Frog Baseball
Frog Baseball is the pilot episode of Beavis and Butt-Head, created by Mike Judge in 1992 for The Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, which aired on MTV's Liquid Television. It marks the first appearance of the Beavis and Butt-Head characters.
| Frog Baseball | |
|---|---|
 Butt-Head hits a frog with a baseball bat, in the cruel game of "frog baseball". | |
| Written by | Mike Judge |
| Directed by | Mike Judge |
| Starring | Mike Judge |
| Music by | Mike Judge |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 2:53 |
| Distributor | Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation MTV Networks/Viacom |
| Release | |
| Original release | September 22, 1992 (Liquid Television premiere) |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Peace, Love and Understanding |
Plot
The short starts out with a title card that says "Inbred Jed's Homemade Cartoons", with the character of Inbred Jed staring at the camera and cackling. The two teenagers by the name of Beavis and Butt-Head shown switching channels on their TV, watching TV commercials and laughing at a Suzanne Somers Thighmaster commercial. While blowing up insects with firecrackers in a field, Beavis and Butt-Head spot a frog and exclaim "frog baseball!"; they then proceed to play baseball with the frog. When they hurt the frog, they see a poodle and charge after the dog with a baseball bat, exclaiming "dog baseball!". The credits roll as the viewer hears the duo hit the poodle with a bat and the poodle yelping in pain (not seen).
DVD
It is available on Disc 3 of Volume 3 of The Mike Judge Collection as a special feature. It is also slightly edited from the original TV broadcast. The end title card that showed a still from the cartoon in which Butt-head's bat made contact with Beavis' head and reads "No animals were harmed in the making of this film... except for Beavis" is removed from the DVD version.
Cultural references
The duo play Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" and Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" on air guitar.
The short, along with the episode "Held Back", was also mentioned in the Beavis and Butt-Head episode "Snitchers", the 20th episode of the 8th season. The way the duo scream "FROG BASEBALL!" in the short was also used in a music video commentary in the first canon episode.
References