I never watched it religiously, but I always enjoyed it when I did. Unlike the other Fox cartoons (of which only American Dad is on my must-watch list), KotH actually has life lessons and sympathetic characters. Even the buffoon characters (like Bill) are lovable.
Or Dale-with his conspiracy theories. Like when he found out his dad was gay-only he misunderstood, and thought Daddy Gribble was secretly a government agent-and that’s why he was working at the gay rodeo. Or how only the other guys can understand what Boomhauer is saying.
I cry river of tears for Buckley! Why not you?
My favorite part of KoTH is that the characters are three-dimensional and can be really quite complicated. They have their strengths and weaknesses. Their highs and their lows. It’s easy to say Bill is a buffoon, but he was once a very competent, very strong man, and his loyalty and capabilities still shine through when necessary. Dale claims he doesn’t trust anybody, he’s paranoid and more than a little crazy. He can also be downright cruel (to everybody who isn’t Hank). But he is utterly devoted to his son and wife. It’s so easy to fool him precisely because he does trust so completely. Even Cotton had a few redeeming qualities. That’s why I love the show so much.
And CGI allows you to do the same but it would be just as imbecilic to put a balrog in No Country for Old Men as it would to send Hank into space.
Let’s turn this into a celebration of the show rather than a mourning of it’s passing.
I’ll start with my favorite episode:
Everyone gets lice because Bill was trying to make time with the school lice-checker lady. After they figure out the problem they go to Boomhauer’s place to do the anti-lice shampoo treatment, giving us a nice look at Boomhauer’s bathroom (I think he had a bidet in there).
Anyway, the lice shampoo doesn’t work and Dale comes out to the alley with one of those dog-cones on his head. Just thinking about Gribble with that thing around his neck makes me smile. Of course he pulls it down to smoke, and then sprays himself with pesticide to kill the lice. “Burning. Intense burning. Blindness. Oh my God get it off!” Hank sprays Dale down with the hose in his yard, and Bill can only watch and yearn.
Everyone eventually shaves their heads to get rid of the lice but when Hank does he discovers (well, technically Peggy does) that he has a BILL tattoo on the back of his head.
What follows is classic KoTH: Boomhauer tells the story of Bill protecting a drunk Hank in Dallas their senior year of high school, and Hank passing out in the tattoo parlor chair. Hank realizes that Bill is still a good friend and ends up getting arrested to join Bill in jail (Bill had poured beer down a mailbox in the meantime). Another classic sequence - Hank trying to get arrested. First he jaywalks. Then he walks into a convenience store and takes off his shirt. He finally runs into the back of an Arlen cop car.
In jail they sort things out but not before Hank has to get the Bill tattoo re-done (he’d had it removed) by his cellmate, who included a nice heart above the I.
Oh man, I’m going to miss that show!
Dale could finally meet his spacemen/bigfoots/chupacabra, then, couldn’t he?
Or say, meet one that nobody could see but him?
One that would follow him around, hang out, & provide commentary?
What are you, twelve?
We’re having a debate about the virtues of a cartoon, dude.
For the purpose intended, we are all 12.:rolleyes:
No, you’re having a debate about a cartoon. The rest of us are discussing a show that can be equal parts funny, endearing, and sad, depending on the episode. With characters who feel real. You’re the only one who cares that it’s a cartoon and seem downright offended that the rest of the world doesn’t have the same childish expectations of animated shows.
I liked the one where Hank inadvertantly became a pimp and ended up threatening Snoop Doggy Dog’s character, “I am the Mack Daddy of Heimlick County, 'yo!”
Or the one where he finds out he has Diminished Glutual Syndrome (DGS), and has to wear a prosthetic rear-end. Quotes are comic GOLD.
Cotton: You’re wearin’ butt-boobies!
Doctor: Mr. Hill, you have no ass.
The support group for DGS: We’re here! No rear! Get used to it!
Plus, whenever I hear people talk about Fiddy Cent, I can’t help but think of Cotton Hill, and how he always boasts about how he killed “Fiddy men!” in the War.
I also liked the fact that Bobby was never really the stereotypical loser fat kid-he was still popular, he had a girl friend, he wasn’t a big lazy slob, etc.
I liked the fact that the show was actually willing to change things and adjust the status quo. Not dramatically, there weren’t huge changes, but there were events and changes that the characters remembered and that remained for the rest of the series. Stuff like Luanne moving out, Joseph going through puberty, Nancy stops sleeping with John Redcorn, Buckley dies.
There was even a long story arc involving the MegaLoMart swallowing up all the small businesses in town, which culminated in an explosive finale.
I’m aware other shows do this too, but it just seemed so natural in KOTH. Not like in, say, The Simpsons where they’ll suddenly give Apu eight babies or something.
TV has rarely been as funny as the episode where Peggy, Hank and Bobby all started smoking.
Hank: Do I need to make you smoke another carton of cigarettes?
Bobby: I think you do.
When Hank first meets the new neighbors:
Hank: So are you Chinese or Japanese?
Minh: No, we are Laotian.
Bill: The ocean? What ocean?
Kahn: From Laos, stupid! It’s a landlocked country in South East Asia between Vietnam and Thailand, population approximately 4.7 million!
[pause]
Hank Hill: So are you Chinese or Japanese?
And for those of us who were raised by great, honest, old-fashioned Texas men like Hank Hill, I think the following King of the Hill line is one of the funniest, saddest, and “truest” things ever said on television:
“Bobby, if you weren’t my son, I’d hug you.”
Bobby barking as they tried to get the nicotine patch out his mouth was priceless.
And then when Cotton (Mr. Total Bigot) meets him, right away, he says, “You’re Laotian!”
I also love how he’d call Peggy, “Hank’s Wife.”
Remember when Brad Pitt played Boomhauer’s brother, "Patch Boomhauer? Priceless.
And Hank’s Wife wasn’t allowed to ride in Cotton’s Cadillac car unless she was in the trunk.
I loved the episodes after Peggy’s sky diving accident. How she dedicated herself to physical therapy so she could dance on Cotton’s grave.
I liked the episodes where they went to Japan and Hank has to tackle the porn barons. I haven’t seen it recently but it’s a really good show. 13 years was a good run all right.
That is one of my favorite episodes of any TV show ever.
Bobby on ritalin: <sniiiiiifffff> There’s some milk in the refrigerator that’s about to go bad. <long pause> And there it goes.
