When Daria got a program of her own, she would lob the occasional feminist critique, while still remaining committed to her core ironic detachment. Daria Morgendorffer, the over-everything Gen-X-er, was the only one in their world who really seemed to understand what they were about. The beatific dumbness of the characters made them folk heroes to a generation marked by disillusionment and healthy cynicism, a pair of holy fools whose belief system didn’t have to extend far past rocking out and cracking wise. “It seemed like the time was right to get stupid again,” came the quote from Judge attached to the Beavis and Butthead press release, a stirring declaration of intent. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo

But retrofitting these properties to a new era, which have spent so long identified with their own, could prove problematic. In the event that they have, it’s easy enough for a network to find a dead auditory ringer for a replacement. In theory, animated intellectual property should be fertile for rebooting the faces of Daria, Beavis and the like won’t age, and the voices of the actors portraying them behind the scenes generally don’t either. Jodie eventually jumped MTV’s ship for Comedy Central as well, concentrating what now seems like a concerted effort around a single programming slate. And the network made similar headlines again earlier this week when it revealed that Ren and Stimpy, those hyperactive icons of grotesque Saturday morning dadaism, would also mount a comeback after nearly 30 years off the air. The sniggering twosome will also get another shot at the small screen, as Comedy Central announced just last month that creator Mike Judge will bring his most famed creations back for a new series loosing them on the world of 2020.

Last year saw MTV unveil plans for the new cartoon Jodie, a spinoff focusing on a secondary character from the zeitgeist-seizing comedy Daria, itself a spinoff from the adventures of wonder-idiots Beavis and Butthead. A mini-revival of seminal Gen-X animation has been slated for the immediate future, ostensibly catering to a demographic raised to view this sort of thing as a crass corporate cash-grab. That may soon change, however, based on a handful of recent announcements from the TV industry.

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