The likeness of Beavis from Beavis and Butt-Head has been terrorizing the city of Detroit, but Motown residents can rest easy — it’s not Ryan Gosling.
Mike Judge’s mid-1990s cartoon about a couple of chucklefuck teenagers bumming around Texas has been enjoying an unexpected spike in popularity, thanks in part to its recent renewal for another season on Comedy Central, but mainly due to the super-viral Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Gosling and Mikey Day as the titular duo’s doppelgangers. However, residents of Detroit have been seeing a lot more of Beavis than Butt-Head on the sides of buildings and all over construction sites as a street artist donning the moniker BVIS has allegedly covered the Motor City with the spray-painted face of his namesake.
Earlier this week, Detroit police apprehended one Bryan Herrin whom they claim to be the artist behind the wave of Beavis tags covering the city. BVIS recently answered questions from Detroit’s Metro Times, claiming that he’ll put up 20 Beavis heads in a single night as a kind of compulsion that he’s had since discovering Beavis and Butt-Head during his childhood.
Thank God he didn’t grow up watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force — that show doesn’t need a second street art terror scare.
Speaking to Metro Times, BVIS explained, “I’ve been doodling the Beavis face since I was a little kid, kind of compulsively,” adding, “My mom wasn’t home a whole lot. The TV pretty much raised me.” Fittingly, BVIS’ favorite show was Beavis and Butt-Head, and the graffiti spree that saw hundreds of Beavis faces sprayed over exterior walls and inside supermarkets has all been inspired by his passion for the animated comedy.
“I mean, really, like, the whole series was just them trying to score, and that never happening,” BVIS said of the cult-beloved cartoon. “And it’s like, I can relate to that real-life frustration.” It took BVIS a while to properly express his love for one of the title characters on the show, as he explained, “Just like within the last maybe two years, a buddy of mine threw me a can of paint. I just haven’t put it down since.”
However, non-felonious Beavis and Butt-Head fans are likely to take issue with BVIS’ work — not because it’s criminal, but because, in recent months, the face that’s supposed to be Beavis hasn’t exactly been a dead ringer for the real deal. “I think the longer I do it, the more it looks less like Beavis and more just like a totally new character,” BVIS said of his evolution as an artist. “When I started, it was pretty much, you know, line for line. The eyes were a lot smaller. He had all his teeth, he was smiling. And then, yeah, just over time, he lost most of his teeth and is no longer smiling.”
Now, Herrin, whom Detroit Police claim is the artist know better as BVIS, is no longer smiling, either — he faces six counts of felony malicious destruction of property, each of which is punishable by up to four years in prison if he is convicted. Herrin has not made a statement about the arrest or his alleged alter-ego, and he’s already posted his $50,000 bond, likely delivered by a mysterious artist known only as BTHD.
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