13 "Offensive" TV Episodes That Embarrassed Their Creators

13. "Comedians" - Beavis & Butt-Head

Beavis And Butthead
MTV

The first episode of Beavis and Butt-Head's third season sees the titular duo attempting to get rich by becoming stand-up comedians (or "stand-up chameleons", as Butt-Head puts it).

Things don't go well, leading to the pair setting the comedy club on fire and laughing as it burns down. It's not exactly ultra-provocative, but it did unfortunately inspire a five-year-old Ohio boy, Austin Messner, to set fire to his own trailer home, killing his two-year-old sister in the process.

MTV responded by immediately pulling the episode and moving the show to a 10:30pm time slot (from 7pm), as well as removing any references to fire on their network.

Though they did also re-edit the episode to make it less objectionable, ultimately the decision was made to take it out of rotation completely, a decision which still stands some 25 years later.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.