about trusting Beavis and Butt-Head suggests, as Hank would put it, "That boy ain't right." The packages arrive almost immediately after Tom pulls out of the driveway; Beavis and Butt-Head immediately forget their task and decide the best way to remember is to open the packages. Of course, the hearing aids go right in the garbage as "some kind of earbud that sucks." Next is a gift for Tom's wife Marcie -- a big crystal bowl. Beavis wants to destroy it, but Butt-Head has grander ideas. With the intention of a greater smashing from a greater height, up to the roof they go, with Beavis falling off the roof and breaking Tom's window with the ladder trying to get back up. They end up getting stuck on the roof together, ironically leaving the bowl in one piece on the ground because Beavis didn't figure out how to get it and him up the ladder at the same time. When Anderson gets home, he can't hear them yelling for help because, well, they threw out his hearing aids.
Whenever Anderson pops up, it is difficult not to be reminded of Hank. Hank Hill is basically Tom Anderson 2.0; he's a proud, conservative Texan and a classic straight man. Not to mention that he has the exact same voice as Anderson. But where Hank Hill is the more grounded character, Anderson is allowed to be a little less consistent given the nature of Beavis and Butt-Head's format. If they managed to not screw up waiting for his packages, where would the show be? That being said, he ran out of excuses to keep asking Beavis and Butt-Head for help last century.
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Tom Anderson represents a combination of classic comedy archetypes. His character covers enough varied tropes that he can't be defined as just one. Some of the funniest skits in series history involve Anderson becoming a victim of the actions of the boys. If Anderson wises up, the audience loses.
It is almost as if every time Anderson appears on the show, it is the very first time he encounters Beavis and Butt-Head. He is basically blind without his glasses and deaf without his hearing aids, and he never seems to recognize the boys or get their names right, allowing them to get away with everything when Anderson gives the cops the wrong names and physical descriptions. (In fairness, "Roof" also shows that they don't remember his name either, despite all of these previous interactions.) Still, it would stand to reason that by now, Tom Anderson would have learned to stop hiring neighborhood teenagers. It never goes well for him.
Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
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