Former Quincy House roommates David A. Javerbaum '93 and Adam D. Taxin '93 won the national MTV Beavis and Butt-Head imitation contest last weekend at the HMV record store on New York City's Upper East Side.
The two alumni performed a brief skit based on Beavis and Butt-Head, an animated television show featuring two obnoxious hard-rock music fans who comment on music videos.
MTV news correspondents Kurt Loder and Tabitha Soren judged the contest, which featured 32 sets of contestants vying for the prize. The contest will be televised in an upcoming episode of "The Week in Rock," which airs Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Javerbaum, who now attends the New York University Graduate School for Musical Theater Composition, described the thrill of victory as a "strange mixture of pride and grievous embarrassment."
"We won because we did a very good job--or, we were acting like morons," said Javerbaum, who imitated Beavis in the contest. "I have a sneaking suspicion it's the latter."
Taxin said he composed their skit while watching television. "I wrote it during the Discovery Channel's special on man-eating tigers," Taxin said.
During his years at Harvard, Javerbaum co-wrote two musicals for Hasty Pudding Theatricals, "Up Your Ante" and "A Forum Affair." he also wrote for the Lampoon, a semi-secret Bow Street social organization which used to occasionally publish a socalled humor magazine.
"Not only do I want to go on to bigger and better things," said Javerbaum, "but it will be impossible not to."
Along with accolades for their imitation, the duo won second-row tickets to a Sheryl Crow: Unplugged concert. "For me, the big thrill was meeting TabithaSoren," said Taxin, who works for an investmentbanking firm in Manhattan. "She is one of the mostall-around classy, beautiful women I have evermet. I've had a crush on her for as long as I canremember." "It's good that Beavis and Butt-Head weren't onduring my college years," Taxin added. "I didn'tneed another way to waste time." Taxin, a Crimson editor, was active in theUndergraduate Council during his time at theCollege. "I'm particularly psyched about being on MTV,"he said. "I've been loyal to that network sincethe fifth grade, even through those J.J. Jacksonand Nina Blackwood years." Members of the Lampoon were elated afterlearning one of their alums had won the contest. "We're all just proud," said Roni Brunn '96, aLampoon editor. "When most people hear a joke,they laugh; when we hear a joke, we're proud." "I'm thrilled," said Rebecca R. Kirshner'96-'97, another Poonster, "if `thrilled' is asynonym for proud.
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