I’m just curious, is there anyone in the NYC area, (NJ & Conn included) that like this show?
It seems like it has been on forever and no one around here ever talks about it.
I have many friends that love cartoons, but none that like KotH.
I really am curious but the show holds no appeal for me.
Jim
That’s pretty much how hubby views the show, and why he likes it. He thinks Hank is one of the most brilliant cartoon characters ever.
I enjoy the show, for the most part and I quite like Hank as a character. But Peggy is so repugnant that I often find myself switching channels if she comes on, unless I know she’s going to get comeuppance of some kind. The Peggy-centric episodes are just painful to watch. She has no redeeming features whatsoever, and while I like Kathy Najimi in most circumstances, for some reason her “Peggy Voice” just gets on my nerves.
I think OP hit it pretty well.
I also agree that King of the Hill has a very different kind of humor from Beavis & Butthead, which is in turn very different from that of Mike Judge’s movie Office Space, except that all three of them owe some of their success to the fact that so many people find characters and situations in them that make them say, “I know somebody just like that!”
By the way…
does anybody else find this a recipe for disaster? :dubious: 
I’ve lived around NYC my entire life and it’s been one of my favorite shows for years. It’s a pretty basic send-up of suburbia. I may not get some of the regional in-jokes, but the characters are all identifiable, as is what I consider the show’s main theme – normal joe trying to do the right thing (especially when it come to his utterly baffling son, who he loves and even likes but will never be able to figure out).
I used to like it more, but I really really hate Peggy and Bobby. They never grew on me, except in the burn-it-off-with-fire fungal infection sense.
Oh I love Bobby! I love that he’s NOT the stereotypical fat loser. In a regular sitcom, Bobby would be dumb as dirt, picked on at school, no friends, etc.
Instead, he’s the class clown, he’s had a few girlfriends, he’s popular, and while he may not be the best student, he does all right.
I like how even when there are stereotypes, they’re not TOTAL stereotypes. Like when Dale gets upset when he sees his dad again, not because Dad is gay, but because he thinks he’s a government agent. Dale cracks me up.
As an expatriate Texan in New England, I get a warm fuzzy watching KotH, because it really does depict a (slightly exaggerated) view of suburban Texan life. My neighborhood back home was a pretty even mixture of Blacks, Latinos, Whites - and Southeast Asians so I love that the characters depict this. People who’ve never visited Texas are usually amazed to hear of the sizable Asian (East and South) population in the state. It’s rare that you can watch a cartoon and say, “That’s pretty accurate.”
I hate Dale and Peggy with a passion. They’re pretty dense characters and incredibly hyperbolic. They could tone down the Dale paranoia a notch and still get the point across that he’s a weird dude. His perpetual cluelessness about the most obvious things (gay dad, John Redcorn having an affair with his wife, Joseph looking nothing like him even considering that “Nancy has a Jamaican grandmother”) makes him a little hard to stomach. Plus he has a real misanthropic bent.
Which leads to my least favorite character on TV, Peggy Hill. I used to think she was a little naive, but well meaning, but she has transformed into an ugly, ultra-competitive, conniving shrew. Like Sierra Indigo says, I usually block her out unless I know she’s getting what comes to her in an episode. The episode when she writes Bobby’s craptastic essays is particularly distasteful, as is the ep when she lies to get a job teaching at a Catholic school.
Redeeming quality, though - she was hilarious as the beauty pageant contestant, and oddly attractive ho’ed up when she befriended Snoop Dogg’s hooker.
Kinda wish she had biffed it when she fell out of the airplane that one time…
I can’t stand Peggy either but I love her as a character. One of my favorite episodes was when she took over the Barbecue place SUGARFOOTS, one of many times she formed a “Team Peggy Hill”, and set up an employee suggestion box. While reading the single suggestion at the staff meeting (something to the effect of “I think for order and success we should all fall strongly behind our team leader”), one of the employees suggested “That thing would work better if you cut a hole in the top”.
I also loved Dale’s line when his wife expressed surprise at how cool he was about accepting the fact his Dad was gay. “I don’t know why you’re surprised. Hell, John Redcorn’s gay and me and him have been friends for years.”
I’ve been looking for a way to sum up hw I feel about Peggy, and here you’ve gone and done it, Sampiro. I can’t stand her… but she has her moments that fit perfectly into the show. There just couldn;t be a show without her.
It’s kind of funny that one of the more realistic family shows on television is a cartoon. Everything is a little exaggerated but not that much. I also think it’s nice to see a show that portrays a southern conservative protaganist as consistently being the most sympathetic and decent character on the show.
Mike Judge is a native Texan (I beleive that Arlen is based on Judge’s hometown of Austin), and his affection for the state just shines through. The show never takes the easy shots. It doesn’t show Texans as bigoted rednecks (well, except maybe for Cotton), and it sometimes reverses expectations (for instance, Khan is frequently more condescending and intolerant towards his white neighbors than they ever are to him). There are some gentle stereotypes but they still seem to come from observations of real life character types. Take Boomhauer, for example. I’m originally from Shreveport, La. which is not very far from Texas. I’m fairly familiar with southerners in general and a fair amount of Texans. It does seem like there’s always one Bubba in every group that has the extra thick accent. That’s not a mean-spirited observation, it’s just the kind of touch that makes the show “recognizable” to southerners.
I like the show a lot and I think it grows on me the more I see it.
I lived in Pennsylvania for the beginning of KotH’s run, in the South for most of it, and I’m now up back up North enjoying the final season. I didn’t really become a fan until I spent some time in Louisiana (an hour and a half from the Texas border - close enough!) and realized how spot-on the characters were. I still remember the first time I was in a convenience store and I overheard a guy with a dead-on Boomhauer accent. That kind of freaked me out.
Since coming back, though, I’ve run into a few people who appreciate the show despite never having taken BC powder or eaten at a Whataburger. Over time they’ve come to love the characters and enjoy the show despite missing some of the more subtle local humor.
On thing I’ve always liked about King of the Hill is that they were able to come up with quite a few… well, odd and unique plots. From low-flow toilets to mold testing to dog dancing to a meth lab in Connie’s garage, it proved to be a refreshing change from standard sitcom plot rehashes.
The next new episode airs on January 29th, then there are just nine more to go until the end of the series. I’m going to miss it.
Some of my favorite episodes:
Redcorn Gambles With His Future - John Redcorn opens up an Indian casino for his hilariously awful band, Big Mountain Fudgecake: “There’s a hole in my pocket where the money should go. And a hooole. And a hooooooooole!”
Megalo Dale - Dale spends the night investigating an infestation at Megalo-Mart. I always thought this one was surprisingly creepy. Dale, at the end: “Muzak… just muzak.”
A Rover Runs Through It - The Hills visit Peggy’s family in Montana. Peggy’s mom made it pretty clear how she turned out as annoying as she did. Her father’s sun-baked, pseudo-philosophical insights (and Hank’s reverence for them) were hysterical.
I might’ve been able to get into the show, but the character of Luanne completely turned me off. Listening to her “Unca Hank!” whine once was more than enough.
I love this show. I simply adore Bobby. Well, actually, I love every character.
That was the line that got my letter published! 
I love this show too. What I like is that, with few exceptions, there is always more to the characters. It’s a very nuanced show – unusual for a sitcom and strikingly so for a cartoon. At first glance, Hank is a stuffy redneck but, when you look deeper, he’s also a truly stand-up guy, ethical & kind – one of the few really stand-up guys on TV. At first glance, Dale is a paranoid freak, but look deeper and you see how unconditionally he loves his wife and son. And so on.
The only exceptions are Peggy (in whom I’ve seen no other dimension than self-centeredness) and the truly-loathsome Cotton (in whom I’ve seen no other dimension than cruelty). Their only saving grace is through Hank. I think it’s sweet that Hank believes Peggy’s hype – he really thinks that she is as smart, pretty & sexy as she thinks she is. And Hank’s love for his creepy little bastard of an old man is both moving and heartbreaking. Peggy doesn’t ruin the show for me because I think she’s funny. But I often turn off the Cotton episodes. He’s just so nasty and hateful I have a hard time watching him.
I’ve heard various places in Texas mentioned as the model for Arlen. Garland seems more plausible than Austin.
How did I miss the meth lab in Connie’s garage? That must have been a great episode.
I did enjoy the episode where Hank tried to get Connie to play with his bluegrass band. The best part was hearing Boomhauer ramble on in his usual gibberish and then start singing “Blue Moon of Kentucky” with crystal clarity.
Here’s a thread from last year discussing the subject.
Yup. The lab was set up by Connie’s cousin, Tid Pao (voiced by Lucy Liu). If you’re looking for it, it’s the third episode of season 7, entitled Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do.
I didn’t get it at first. Didn’t seem funny to me. But then I saw the scouting episode and was converted. Coo loooo! Coo looo!
Connie’s cousin from LA comes to stay with them, because she’s on probation or something, and she’s also in debt to a local gang. So she starts flirting with Bobby in order to trick him into setting up a meth-lab. She tells him it’s a candy machine for their science fair project.
I loved the one where Hank found he had to wear a prosthetic ass (or, as Cotton put it, “You’ve got butt-boobies!”). “We’re here! No rear! Get used to it!”
Cotton’s not as annoying as Peggy. He’s a hateful bigot, but since he’s not really portrayed as sympathetic, it works.
Oh, and the one where Hank gets tricked into being Renee Zellweger’s pimp and gets into a fight with Snoop Dogg is my favorite. And the one where Bobby takes a women’s self-defense course. “That’s ma purse! I don’t know you!”