Igot a letter in the mail last week from a high school friend who just got married. Oldies stations now regularly play songs from the 70s, when I was born. There are 12-year-olds in the world who have never seen Star Wars.

But until this year, I could take solace in the fact that I was still part of America's youngest generation. I could understand every new twist and turn of popular culture. I was a member of the generation that was the hippest, the baddest, the most in touch.

That is, until this summer. That's when I met Beavis and his friend, Butthead.

It's ironic that the first sign of a new post-twentysomething generation would come from MTV, the television giant of, by and for the twentysomething generation.

MTV, for those who have spent the past decade on Mars, zaps music videos to millions of homes around the nation via the magic of cable. It popularized the three-minute music clip, making visual presentation more important than music in the selling of a record.

And its veejays--the young, bold and beautiful personalities who introduce the videos--are almost entirely twentysomethings. When I interviewed MTV political reporter Tabitha Soren last spring, I discovered that she is a soul-mate and, of course, a twentysomething.

That's why "Beavis and Butthead," the MTV cartoon hit, breaks the mold. It's a straightforward appeal to a completely different audience. Twentysomethings, with a few immature exceptions, just don't get it.

"Beavis and Butthead" is unusual because it parodies MTV, and satirizes the network's viewers. The two lead characters are crudely drawn figures, not slick, pretty veejays. They are early-pubescent morons, not post-pubescent rock icons.

For much of their show, Beavis and Butthead are themselves MTV viewers. They mindlessly watch videos, and they snicker. Like this: "ehehehehehehe." Or sometimes like this: "hehehehehe." Occassionally, one or the other will say that the video "sucks." Sometimes, they'll throw in a vaguely misogynistic comment about a woman appearing in the video. Other times, they'll do something terribly cruel to an animal.

All this is, at least to me, not the least bit funny. It's sick. Beavis and Butthead are sad characters.

But just watch eight-year-olds, 12-year-olds, even 16-year-olds watch this show. And realize that this age group perceives the world very differently than we, their older brothers and sisters.

This new generation thinks Beavis and Butthead are hysterical. They laugh, and loudly at each snicker, each "sucks," each bigoted comment.

Meet the Beavis Generation.

American culture has come full circle. In the 1950s, kids everywhere could relate to The Beav, chuckling at his silly exploits with Wally and Eddie Haskell. Now, there's a Beav for the 90s, who tortures poodles.

My younger brother Peter, 16, is an elder statesman of the Beavis Generation. He does a reasonably good impression of the Beavis and Butthead snicker, and uses various Beavis and Butthead comments.