Highland



The main town/city of Highland County, Texas (see Trivia), where Beavis and Butt-head is set. It alternates between being a run-down, filthy, violent town to a moderately-sized normal city and all points in between, depending on the episode or comic it was in.

Daria Morgendorffer was a freshman at Highland High School there. Quinn refers to "the old house" (singular) in "Boxing Daria", indicating they'd lived in Highland for as long as she remembers.

Highland contains the Hope High school for juvenile delinquents, and several businesses including Buddy's Sporting Goods, a Burger World franchise, a mud wrestling bar ("Babes 'R' Us"), a strip club, a mall, and (briefly) a furrier ("Sign Here"); a number of local businessmen, led by Clark Cobb, had formed the Christian Businessmen's Association. President Clinton visited during a tour of American schools.

The town is also notable for its oft overlooked and ignored loads of issues and problems, most notably from current events in past history. The fact that its seedy underbelly and the impoverished amoral lower class conditions gave birth and an environment for the likes of Beavis and Butt-head to thrive, also makes it responsible for its own misery. "It's a Miserable Life" attributes everything currently bad in Highland - including Daria's misanthropy - to the very existence of Butt-head.

In Daria, the town is referenced only once, in the first episode, "Esteemsters." Daria says there's "no chance" of Lawndale being a repeat of Highland "unless there's uranium in the drinking water here too".

Highland in fanfiction
Highland frequently shows up or is mentioned in Daria fanfiction - physical appearances are usually in fanfics set before Daria moved away, though sometimes return visits are paid. The odd alternate universe, like "Three" by Richard Lobinske, has Daria not leaving Highland. Many fanfics also take the "uranium" joke as fact, with various plot-handy consequences as a result ("It's a Sick, Sad, Sad, Sad World" by The Excellent S has the town abandoned and condemned).

The general depiction of Highland is run-down and generally crap.

Trivia
In an interview (see below), Beavis and Butt-head creator Mike Judge stated that Highland, to him, lay in West Texas or eastern New Mexico. This would finally make the jump from fanon to canon in 2011, when the episode "Bounty Hunters" showed a picture of then-Governor of Texas Rick Perry at the city post office. In the same year, "Crying" revealed that Highland is located in Highland County.

Another revival episode has Beavis and Butt-head living in north Highland.