# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/41 "2011-12-14T18:07:43Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > 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. Yup. I can’t count the number of times I have heard: “You’re from Texas, but you don’t have an accent.” Geez, I don’t have a ranch, truck, or any cowboy attire of any sort either. Of course I haven’t lived there for a long time now. Now its: You’re from Ohio? I hate Ohio State. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/42 "2011-12-14T18:19:59Z")
> [@TheUthaBrutha](#): > > 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. Unless they learned social interaction from TV. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/43 "2011-12-14T19:11:45Z")
Here’s the [interview](http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=112203927&m=112204741) with Judge. He talks about the characters at about 12:30 in. ---
**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, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/44 "2011-12-14T19:39:38Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > 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. I’ve only spent two nights in Texas in my life but I’ve known plenty of Peggy Hills: middle aged women who simultaneously have low self esteem yet grossly overestimate their I.Q.. A disproportionate number of them will talk to you for hours if you let them about their absolutely brilliant child/ren or the novel they’re going to write one day, and many, like Peggy, wind up in education. (Note to forestall flaming: this is not to say or imply that _all_ middle aged women are like this, just a tiny minority, but there are enough to be an archetype, and for when you describe somebody as “she’s a Peggy Hill” many people know exactly what you’re talking about.) Hank’s a good guy, salt of the Earth (no sarcasm intended), he’d be a great neighbor and a friend you’d say ‘Hello’ to and maybe catch up on a couple of things when you did, but you probably wouldn’t be bosom buddies with or invite to your smaller parties since 1- He’s boring as hell (the Lady Propane worship) 2- You know that the only thing he finds wrong with the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidency is that she’s a woman 3- While he might be too polite to mention it you know that you’d offend him with every other sentence out of your mouth Bill is a depressing sad sack but not a bad guy. Dale is the only character on the show that I can’t stand and can’t figure out why any of the others remain friends with, but at least due to his cowardice he’s mostly harmless and he does love his wife and, uh, his son. ---
**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, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/45 "2011-12-14T19:42:47Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Dale is the only character on the show that I can’t stand and can’t figure out why any of the others remain friends with, but at least due to his cowardice he’s mostly harmless and he does love his wife and, uh, his son. Dale _is_ Joseph’s son in every way that counts. John Redcorn is a sperm donor who happened to have used the natural method. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/46 "2011-12-14T20:36:58Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > King of the Hill is much more tolerable to me because the main characters speak more or less like the way normal human beings talk. Was this joke intentional? I think voice acting tends to be exaggerated for the same reasons as stage acting. It’s harder to communicate subtle expressions and gestures in both cases, so the voice does more of the work. ---
**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, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/47 "2011-12-14T20:49:08Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Dale _is_ Joseph’s son in every way that counts. John Redcorn is a sperm donor who happened to have used the natural method. I’ll give him that. And in the way Joseph regards him. One moment I loved was when John Redcorn gave him a hunting knife. “I was given this knife by my father, who was give it by his father, who got it from his father, who got it from his father…”. Joseph: Uh… thanks… for the used knife. Has it ever said why Nancy stays with him rather than leave him for John Redcorn? He’s not rich, they don’t have sex (except once or twice a year), she knows he’s stupid, he’s not likeable, and she cheats on him constantly with Redcorn. ---
**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, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/48 "2011-12-14T20:53:33Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’ll give him that. And in the way Joseph regards him. > > One moment I loved was when John Redcorn gave him a hunting knife. “I was given this knife by my father, who was give it by his father, who got it from his father, who got it from his father…”. > > Joseph: Uh… thanks… for the used knife. > Has it ever said why Nancy stays with him rather than leave him for John Redcorn? He’s not rich, they don’t have sex (except once or twice a year), she knows he’s stupid, he’s not likeable, and she cheats on him constantly with Redcorn. I think she stopped doing Redcorn halfway thorugh the series. Anyway, I think Nancy is one of those bigots who find having sex with persons of the despised ethnicity exciting, but refuse to countenance being in a public relationship with them. You know, like Thomas Jefferson. 😉 ---
**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, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/49 "2011-12-14T21:25:32Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] You know, like Thomas Jefferson. 😉 [/QUOTE] There is no conclusive proof at all that Thomas Jefferson ever shagged an American Indian guy for several years. That started out as Revolutionary Slash Fiction by tween girls in the Carolinas. ---
**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, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/50 "2011-12-14T23:32:50Z")
One observation about Dale, was he honestly unaware that Nancy was shagging John Redcorn? Or did he somehow know in the back of his mind but was in a constant state of denial? Everybody else in the neighborhood knew about Nancy and John’s affair, so how could the signs escape Dale? I know he rationalized Joseph’s darker skin as due to Dale’s grandmother being Jamaican. Or was he unable to think anything ill of Nancy as she did seem to genuinely love him and was a good mother to Joseph? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/51 "2011-12-14T23:39:52Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > One observation about Dale, was he honestly unaware that Nancy was shagging John Redcorn? Or did he somehow know in the back of his mind but was in a constant state of denial? Everybody else in the neighborhood knew about Nancy and John’s affair, so how could the signs escape Dale? I know he rationalized Joseph’s darker skin as due to Dale’s grandmother being Jamaican. Or was he unable to think anything ill of Nancy as she did seem to genuinely love him and was a good mother to Joseph? It was always my impression that he honestly did not realize what was going on between John Redcorn and Nancy. In one episode he did begin to suspect that Joseph wasn’t his biological son, but his best guess was that Joseph was actually half space alien. (!) He decided that even if this was true, Joseph was still his son anyway. The big joke about Dale is that he sees conspiracies everywhere except in the one part of his life where the people around him actually are hiding the truth from him. ---
**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, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/52 "2011-12-14T23:51:35Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > It was always my impression that he honestly did not realize what was going on between John Redcorn and Nancy. In one episode he did begin to suspect that Joseph wasn’t his biological son, but his best guess was that Joseph was actually half space alien. (!) He decided that even if this was true, Joseph was still his son anyway. > > The big joke about Dale is that he sees conspiracies everywhere except in the one part of his life where the people around him actually are hiding the truth from him. In another episode Dale’s father, a flamingly gay rodeo cowboy, is in town and he comes out to Dale, which Dale accepts non-chalantly. When Nancy expresses surprise and gratitude that Dale is okay with it he says “I don’t know why you’re so surprised; John Redcorn’s gay and we’ve been friends for years.” ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/53 "2011-12-15T02:09:17Z")
that, and he loves nancie so much that the thought of cheating on him never crosses his mind. nancie stays with him because she realizes that this love is hard to find. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/54 "2011-12-15T02:27:22Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > Was this joke intentional? > > I think voice acting tends to be exaggerated for the same reasons as stage acting. It’s harder to communicate subtle expressions and gestures in both cases, so the voice does more of the work. :smack::smack: Clearly this issue of cartoon characters and their voices is going to be my most contentious subject, since arguments like this have come up every time I’ve mentioned it for _years_ now. No, I do not believe that the voices of the _Hill family_ - let me say that again, alright? The _Hill family_ - are as exaggerated as the voices of the Simpson family, the Griffin family, the Smith family, or other “family” animated shows on TV. I am _not just talking about the accent._ I am also talking about the singsong cadence of “cartoon voice” and the way certain words are emphasized. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/55 "2011-12-15T05:05:55Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Dale _is_ Joseph’s son in every way that counts. Now that’s one conspiracy I didn’t see coming. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/56 "2011-12-15T05:33:09Z")
Re Nancy & Dale- In one episode, after his Birthday romp in the sack, Nancy saw his pale wiry/dumpy body & realized how devoted he was to her & how much she cared for him & just couldn’t keep the affair with John going anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/57 "2011-12-15T05:35:04Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > {snip}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. (Emphasis is mine.) > [@Satchmo](#): > > {snip}…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.{snip} Be afraid, be very afraid: in the +25 years I’ve lived in south-central Texas, I have met real-life counterparts to Boomhauer, Dale Gribble, Nancy Gribble, Bill Dautrive, Peggy Hill, Mr. Strickland, Cotton Hill, Khan, LuAnn Platter and her boyfriend Bucky. And I have worked for Hank Hill.:eek: (I don’t list the child characters because I don’t have much contact with children.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/58 "2011-12-15T05:52:53Z")
One of my favorite lines, one that means nothing out of context, was in the episode where Hank met a guy who was basically another Hank. He was voiced by Drew Carey, and they would meet when and where they could but it was almost like an adulterous affair due to the jealousy of Boomhauer/Gribble/Bill. The final time they meet they’re parked a ways from town, barely changing a word save for “Yep” and a nod. When Drew Carey’s character drives off, Hank says “I’m gonna miss that crazy bastard.” I swear I’ve known guys _exactly_ like that. “Oh man, we are some football _nuts_! Sometimes we’ll get up at 5:00 on a Saturday morning just to drive to the game!” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/59 "2011-12-15T06:11:17Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > 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. Leander’s about right. Especially given that I’m fairly confident the local propane shop (yes, really) is the one Strickland is based on. Check out Action Propane in Leander. I live there, I’d know. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095/60 "2011-12-15T07:48:48Z")
Points to Mike Judge for not going for the obvious. I can’t think of a single core character on the show who, for instance, regularly wore a cowboy hat (Offhand, the only Stetsons I ever recall seeing were on Gay Rodeo cowboys and a LOUISIANA Ranger; not exactly Texas archetypes). Bart Simpson is who I would’ve liked to have been as a kid, but Bobby Hill is uncomfortably close to the reality. This show cut close to the bone sometimes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-realistic-is-king-of-the-hill/606095.md?page=4)