oldshowbiz:

1993.

Beavis and Butthead was blamed for a tragedy in Moraine, Ohio when five-year-old Austin Messner started a fire that burned down his family’s trailer home, killing his little sister in the process. 

The local fire chief explained, “The mother says he had never played with matches or lighters prior to witnessing Beavis and Butthead and laughing about fire being fun. The mother told our investigator that Austin watched Beavis and Butthead all the time and became obsessed with playing with fire. We’re going to ask MTV to remove those segments - and if they won’t do it voluntarily, we’ll go through the powers that be and force pressure on them.” 

Years later, when he was a grown man, Austin Messner said, “I literally never saw the cartoon. How could I? It was 1993, my mom was a drug addict, and we lived in a trailer park. We couldn’t afford cable! My mom called the news before the fire department.”