Butthead
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- "What are you looking at, butthead?!"
- —Biff to Marty on several encounters
"Butthead" was a word used by Biff Tannen repeatedly to describe anyone that he disliked.
Marty heard this expression used a total of 11 times. Biff inflicted the insult on Marty in 1985 and 1955 in parallel situations when asking what he was looking at. Then, 2015 Biff used that word three times, once when addressing his younger self in 1955. In 1985A, Biff used that expression once. Biff used that word three more times in 1955, twice when protesting his older self's use of that expression. Finally, on Marty's return to 1985, Biff used that word once, before realizing that it was Marty who approached him.
While in 1864, Verne Brown noticed Beauregard Tannen's use of "buttocks brains" and corrected him with the more proper "butthead". Tannen liked how it sounded and so his family lineage began its usage of the term.
[edit] Behind the scenes
In the first draft screenplay for Back to the Future, Biff's favorite insult was "A-hole" instead of "butthead".[1]
Animator Mike Judge, who created the series Beavis and Butt-head in 1993, stated in a 1994 interview that he had based the character's name, not on Biff's experession, but on two persons whom he knew in college at the University of California at San Diego, one of whom was nicknamed "Butt Head". Judge graduated in 1985, prior to the release of Back to the Future.
The adjective "butt-headed" was applied to goats (who would butt heads when fighting), as well as to rams and cows whose horns were curled back over their head. In the 1950s, "butt-headed" was used as a synonym for "stubborn" [2]. Less commonly, a "butt-headed" cow would sometimes be described as a "butthead" [3], although it is more likely that Biff meant the expression as a synonym for a "butthole" or "asshole".
[edit] Appearances
- Back to the Future
- Back to the Future Part II
- Back to the Future Part III
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series
- Back to the Future: The Ride
[edit] References
- ↑ KristenSheley.com
- ↑ Robert C. Ruark, "Butt-Headed Loyalty", Tucson Daily Citizen, January 28, 1950; Ruark was referring to President Truman's continued support for disgraced aide Harry Vaughn
- ↑ The Bee (Danville, Va.), November 23, 1933, p13
