# How realistic is King of the Hill **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095 "2011-12-13T22:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/21 "2011-12-14T00:24:44Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Most Texans aren’t that animated. For the win. I’m very lucky I wasn’t drinking anything when I read that. Nicely played. I always enjoyed the show, they were enjoyable characters, and while I don’t believe there are ‘real’ Dales and Bills and Boomhauers out there, I believe there are people very like them in many ways. The things that happened on the show were often pretty outlandish, but it was the most ‘real’ of the popular prime time animated series. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/22 "2011-12-14T00:29:13Z")
I spoke the other day to a Texan whose voice sounded uncannily like Dale Gribble. He wasn’t _quite_ a conspiracy nut, but he did seem like the sort of guy who’d use a sentence like, “you know _they_ won’t let a guy like me get ahead.” I’ve been watching King of the Hill on Netflix lately, and I’m really impressed how well the first season holds up. The show’s good in general, but the first season was extremely tightly-written, deeply charming, and very human. And funny. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/23 "2011-12-14T00:33:41Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I repeat. The voice actresses for Lisa and Marge use their real voices for those characters. You can stick your fingers in your ears and go la-la-la all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re wrong. And, while this is true, it bears mentioning that Yeardley Smith has one of the oddest speaking voices I’ve ever heard. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/24 "2011-12-14T00:40:19Z")
Marge’s voice is about 120% of Julie Kavner’s…she adds a small handful of gravel to it. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/25 "2011-12-14T00:50:20Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I repeat. The voice actresses for Lisa and Marge use their real voices for those characters. You can stick your fingers in your ears and go la-la-la all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re wrong. in the case of Yeardley Smith, not quite. She doesn’t alter her voice as much as, say, Castellaneta, but when she’s not in character she absolutely does not _speak_ like Lisa Simpson: https://www.youtube.com/embed/lZK953IJn1c?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque I suppose, if I didn’t know who she was, listening to her would make me think “she sounds a lot like Lisa Simpson;” when she’s in character she raises the pitch of her voice pretty significantly. Besides, pretty much anyone in radio, TV, or acting has their “work” voice and their “normal” voice. even talking about the people who do your local news broadcast, if you heard them talk normally they’d sound a hell of a lot different than they do when on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/26 "2011-12-14T00:56:10Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > It’s as realistic as an animated comedy or sitcom of any type CAN be. > > To use an analogy, it’s as realistic a portrait of lower middle class Texans as “Barney Miller” was of New York policemen. That is, it’s FUNNIER than real life tends to be, and often uses plausible but unlikely plots… but any Texan who watches will say, “Yeah, I know those guys.” Yeah, the creators based the characters, settings, and situations on a lot of real life around here. There’s a lot of “It’s funny because it’s TRUE!” in that show, from what I’ve watched of it. It’s not something that I really, really enjoyed, mostly because I don’t enjoy watching dumb people do dumb things, but yeah, I know a lot of those folks on that show. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/27 "2011-12-14T01:03:01Z")
It’s as realistic as most sitcoms, animated or live action. I’ve definitely known people who remind me of the characters, especially Hank. I do wish they’d aged them once in a while. I’d have liked to see Bobby learning to drive or getting to be college age and it would have opened up more plot avenues. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/28 "2011-12-14T01:39:11Z")
Well, Joseph aged a little. He reached puberty and his voice became deeper. But that’s about the extent of anybody getting older. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/29 "2011-12-14T01:50:45Z")
They killed off at least two recurring characters- Buckley- Luanne’s boyfriend for a few episodes, died when the Megalomart exploded Cotton Hill (died from injuries suffered on a grill at a Japanese steakhouse while having a WW2 flashback) Any others? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/30 "2011-12-14T04:18:53Z")
First, I think that despite what a lot of people think, King of the Hill’s “Arlen” isn’t supposed to be Garland, TX. Arlen’s too small-town to be a medium-sized suburb of Dallas that’s well within the metropolitan area. Besides that, Heimlich County plays too large of a role relative to Arlen and the show than Dallas County would for Garland. Hank and co. are generally an amped-up and humorous portrait of medium-small Texas townspeople, not D/FW suburbanites. Many of, the gags work if Arlen’s not part of the “big city”, but don’t always make sense for a suburb. I liked the show- it always made me laugh, and did definitely remind me of people I’ve known. (and BTW, I live like 2 miles from the Garland/Dallas border, so I’m not unfamiliar with Garland) ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/31 "2011-12-14T04:25:28Z")
Arlen looks like a suburb of Dallas, but the distance from various places, puts it just north of Austin. It’s a mix of Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Leander, Marble Falls, Burnet, Lampasas, and Killeen. I’d say Leander, being that it’s a smaller town, but close to a big mall and The Arboretum, has interstate access pretty close by, isn’t too far from Lake Buchanan, and is about 3 hours from Dallas and from Houston. The episode where the dams on the Colorado are starting to crack would put it as Marble Falls, Granite Shoals, or some place like that. So it’s pretty realistic as far as places that are mentioned, but it puts landmarks in 3 or 4 counties within a few minutes drive of each other. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/32 "2011-12-14T05:29:45Z")
The show did a pretty good job of portraying a certain breed of Texas suburbanite - politically conservative, churchgoing, pickup truck driving, with a racially diverse group of neighbors and coworkers and unexciting 9-5 jobs. A lot of shows and movies that take place in Texas tend to play up the stereotype of the rancher, or the oilman, or the unscrupulous capitalist or all of the above (think J.R. Ewing, or the bad guy from the Muppets movie). King of the Hill was a nice departure from those kinds of depictions. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/33 "2011-12-14T06:24:56Z")
As far as realism, I watched and loved KOTH before I moved to Texas from California, and I thought that Boomhauer was just a guy who spoke complete gibberish. I thought that was supposed to be the joke, that you couldn’t understand him, like Kenny on South Park. To my horror, after moving to Texas and living here now for over a decade, I find that I can understand Boomhauer, and worse, know people with accents almost as thick as his. I suppose my metamorphosis will be complete when I end up sounding like him. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/34 "2011-12-14T07:43:25Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I suppose my metamorphosis will be complete when I end up sounding like him. …or when you turn into a cockroach… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/35 "2011-12-14T10:58:38Z")
Yeah, dang ol cockroaches man, dang creepy crawlies, can’t stand 'em, I tell ya what, need ol Dale to go nucular on their hides, knowhutImean? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/36 "2011-12-14T16:37:11Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Ugh. I knew someone was going to say exactly that. It’s not true. Yeah obviously those are the real voices - computer-generated voice synthesizers that sound realistic enough to use for cartoon characters are a ways off - but they don’t _speak the way real people speak._ No, Dan Castellaneta when he is speaking does NOT sound like Homer Simpson does. Absolutely not. Listen to his voice in [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UGiJOHDJEss#t=9s) interview - that does not sound like Homer. _That_ sounds like a normal person. The characters on the Simpsons sound, for lack of a better term, “like cartoon characters.” > > People love The Simpsons so much that if you say _anything_ that remotely sounds like a dig at it (which I’m not trying to do - I’m just saying that _I personally_ don’t like the style), they rush to tell you how wrong you are. I’ve encountered this literally my entire life, because I have never enjoyed the show, and I have also never met anyone who _didn’t_ enjoy it. > > The voice acting on that show is not realistic. No way. > > There _are_ characters on King of the Hill that have Simpsons-style outlandish voices - Gribble, Bill, Boomhauer, Kahn, etc. But the core characters don’t. Yes, it’s about Simpson’s love and not the fact that we’ve had this conversation before and don’t agree that certain voices sound fake. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/37 "2011-12-14T16:54:31Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > So, would you recommend it to help foreigners to get used to to the Texan accent. There’s no single Texan accent. The show actually does a fair job of showing a few of the regional variations, too. I think Mike Judge spends a fair amount of time in Austin (and in Texas, in general) so his accent for Hank is probably based on real people. I’m probably over-generalizing but there are broadly 3 or 4 major accents across Texas with numerous minor variations on them. The accents you’ll get in West Texas will be distinct from the pine woods in East Texas or the more urban accents you might get in Dallas or Houston. The accent you hear also tends to be correlated (but not strictly) with the urban/rural divide and level of education. Well educated, city dwelling Texans tend to have accents that are closer to the rest of America, especially since many suburban Texans came from other states. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/38 "2011-12-14T17:04:49Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > The voice acting on that show is not realistic. No way. Realism is over-rated. If I want reality I’ll open a newspaper. ETA: Incidentally, am I the only who’s never found Boomhauer hard to understand? He seems perfectly intelligble to me. ---
**Author:** ![TheUthaBrutha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@TheUthaBrutha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheUthaBrutha)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/39 "2011-12-14T17:17:36Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Ugh. I knew someone was going to say exactly that. It’s not true. Yeah obviously those are the real voices - computer-generated voice synthesizers that sound realistic enough to use for cartoon characters are a ways off - but they don’t _speak the way real people speak._ No, Dan Castellaneta when he is speaking does NOT sound like Homer Simpson does. Absolutely not. Listen to his voice in [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UGiJOHDJEss#t=9s) interview - that does not sound like Homer. _That_ sounds like a normal person. The characters on the Simpsons sound, for lack of a better term, “like cartoon characters.” You have a point, but all TV and movies, people don’t talk that way in real life. Especially comedy where the scripts are half written to set people up to deliver a punchline. Like a typical comedy one person will say something, the second person confirms it with “because of XXX,” and the third person comes back with the correction and the punchline. People don’t do that in real life. Look at “Peanuts,” one of my favorite strips but little kids don’t act and think that way. Schulz takes something a child may think and puts an adult spin on it and it comes out of a kid’s mouth, so it’s funny, because it’s odd. Also Julie “Marge” Kavner doesn’t really speak that way in real life. I just bought the Rhoda DVDs and Julie and Marge’s voices are close, but they are very much different. Yeardley Smith is the same. She even jokes about it on “The Simpson’s” DVD commentary that she can only do one voice, though strictly speaking she’s done a few others here and there. (Usually a southern accent) ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/40 "2011-12-14T17:20:53Z")
My ex-bf used to work for a guy who sounded like a dead ringer for Boomhauer, and Peggy is a good amalgamation of the women in some branches of Mr. Horseshoe’s extended family. Anyone who thinks the characters are made-up or highly exaggerated just hasn’t spent enough time in enough parts of Texas. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095.md?page=3)