TalKing of the Hill - Pretty, Pretty Dresses
Added 2023-07-17 04:00:03 +0000 UTC'Tis the season for self-harm as Bill finally succumbs to the holiday blues on this month's episode of King of the Hill. And while his depressive behavior alienates most of his friends, he finds an easy solution in sipping on a pretty, pretty dress and imitating his estranged wife. Can Hank help Bill come back to his senses before he truly goes off the deep end? Celebrate Christmas in July with us and listen in!
Comments
Not a scientitian but I read too much about taxonomy: basically the way species used to be organized was based on similar traits or just whatever “felt right” resulting in a lot of things being lumped together that aren’t necessarily related in any meaningful way. Recently there has been a new way of organizing species based on what common ancestors they share which means groups are based on actual genetic relationships rather than whatever some scientist from the 1700s figured worked. Takeaway for the podcast: Birds are literally reptiles. There is no reason to group birds as anything other than reptiles, the common ancestor they share with other reptiles is the common ancestor all other reptiles share with each other. Other fun fact based on modern taxonomy based on common ancestors: humans are literally monkeys, there is no meaningful definition of an “ape” and all apes are just monkeys
marathedemon
2023-12-05 21:59:32 +0000 UTCThe way this show can thread the needle through the very specific, paradoxical, and contradictory parts of Hank Hill’s character is endlessly impressive, and I really appreciate your show for elucidating this.
AlsoNamedB0rt
2023-07-27 04:09:03 +0000 UTCOuch. That seems brutally harsh. Especially since the guy receiving the letter knew whomever she was hooking up with was some draft dodging fascist sympathizer. Would I personally have been one of those men fighting the war at home by making sure the wives of our brave soldiers were properly cared for? Yes. Of course. I’m not an idiot.
AlsoNamedB0rt
2023-07-27 04:06:16 +0000 UTCHaving never seen this episode before, I was kind of nervous about its handling of its subject matter, but I do agree that it's miles ahead of how most of its contemporaries of the late 90s would have dealt with an episode involving a man in a dress. Some of it is still a little uncomfortable/dated, pretty much just due to the fact that it was written by a cis guy 25 years ago, but it was definitely nowhere near as bad as something like Friends. I think it was a really good touch to show the reality that a bunch of Texans would be weirded out by Bill showing up in a dress, but without actually getting into any phobic "comedy" and having Hank diffuse the situation pretty inventively honestly, in a way that's actually pretty respectful of Bill's actions. It's nice to watch older media and not just be fucking horrified when something related to drag, trans people, or anything queer comes up (and obviously Bill is not trans nor is the episode claiming he is, but it would have been super easy to make jokes about that).
Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag
2023-07-24 21:18:17 +0000 UTCthis episode really covers everything I love about this Patreon in general, you guys are always so thorough and have a reverence for art and the craft of animation and writing.
Christian Kiddle
2023-07-24 17:23:06 +0000 UTCI believe it's pronounced I juwana.
Burt Stanton
2023-07-24 16:14:48 +0000 UTCHow did Hank find a dress that fit him? We never see Lenore (at the time of airing) so it's believable that Bill would fit in her dress, but no way would Hank fit into one of Peggy's or Luann's dresses. Not the most important detail but something that jumped out at me. I thought Bill complaining about not receiving a Dear John letter was a reference to the Judd Hirsch sitcom from the late 80's but just now I learned that the phrase predates the show. Per Wikipedia, it originated around WWII to describe letters women would send to their partners (usually military men) letting them know the relationship was over. In retrospect it makes sense that term has a deeper history but since I heard it as a kid I never investigated it.
PurpleComet
2023-07-22 21:03:04 +0000 UTCYeah, Hank’s record is the most impressive one for a small Texas high school in the 70s. There’s a very funny tidbit about Hank’s 40 yard dash time in the skydiving episode. When Hank and Peggy are plastered, Hank makes a point starting with, “I ran the forty in 5.9 seconds,” and I don’t know if it’s supposed to be accurate because that’s slow as dirt. Obviously Hank isn’t supposed to actually be any sort of real athlete, but the implication from the rest of the line is that he thinks he was fast. My personal canon tells me he misspoke while blasted on tequila, because even a decent 70s 2A RB would have to run a respectable 4.9. I love the reveal in a later episode that Bill actually has the record for career touchdowns, too. Long live the Billdozer, Ricky Suggs record should include an asterisk.
CMatt
2023-07-21 04:24:14 +0000 UTCSomething I always appreciate about these podcasts is how the audio highlights the jokes and performances. And in with Henry, I think Stephen Root is one of our greatest living character actors and this episode really gets to show his range. I love his vocal shifts during his transformation, plus the depressing Bill deadpan contrasted against the emotional wild Bill. I do think this stands as one of the best for many reasons. It never clicked to me this might not be the first time they've had to deal with a depressive episode from Bill. Hank is a really good friend for being willing to degrade himself in such a risky way to save Bill. And this will come back later in the episode where Bill goes to county jail.
SilkiePJ
2023-07-21 00:29:47 +0000 UTCI don’t remember how old I was when I first saw this episode, I think I was around 7/8. But as a sensitive little boy I started crying when Bill fell of the roof. It’s the first time I remember having emotions like that. & the next time I watched the lion king I cried when Mufasa died for the first time, even though I had the vhs and had seen it atleast 70 times
YancySr
2023-07-20 05:22:15 +0000 UTCI also ended up with a bearded dragon because previous owner (a fellow line cook) couldn't take care of him. I was posting about the lizard on a kitchen worker forum and like 6 other people also had bearded dragons for the same reason. I, in fact, still a line cook, just rehomed him successfully to a better home. I wonder how deep the cook to lizard pipeline goes.
Theo Flood
2023-07-19 22:08:58 +0000 UTC"A fire fighting we will go" is next, huh? Well that means I have one month left to finally watch Rashomon.
Riley Hall
2023-07-19 05:17:27 +0000 UTCThis is another episode where Hank eventually cuts through all the conditioning that his father, Texas and toxic masculinity have put on Hank because deep down, he loves Bill, Bill is his friend and he cares about Bill. There is a point that what is accepted is just going to result in someone he cares about getting hurt, so Hank just busts through it all, puts on a dress in front of his friends, coworkers and clients all to help Bill. Also, this being a Hank and Bill story means there's not too much for Dale to do but be the joke machine, but how into putting that dress on he was is yet another indicator that if Dale had grown up somewhere other than suburban Texas, he would have been a weird theater kid. Also the best GIT! he has in the entire series.
twistedmentat
2023-07-19 05:15:46 +0000 UTCI wanted to bring up more iguana stories. My mom is Central American (from El Salvador) and it was quite common of them to eat iguana where she is from, and it was one of her favorite meals. I won’t go into detail on her fleeing the country during a brutal civil war caused by American anti-communist hysteria, but she misses her beach town and iguanas.
Blarghjon
2023-07-19 00:51:30 +0000 UTCall the discussions about being depressed and carrying that when hanging with other people that just makes you miserable to be around hits hard. I struggled with it severely my first two years or so of college and anytime my old high school friends wanted to meet up or reconvene I just made my whole time with them spouting stuff like "i'm so lonely. I don't even know why i'm alive" which is always good company! understandably, most were at a loss on how to respond to that and I think it hurt some friendships. I admire how well this show walked the line of Hank being a good enough friend to WANT to save Bill while also being the last person you'd expect to handle it with the tact and grace necessary.
Blake R.
2023-07-18 18:26:56 +0000 UTCYou guys touched on it a bit, but I do think a lot of us have had various "Bill moments" in out lives where we got into depressive episodes, often (but not always) due to relationship issues, so I figured I might as well tell my story. Several years ago, I was actually engaged, and living with my fiancé in a house we both owned (side note: NEVER buy property with someone you don't have some sort of legal arrangement with. It has a very high chance of biting you in the ass later.) We were together a total of five years, been in the house together about 3 years, and had a wedding set that September. Then started what is one of, if not the single worst month, of my life. At the start of August, my dog suffered an accident that left him paralyzed in his back legs. Despite spending a lot of money on surgery and PT, he didn't (and still hasn't ) regain full use of his back legs. Then in early September, I managed to break my ankle. I was more upset than usual about this, because our wedding was later that month and I REALLY didn't want to have to be in crutches, or a cast, or even a walking boot. Well, it turns out that concern didn't matter, because less than two weeks before the wedding, while I WAS still in crutches, my then-fiancé told me she no longer wanted to get married, or even be with me, and in fact was cheating on me the last 6 months of our relationship. It was a ROUGH couple of months, I won't lie. Thankfully, I live close to most of my family, so I wasn't alone for the holidays, and I was also VERY lucky to meet my current partner during that time as well who, despite knowing I just gout out of a serious relationship, gave me as much time and space as I needed to ease into another one. I should have known my ex wasn't the one for me because she admitted pretty early on in our relationship she wasn't really a Simpsons fan. My current partner, however, is as big a fan as I am and even has a couple Simpsons-inspired tattoos.
Andrew Bouvier
2023-07-18 16:01:13 +0000 UTCHank and Bill played in the 70's when it was MUCH more of a rushing/ground game than today. It sounds like their strategy was Bill blocking for Hank as he rushed, but perhaps Hank kept falling short of getting a TD (probably from Cotton berating him frim the stands) so then they handed the ball to "The BillDozer" who likely was playing fullback, as you said (a more common position back then that did both block and rushed) to just shove his way over the goal line.
Andrew Bouvier
2023-07-18 15:45:58 +0000 UTCAn all-_season_ record is a clever, layered joke playing on old-school masculinity and the concept of all-_time_ records and _single_-season records; the person who leads a team in rushing (or any football statistic) tends to matter only as a record when compared to everyone on a team for all of recorded history*. An example would be a single running back who played the whole season would 'lead the team in rushing' by virtue of being the only player whose job it was to get running yards**. Without Hank's statistics to hand I can't determine if his rushing was actually meaningful, but the bottom line regardless of Hank's efficacy as a back is that all-season anything is not in and of itself an impressive or exciting statistic. Hank's choice of language shows that he _wants_ this to be impressive/exciting (or is aping other men he knew) so he massages his words to say "all-season" instead of "season leader" or another more typical phrase. * The all-time rushing yard record would belong to the person who acquired the most across their career spanning multiple seasons, and the single-season record would belong to the person with the largest number in a single season; sometimes these are the same person but often there are players who have a single breakout year (or game) that does not cause them to surpass the all-time leader. ** although the quarterback or other players might receive some rushing-yard statistics, they are generally not expected to run the ball and the running back is the person or person[s] with the opportunity to do so
Byron Lagrone
2023-07-18 15:29:38 +0000 UTCAs perhaps one of the few "sports guys" who post here, I would actually put forth that Hanks's single season rushing record is more impressive than Al Bundy's single game achievement. In the NFL alone, the single season touchdown record has been broken several times over the years, while the single season rushing record was set back in 1984 by Eric Dickerson. A few players have come close to eclipsing it over the years, but even with the NFL schedule expanding and adding games it's still a record that endures. Plus Al Bundy's achievement was four touchdowns in one game, I'm willing to bet that countless high school athletes have achieved that feat and probably surpassed it too. This episode is definitely a good one that's darkly hilarious. I can see it being not for everyone, and it does toe the line sometimes between what's funny and what's actually almost painful to watch. I think it works because Bill's attempts at suicide are so clearly designed to be of the attention-grabbing variety and not sincere efforts and some of the small moments set them up so well. I will always remember this episode for Bill's spaghetti dinner as being especially pathetic, but also really funny.
Joe Hodgson
2023-07-18 15:08:45 +0000 UTCRe: the football records, Bob and Henry point out that Hank set the rushing record and not the TD record which would be more impressive. It is later revealed that Bill actually owns the single season TD record (which is highly unlikely that he was both Hank's lead blocker and the TD title holder but is technically possible if Bill played full back)
I.C. Weiner
2023-07-17 20:25:40 +0000 UTChe's suicidal, not crazy
Frank Grimes
2023-07-17 16:47:25 +0000 UTCDarkest and funniest episode .
Dan Hughes
2023-07-17 09:36:16 +0000 UTC
