King of the Hill/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Why is it that even though they're both in their teens, Joseph is feeling the full force of puberty and thus showing all the classic signs of it, but so far it's had little effect on Bobby? (Besides the Rule of Funny)

  • Its been explained that Bobby is a late bloomer.
    • Thanks.
  • This was, in fact, the subject of an entire episode.
    • It was also a semi-stealthy way of introducing Joseph's new VA.

Why can't they just let Cotton stay in the mental asylum?

  • It's too late for that; he's dead.
  • In any case, he was not a threat to himself or others.
    • He once brandished a circular saw at a man for no good reason, and once put a handgun in the hands of an infant. How is that not a threat?
    • Don't forget him hijacking a parade float and almost running down innocent people, planning to frame his son for Fidel Castro's death while him and his buddies assassinate Castro themselves,using his pregnant wife in a convoluted plot to kill Castro, and fired a nailgun at Jimmy Carter's limo. (Granted, Jimmy gave Cotton permission to shoot, but anyone who fantasizes about firing upon a president is clearly sick in the head.)
      • Actually in that episode Cotton never fantasized about firing on Jimmy Carter. Cotton had some nails left in the magazine and Carter said he could fire them at his "bullet proof" limo. It was just a way to sweeten the pot to get Cotton out of that house.
      • Everyone seems to be overlooking the event leading up to Cotton firing nails into Jimmy Carter's presidential limo That event being holding up in a habitat for humanity because he was jealous of his sons boss and destroying most of the house out of spite. However the main reason I'd say Cotton isn't institutionalized is that his sons sense of dignity honor and warped love that he'd never let his dad get institutionalized and would probably find a way to avoid getting him put in.
    • Let's not forget the episode where some nut let Cotton have a bullwhip of all things and threatening people (using a juicer on Bill's chest).
    • And the mention that he once threw a grenade at Peggy. "Granted it was a 'practice grenade,' but it's still a very hostile gesture."
    • Hank at one point mentioned Cotton would mix mustard gas in his house every year to celebrate V-J day. Just.... what the hell?

In the episode where Cotton dies, Didi and G.H. never appear, and none of the other characters notice their absence. What happened to them?

  • It's implied that they will appear in the 250th episode, which does, in fact, mention Cotton's death.
    • Didi does remarry, or at least finds another boyfriend. I don't remember if they stated anything about G.H.
      • In the episode 'Daletech', Cotton finishes an argument with Didi with "Fine, call your lawyer!" before Didi speeds off and Cotton informing the Hill family Didi has "gone to visit her folks" and telling the family he doesn't know when she will be back, suggesting Didi divorced him and moved.

In the episode "Vision Quest", was it really a good idea to give the field trippers energy drinks?

  • Middle schoolers are pretty hyper as it is (I should know; I was one myself). I don't know why that part bothers me, but it does.]]
    • I think Redcorn implied that exhaustion and dehydration were part of the process. Having an energy drink on an empty stomach sounds like a great idea.
      • Two different episodes. OP was talking about the one where the school takes the kids on a field trip to the zoo and the kids get energy drinks (then other stuff happens not involving hyperactive middle schoolers).

You remember that Terrible Interviewees Montage where the guy explains gaps in his employment history by saying during every Democratic presidency he 'was on the welfare'? He includes the FDR, Kennedy, Johnson and Carter presidencies, but excludes Truman and Clinton. Why?

  • Clinton signed welfare-to-work into law.
  • Back in the Truman years most able-bodied men were in the middle of the Korean War

When the series started Bobby was 10 and people aged in real time. I thought to myself "wow they are actually developing characters and things are happening over time. Sweet." Then Bobby turned 13 and time froze for the rest of the series.

  • Yes, that is what happened.
    • Actually, Bobby was 11 in the pilot episode, turned 12 within the first season, and didn't turn 13 until the fifth season, three years later. While the characters probably should have been a little older by the end of the series, going by that rate, they had never actually aged in real time to begin with.

Why doesn't anyone just TELL Dale that Joseph isn't his son at all?

  • I mean, at this point, any idiot can see it. And for that matter, why do people even stay friends with the stupid little bastard?
    • Because he seems genuinely happy in his marriage and proud of Joseph. Frankly, no one has the heart to ruin it for the guy.
    • Joseph doesn't know either. And if either of them found out about their not being related, it would put a major strain on their relationship (remember, they're very close). Plus it would undoubtably lead to a divorce from Nancy and tear the entire family apart. Also "Any Idiot" can't just see the Joseph/Redcorn connection- Peggy needed it explained to her.
    • There's also the factor that Dale isn't entirely stable, something like that could actually make him suicidal or homicidal. Dale would probably not be able to hurt Redcorn but he could hurt himself and do a lot of damage.
    • If you take a look at the Vision Quest episode, you could say Dale's subconcious already knows. In that episode, he has a vision that a bulky, faceless Native American man (like John Redcorn) fathered Joseph. Now, unless magic and spirits are real in the King of the Hill universe, Dale has to at least subconciously know John Redcorn is Joseph's father for him to have that vision. It's possible that those thoughts have been pushed to the back of his head because knowing outright would be too distressing. Dale isn't the most mentally stable guy around.
      • He held the local College at gun slight-amount-of-extermination-gas-point because the thought that JFK was alive & trying to steal his lawn mower.
        • Actually, he was just doing his job (spraying for bugs) and someone thought he was up there with a gun. Being the paranoid nut he is, he just went with it as a way to get his mower (which he was convinced was part of a government conspiracy) back, intending no harm to anyone. The only hostage he had was Rusty Shackleford (his alternate persona he orders pizzas with).
        • It's hinted that he actually knows about Joseph's origins (the correct one, not the alien theory) but just chose not to bring it up. Despite being a crazy conspiracy theorist and overall nutcase, under all that he's a loving father who would do anything to keep his child happy. However if he did go crazy, it would cause some destruction, since he'd prettymuch make everyone else go crazy with him (in the above example, he did say he "killed Shackleford", which the police thought was true and had a sniper ready to blow his brains out. He also almost incited a riot at a Strickland Propane Sale just because he can (much to the anger of Hank).
          • To be fair to Dale, he probably wouldn't get destructively angry (though he might turn suicidal). Nancy and Hank are the two people in the world he trusts more than himself, and we saw what happened when he found out Hank had betrayed him: he snapped right out of his Cloudcuckooland mode and started sinking towards a stunned, realistic Despair Event Horizon. Now imagine that ten times over upon finding out about Nancy's infidelity. It's not so much that they're afraid of what he'd do to anyone else if he found out, just that it'd devastate him and shatter his family. For all his craziness, he really is a devoted father and husband.
            • Does anyone else think that it might not be that big a deal? At first, there's no doubt how the truth would hit Dale (and that's only if he ever chose to accept it). Although not the same scenario, even after Hank betrayed him, Dale still forgave him for stealing his lawnmower. And by this point it would be clear how much Nancy really loves him, so wouldn't it be pointless to leave her?
              • The reason Dale never suspected Nancy to begin with is because he trusts her almost unconditionally (and because he thinks John Redcorn is gay). Whether she's sorry or not; to have that trust abused for more then a decade and finding out the son you love so much genetically isn't yours? I'd say that's a pretty big deal. Although maybe that just makes it all the more important sometime tells him.

Let me put it this way. Why don't Bobby, Hank, or someone else call out Peggy's idiocy?

  • It'd make her less the fool, stop embarrassing the entire family, and actually prove to be some good character growth. It'd make SENSE.
    • That was sort of the point of "Peggy's Fan Fair". Peggy was way over the top, and Hank finally called her on it. Although later he rescinds a little when he realizes how much his honesty has hurt her.
    • Like Hank, Peggy's main flaw (her idiocy and refusal to see it) has a Freudian Excuse. Namely that her mom treated her like dirt her whole life and left her with a very deep self-esteem problem. When she moved away from her mom, she coped with this (and overcompensated), by convincing herself she was a genius. Hank doesn't spell it out because he knows that the truth would cripple her.
    • Yes but sometimes it's bad. She once mentioned that her high IQ was an educated guess, made by her. Where does the logic come in? To be fair she was contemplating the possibility of her being wrong, but coming to a conclusion like that in the first place makes you wonder if she can actually hear herself talk.
      • Part of it's just Rule of Funny: Peggy's narcissism wouldn't be nearly so funny if she weren't so obliviously brazen about it. But it's also how real life defense mechanisms work. People in denial about themselves aren't in denial because they're unobservant, but because they have an emotional need to be in denial; they're ignoring anything that threatens their defense mechanism in order to keep a very fragile worldview intact. It's frustratingly illogical precisely because logic (at least, straightforward logic) doesn't factor into it.
    • At times, Hank realizes some of her problems, but he doesn't always. If Peggy was a real person, I'd say she suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder and she and everyone around her is completely blind to it. She demonstrates many of the characteristics, including putting her personal pride ahead of the well-being of others and her inability to empathize with anyone, like in the episode where Cotton dies. Peggy was in the room when he died. He made some specific requests before he died. Afterward, Peggy keeps the truth from Hank and tells Hank that Cotton changed his mind and wanted a normal funeral.
      • That was more because she hated how even from beyond the grave, Cotton was still managing to treat Hank like crap and make him do his dirtywork (he wanted Hank to flush his ashes down a toilet used by George S. Patton). A better example would be when she sabotaged Bobby's turkey dinner because he turned out to be a better cook then her.
      • Ashes nothing (that was a separate episode). In the episode where Cotton died, he requested that Hank cut off his head and mail it to Emperor Akihito. Peggy defused that request for Hank's own good, because even if it weren't illegal, it'd be quite traumatizing for anyone to have to do that.
    • The truth of it probably is that Hank has been around her so much that it takes something extreme to really register on his radar. The rest of the family just accept her as she is, because she's been like that the entire time they've been alive, or at least a sizeable chunk of it and either don't notice or just sigh internally. Anyone else calling her dumb is likely to bounce off her anyway, because of how her self esteem is built. And while she's not as smart as she thinks, she generally can convince people who are on her level of 'kinda dumb' that she is smart. If you don't know that she's wrong, why wouldn't you believe her ?

Why does Dale of all people send his child to a government school.

  • Even ignoring the horrible quality of the US Government schools, Dale has a distrust of the government, why would he allow them to watch after his child for hours a day!
    • They probably couldn't afford private school, and if Dale ever got any ideas about homeschooling Joseph I'm sure Nancy talked him out of it.
    • Not all public schools are bad. Some are perfectly nice places that provide quality education.
    • Joseph actually gets into a private school in one episode, mostly because he's good at sports. But of course, the other parents and the Booster Club wouldn't have any of it because Joseph was important on a sports team.
    • Dale probably thinks that the Government's own schooling program is so bad he doesn't need to worry about Joseph being sucked into the system. Fringe Brilliance on someone's part (cant exactly tell who).
    • Or, since Dale's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, it might not have occurred to him that public schools are government run.
    • Or perhaps Dale think's that having his kid in public school helps him stay under the radar. Big Brother isn't likely to pay attention to just another kid in public school.

Why doesn't Hank see Buck Strickland for the Bad Boss that he is?

  • To say Buck Strickland has little respect for his employees would be an understatement. He once attempted to FRAME HANK FOR MURDER. Yet Hank worships the man. He is the only other man he has said "I love you" to (and meant it) and once referred to him in a mealtime prayer as a SERVANT OF THE LORD.
    • Hank explicitly has Daddy Issues. In Hank's mind, EVERYTHING Buck does is at worse, a minor inconvenience, including/especially framing him for murder as Buck at his worst is still EXPONENTIALLY better than having Cotton as a father. This also explains why Hank said "I love you" over getting a promotion and Cotton's reaction confirms this.
      • Hank won't even tape a football game on tv without the expressede written consent on the NFL and the network. Yet he has no qualms of regularly breaking Federal Laws to cover for Buck.
      • In Hank's eyes Buck gave the him his life and livelihood. Buck probably doesn't realise it, but Hank is probably trying to repay a debt that was never there. However he will let Buck take a beating when he knows the latter deserves it, like when Buck took Bobby to a Gambling house and angered a bunch of thugs. Hank intentionally stopped his truck so that Buck (who was in the back) would get a beating before finally taking off.
    • As the series progressed at least, Hank did finally start to get sick of Buck's crap. In the episode with the carbon coupons and going green, Hank seemed fully aware Buck was somehow going to ruin his own campaign and weary about his inevitably being forced to fix it. In the final episode featuring Buck, after Buck and his bastard son combined to become even bigger assholes than they could've been seperately, Hank finally got fed-up with trying to save Buck from himself.

How realistically easy it is to convince others to support a project/activity after their initial rejection.

  • This one's a little esoteric, but bear with me. On several episodes, including the one where Peggy gets the Bystander to send the family to Japan, and the one where they convince the principal to let them have an organic garden, someone (usually Peggy) appeals to an authority figure for something they clearly only want for a selfish reason, then they get shot down.. so, without leaving, they improvise another reason for doing that same thing, which the authority figure likes better, and gives them a shot. Has this ever happened to anyone in history? Goldfish Memory much? It's the same suggestion you just turned down, but now that they gave you some bullshit you know they just made up to sweeten it, you change your mind?
    • A lot of life is persuasion, and a lot of persuasion is finding the right message. In the Japan episode, Peggy didn't propose the same thing. She initially proposed a transparently selfish story idea that had no appeal to anyone not named "Hill." When shot down, she countered with a legitimately interesting story idea, the kind of heartbreaking feature story editors love. Her editor changed her mind because Peggy offered her something of value (a good story), where before Peggy wasn't offering anything. With the organic garden, Principal Carl rejected it at first because it cost money and offered no benefit to him or the school. He acceded when Hank offered a concrete advantage. It's been well-established that the middle school is obsessed with football, and the team and its coach legitimately appreciated the organic veggies, at least at first.
      • In fact this is taught as part of any business course, and is mentioned in nearly every sing self-advancement manual out there because it works. The reason it works is because people don't like saying no to people who are pleasant, but often have to say no a lot as part of their jobs. So if you want something that is a bit of a reach, out of the ordinary, and have reason to suspect that it might be refused, then offer something completely unacceptable that you have no real investment in first. When that gets shot down offer what you really want, which now looks completely reasonable by comparison, and the other person having done the nasty part of their duty in saying no will probably say yes to it. It's why in any negotiation the first set of demands made by any party seem so ludicrous, because they expect them to be shot down and their real goals are far more reasonable.

In the episode "Meet the Manger Babies", why in the hell would the manager (or programming director, or whoever) of Channel 84 put Luanne's show on during the Super Bowl?

  • Was it out of ignorance? Did he/she do it just to try to teach Hank a lesson? Or was it just to be a dick? That just seems stupid to put it up against the Super Bowl.
    • Maybe Channel 84 can't afford the fee to show the Super Bowl, and figuring that there's bound to be kids who don't want to watch it either, decided to show the Manger Babies. He or she might not have considered her show to be that valuable either, and decided it would make a cheap "filler".

"To Sirloin With Love"

  • There are a few things that bugged the hell out of me:
    1. In the first competition, Bobby misses the final question and his teammates instantly think he is a total failure for the rest of the episode. This makes NO sense, seeing as how they still made it to state, something they've never done before, because of Bobby's help on the team. They continue to chastise him even at the end of the episode, after he SINGLE-HANDEDLY takes the team to the finals of the state competition!
    2. Missing this ONE question somehow moves their team fro the second place spot to fourth place. What?
    3. When Bobby sees his team actively try to sabotage another team at a restaurant by throwing red pepper powder in their eyes, he tells Hank that he wants to quit the team. The problem with this is that not once does Bobby ever tell his dad WHY he wants to quit, even though Hank is a good sportsman and would have surely agreed with his son’s choice to quit. The only reason Bobby wouldn’t tell his father why he quit is because the plot wouldn’t work if he did.
    4. The other members of the team later say that they only care about winning and one even says that he’s a vegetarian. Why would a vegetarian be on a team who spends all of their time discussing and testing the quality of meat for EATING?!
    • The first point is one I made on the No Sympathy page. It makes no sense. As for number two, yes, that's logical. I don't how their scoring works, but there's nothing ridiculous about the four teams being that closely bunched. As to number four, the vegetarian's a hypocrite who just wants to win something. Hardly the first such character on KOTH.
      • Actually, the vegetarian might not object to the consumption of meat - and even if he is, what better way to insure that the live animals are being treated in a humane manner than by working in the factory as an inspector?
    • The thing that bugs me about this episode is that none of it makes any sense. Bobby gets on a college team, but he isn't enrolled in the college and isn't even college-aged. The other teams are so determined to win that they kidnap the bus with the team on it, including Hank.
    • College students can be notoriously competitive. This troper recently got into Sheridan College's Animation program, which required a Portfolio assessment. The level of competition that happened with the various applicants was so furious that most people would take the slightest bit of criticism as a declaration of war on their pride. As for the Vegetarian, it was probably to emphasis the whole "College kids are crazy" theme. And Bobby, in is mind, did tell Hank what had happened. But Hank took it in a completely different way.
    • I was more bugged by the sudden revelation that Boomhauer is supposed to be a Texas Ranger when he's routinely shown engaging in borderine criminal acts if not actual ones and like in the episode where the Pro Football player is terrorizing the area he's just standing around doing nothing including not criticizing the local police for letting the guy off the hook because he's a pro athlete and grilling Hank and his friends instead. It's a reveal that's not only unsupported but completely contradicted by pretty much the entire rest of the show.
      • He becomes a Texas Ranger after that episode. Before that he was a yogurt salesman.
  • How did Peggy land on her back when her parachute failed (she never turned or flipped in the air and it was clear to the viewers that she fell straight down face first) Also i doubt she turned over with almost all her bones broken.
    • Probably a last second reflex after the camera zoomed out.
    • Couldn't be. If you really look at her before she lands she's still falling face down. It could be the writers figured they couldn't come up a reasonable explanation for how she survived (she'd have been killed if her back bended backwards like that). So the next episode they showed her lying in the hole face up hoping nobody would notice she never once turned in the air.

How the hell did Peggy ever get chosen as substitute teacher of the year three years in a row? And why would a school even have such an award?

  • Peggy's math is so bad, she needs to use the answers in the back of the book, and her Spanish is so bad, there's no way anyone's ability to speak Spanish approved if Peggy was teaching.
    • If I recall correctly, there are no other main substitute teachers on Tom Landry Middle School to compete with her. Which also nicely explains why she keeps the job.
    • IIRC, the "Substitute Teacher of the Year" award was her own idea.
    • Plus it helps that the voting was done by students and a lot of general student populace seemed to like Peggy. Students are more likely to like a teacher they can get along with regardless if they're doing a good job of teaching.
    • She also had a meltdown when her husband was a substitute teacher in one episode because he was in his element and had the kids backing him and picked him over her. If I remember correctly she still tried to claim the award for herself after Hank was screwed over by Insane Rules Lawyering of the school because several of his kids were doing repairs around the school and because the tools were *gasp* potentially usable as weapons he inadvertently violated the no weapons policy and was fired. Yes he was a teacher the kids loved and had them actually doing positive things for the school and so they fired him for it.

Is it ever explained just why Hank loves Propane so much? Is that just a quirk?

  • It's so mind boggling random.
    • Some people really like cars. Some people dedicate their whole lives to a love of painting. Hank's passion is selling propane. It's just something he truly loves.
    • It may just be the writers playing off of the odd quirks/hobbies of the deep South, like mower racing and meat inspection.
    • The episode where Hank dreams of grilling in the nude sort of implies that propane is some kind of fetish for him.
      • Same reason as his loyalty to Buck I figured. Propane provides his lively hood.
        • I always felt that it was Hank simply doing his job. He has a great sense of duty as seen in his previous job as a pants salesman. Whatever situation he's committed all the way.


Does anybody else find it weird that everybody always calls John Redcorn by his full name?

  • That is the joke.
  • Also there are people who are really referred to this way, almost exclusively and by a lot of people. I knew two such people in the same school. Chris Moses and John Moore were always Chris Moses and John Moore, despite no other Chrises or Johns being called by their full names all the time (in other words, it's not just because they had common first names).
  • People tend to do that when they hear a name that's unusual, it's fun to say. This troper was the only Cambodian at her school and had a very unique first and last name, yet was always called by the whole name for the novelty I suppose. Plus, the Hills strike me as knowing a lot of guys named John.

Why does Peggy fall for so many scams, even the same scam more than once?

  • In one episode, Peggy sells those power bars and she does it all because she wants to be in management.
  • Peggy learns nothing from that scam and later is convinced to sell kitchenware. In this episode, she gives away her sales kit thinking they're samples, even though she had the same problem with Luanne in the episode about the power bars.
  • Peggy is also convinced that she's a genius and falls for a series of scams, including getting her doctorate online. She completes all the coursework in one evening and prints her own degree.
    • Um, maybe because she is an idiot, which is kind of her defining character trait? That's sort of like asking why Hank likes propane so muc- oh wait, someone asked about that here too.
  • Peggy, as discussed earlier, is narcissistic enough to believe she can do no wrong, and thus, thinks she cannot be tricked.

So, why did Cotton like Bobby so much?

  • Last I checked, Cotton constantly berated Hank for acting feminine, even when he wasn't. The point of many episodes is that Bobby worries Hank by doing something that is usually for girls, so it would make sense for Cotton to think of him as even worse.
    • It was out of spite towards Hank, like how divorced parents will try to one-up each other in showering affection on the kids, not because they love the children more, but to stick in their ex-spouse's craw.
    • No, Cotton generally loves Bobby. He treats him nice even when Hank's not around. Maybe some tiny part of him wants to make up for being just a Jerkass to Hank but the rest of him can't admit it, so he makes do by showering Bobby with affection. Although even that sounds way too sentimental for Cotton, so maybe not.
    • My theory is two fold - Cotton was likely still more than a little bitter about losing his shins, in an unhappy marriage, and had recently had to leave behind the Japanese nurse he loved when Hank was born. This leads to Hank trying to live a certain way or hold up a certain standard in the hopes of winning Cotton's approval. Bobby was born when Cotton was an old man who had grown more or less accepting of his life, is his only grandson, and never tries to be anything but himself.
      • Confidence is probably key, here; Cotton is a womanizing, emotional hooligan. The opposite of what we'd consider a "stick in the mud". Hank, however, is a stick in the mud, having a modest and traditional behavior that seems follows the law and personal rules and restrictions to a "T"; but despite this, Bobby is outgoing and (fairly) confident, which, at times, involves him not being a "stick in the mud", something that Cotton would heavily appreciate. This makes Cotton's raising of Hank callous, though, given that his parenting was what caused Hank to become, well, somewhat of a bore. But the thing is, Cotton himself admits this; in the episode "Next of Shin", he gives Hank the backhanded (and amusing) compliment of "Heck, you made Bobby; all I made was you!". Meaning, he thinks of Hank as a failure (except in raising Bobby, who being outgoing, like Cotton, does not seem to him as a failure), but he knows that he's only a "failure" because he was a failure in raising him.
    • It's probably the military school episode. Cotton threw everything he had at Bobby and it failed to break the boy. Since then, Cotton's been forced to respect him.

In the episode where they were building houses for charity, when Cotton disarmed Jimmy Carter, shouldn't he have checked if there was a round in the chamber after he removed the magazine?

In an early episode where Hank coaches Bobby's football team, he takes the team to spray paint "Cougar Rule" on a bridge. Yet in a later episode, he is angered at a lot of grafitti on a local rock formation, even stating something along the lines of "If the class of '06 really ruled, they wouldn't need to paint it on a rock".

  • Well, the grafitti in the later episode was covering a local monument that Hank used to visit as a kid, not just a bridge. But the encouraging of spray-painting still seems wildly out of character for Hank (One episode had Bobby saying that he didnt' even approve of bumper stickers). I'm guessing it was just because it was an early episode and they hadn't worked out what a tightass he was yet.

What happened to Kahn's mother?

  • Now I know why she was Put on a Bus, but they never gave a good how. I mean a simple mention of a funeral or something like that would've have done the job.
    • She moved back home, I assume.
    • In the episode, as she's leaving she mentions that she's going off to a retirement community.

How do Hank and his friends get mistaken for Spanish-speaking day laborers in the McMansion episode?

What happened to Caroline?

  • I really enjoy King of the Hill, but one thing that bothers me was the episode where Peggy unknowingly makes friends with a fashionable crossdresser who goes by Caroline. It wasn't the episode itself that bugged me, but rather, the fact that we never see Caroline in later episodes. I thought "Caroline" was kind of a fun character, I would've liked to see more of her. (him?)
    • I'm sure she's just hanging out with Kahn's mom and the prostitute Peggy tutored in a wacky Golden Girls style apartment.
      • And they're all taking care of Bobby's girlfriend who he was still with at the end of Get Your Freak Off.

In "Square Peg", Bobby is shown hitting a baseball pretty far. But later episodes, particularly "Bad News Bill", show him not only as a terrible player, but portray him as always being terrible at baseball. What.

  • He was portrayed as being pretty bad at baseball in the pilot episode as well. The scene in "Square Peg" was likely done just to set up Peggy's "Go all the way!" line, so chalk it up to Rule of Funny.

"Tankin It To The Streets"

  • How does a placebo work if Bill didn't know he was taking it?
    • You dare doubt the power of the Placebo?!
  • That's just it. It didn't work. Bill's being fat, having a hairy body, bald head, and bad breath were all characteristics of his own, not the effects of a pill or placebo. At first, Bill is happy to learn that he was part of the experiment, which (he thought) led to all these characteristics. Then, he finds out he was given a placebo, which means it had no effect on him at all. The placebo was administered by the doctors doing the testing so they wouldn't know which person actually took the drug and which ones were given a placebo.
    • But why would anyone do that? The entire point of a placebo is that the person taking it THINKS its having an effect. If they don't know, why give it to him? Was there even a real drug?
      • See also: double-blind study. FOR SCIENCE!
    • You would have the doctor give someone a placebo so the doctor himself doesn't know who took the actual drug and who took the placebo. This way, the doctor's reported results aren't affected by knowing who is actually taking the right pills. All the doctor knows is that he's given the pills to the subject and he reports what he's asked to report. This is especially helpful if you have two (or more) subjects in the same group where half the group gets a placebo and the other half gets the drug. If you don't know which took the placebo, you can only report what you really saw and not what you wanted to see.
      • Ah, thanks for explaining.

The tainted beer switcheroo "Beer and Loathing"

  • In this episode, Peggy works where the beer is made, however the beer is being diverted to Mexico (that alone is another thing That Bugs Me because any company willingly putting tainted product on the shelves would be shut down/fined fast) due to some soap getting into the machines. Anyways, when the CEO ignores Hank's requests for answers and lies to him, Peggy replaces all the beer that would be at the meeting with tainted Mexican beer. She uses her employee ID to get into the boardroom. Why would a customer service rep's ID card have access to a boardroom to begin with? ID cards usually are encoded so you can only get in some areas.
    • Seeing how cheap and underhanded they already are, they most likely didn't even bother to make more than one set of cards. They are the Umbrella Corporation of beer, basically.
    • Also, for a company to be fined, they would have to be caught first.
    • Alamo was counting on the poisoning from their product being blamed on the general lack of water treatment facilities in much of Mexico. They were likely trying to sell the tainted beer in hopes of maintaining their bottom line as getting rid of it would have come at their expense in terms of allocation of resources to disposal, loss of resources employed in the creation of the tainted product & loss of productivity due to the aforementioned allocation of resources.

Another thing from Cotton's Death episode

  • Why does he still have a grudge against Japan when he has made peace with the Emperor from a previous episode?
    • He was a bitter, racist, sexist old man who spent his entire life hating Japan and boasting about how many men he killed there. One trip back to Japan wouldn't realistically cure his prejudice so easily.

Why does Hank stay friends with Bill?

  • Every single time Bill stops being pathetic, he turns into a jackass. When he works at the Baseball field, he goes crazy with power. When he is thrust in charge of the shelter, guess what? He goes crazy with power! Even when he's a broken down slob, he still stalks Peggy and acts like a jerk. Yes, he was Hank's friend, but Christ. He treats Bill better then he does Bobby.
    • It's repeatedly shown that Hank (and Dale and Boomhauer) don't really like Bill very much at all...in the present. Flashbacks to their High School days have shown that when he was younger, Bill was athletic, handsome, confident, loyal, and generally around a million times more awesome than he is now. They're only really still friends with him out of respect for the person he used to be (I'm pretty sure that's literally stated by Hank in one episode as to why they should keep helping him out), and from a large dose of pity. Nobody expects Bill to be a good friend, neighbor, etc., they just sort of support him out of duty.
      • Also, it seems pretty obvious if they stopped being friends with Bill he'd kill himself. That doesn't exactly make it as easy as simply not hanging out with him.

Why does Hank stay friends with Dale?

  • Any time Hank has a secret, Dale's the one who blabs it to the neighborhood. Dale's self-indulgent paranoia causes Hank serious problems, like getting him on the Homeland Security watch list. Dale's stupid schemes do major damage to Hank's house. If Hank dares make the tiniest criticism of Dale's behavior, Dale goes berserk and destroys Hank's property out of spite, even though Dale insults everybody at all times for no reason. Especially Peggy. To Hank's face. In fact, why does anybody stay friends with Dale? Dale's a comprehensive asshole.
    • For similar reasons with Bill. They are friends with him because they knew each other since childhood, and it is sort of out of obligation. Plus it has been repeatedly shown that without Hank Dale would collapse in on himself like a dying star.
    • And Dale and Bill have both had a few Let's Get Dangerous moments here and there. It's possible they have enough smaller moments like that offscreen, of coming through here and there when it really counts, to justify Hank counting them as friends. Plus, as we've seen in a few other episodes, Hank likes being useful and really does enjoy helping them out and saving the day. Whenever they don't need his help, or he's dealing with someone competent, Hank doesn't know what to do with himself.
    • Hank has one hell of a tolerance. Think about your group of friends. There's probably one that does incredibly stupid things (let's exclude felonies for now) and yet you wonder why you're friends with them at all (personal experience here).
    • Watch the fireant episode and the way Dale takes the bullet for Bobby. "If it weren't for Dale's paranoid and hate-filled nature I never would've learned the kind of beating a true friendship can take"

Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men

  • Hank says the seat warmer will warm your beer can. But it has a cup holder!
    • He tells this to Boomhauer, who likes to place his beer can between his legs while riding the mower.
      • But it still has a cup holder.
        • That's irrelevant to Boomhauer.

Why doesn't anyone call Hank on his ignorance and constant judging?

  • On more than one occasion, Hank has never been called out on his very, very big mistakes in judging his son, his wife and his friends wrongly and without even giving people a chance. He is unable to accept things attacking his very narrow worldview because his traditions no longer suit the world. He comes across as rather elitist and sexist because of those notions, and what happens? He is never called out on them. Either people think he's right because of some outside factor, or he outright threatens them! Just because he's the big man doesn't mean he's right.
    • Hank is a little bit of a Marty Stu, this troper has notice that people only judge Hank when they're dead wrong about him.
    • It's cultural. Maybe you have to have grown up down here to understand it, but the cast's views on things are very much the norm, albiet exaggerated for comedic effect. Hank is a pretty extreme wet blanket, but his values and acceptance are more or less in line with what it's like to live in that reigon (although people tend to be more tolerant).

Since when does Joseph not want to have sex?

  • Why did Joseph didn't want to go all the way (or even half way) with his girlfriend? I know that not all guys can't wait and I would had believed if it was Bobby, but Joseph was a peeping Tom in the episode Bobby saw Luann naked, he's always talking about boobs, girls, etc. etc. etc.
    • Lack of confidence in himself, fear of being rejected, fear of taking such a big step that he can't take back, fear of taking the relationship further than he wants it to be and just plain being embarrassed about it. There's a large gap between wanting to peep on a girl and really being ready for sex. For all his talk, Joseph hadn't crossed it.
      • Pretty much. You ever been around middle school guys? They'll talk about how awesome tits are and will brag about being with a bunch of girls, but how many do you think have REALLY had sex?

How is Cotton able to walk without shins?

  • It would be impossible for him to bend his legs without shins, so how is he still able to walk? How does he sit down?
    • It's a cartoon. That's how. The doctors told him he'd never be able to walk again, but by sheer impossibly strong determination he managed to get back on his feet and kick that doctor's ass.
    • He kind of does a waddling thing. His feet are sewn to his knees so maybe he can still move his feet up and down, and then he walks normally but just has to move his feet more than someone normally would.

Why doesn't Bill get a dog?

  • In two different episodes, he temporarily took care of a dog and it made him seem much better. When he had Ladybird for a while, he was very happy, and taking care of the dog seemed to give him something to do and give him more incentive to get off the couch. In another episode, he takes care of a solider's dog for an army program, and not only did he get the same benefits from having Ladybird, he was able to pick up girls. So why didn't he ever get a GOOD dog to have permenantly? (he got a bad dog in one episode... Kept attacking him)
    • I forgot what trope this is called, but once you try a plan and it fails for whatever reason, you can never try it ever again, even if you could fix it.
    • The reason why Bill doesn't get a dog? The same reason why Kahn's mother didn't stay, as according to Word of God, it would've made Bill actually happy. And we just can't have that, now can we?

Scoutmaster Wesley

In the ep "Straight as an Arrow" he becomes a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing in the later half as he says Hank should know better than to have his adhd and diabedic sons out in the woods. Then why the fuck did he have them in the fucking Straight Arrow troops in the first place!?!? Why the fuck did he make no mention of this before the end? Thats irresponisbile parenting! And no one called him out on this!

    • Because as Scoutmaster, he can personally see to it that his children have fun as scouts in a way that he deems safe and healthy. He trusted that Hank would hold the meeting the way that he always had, but was deeply upset to see him disrespect him when he didn't.
      • Yes, but those are serious health concerns that should never be ignored.
      • He probably should've told Hank anyway. Usually for organizations and clubs with a lot of child members, the adult heads of the group need to be informed of any health concerns the children have.
  • For why he wanted them to join the Straight Arrows, he seemed to want his kids to have some sickeningly wholesome after-school activity, which is why he brought up the idea to Peggy in the first place. He probably just figured that as scout-master, he could run it any way he wanted and wouldn't have to expose his kids to anything he disapproved of.

Adding on to complaints about Scoutmaster Wesley...

Why did he criticize Hank for acting like he knew how to his kids best, when he was doing that with everyone else's kids in the first place? For god's sake, he tried to have Bobby kicked out of the Order for playing video games! Wesley insisted that the children stay inside and do arts and crafts, but when Hank tried to do something different he was trying impose his beliefs on the kids?

  • He's a hypocrite. That was intentional to show just how annoying the character really was; publically shaming Hank's parenting skills while taking offense when Hank attempts to show any "improper" influence over his own kids.

On the "Old as the Hills" parachuting accident...

Did Hank or Peggy sue the place for a faulty parachute? The guy leading the trip told Peggy to pull both tabs and then pulled his own and went away. I'm no expert in skydiving but aren't they supposed to hold on the person and then pull on their own cord? I guess they could Hand Wave it by saying they covered the hospital bills but this really confuses me. If they let my wife die I would want a huge payback for it. Also why would they put "Free Falling" as a song to play during the credits? That's like confirming that the rest of the show was a Dying Dream.

Fun with Jane and Jane episode

Is it me or was the cult of Jane in the titular episode have the ability to brainwash people really easy? It just seems that the girls only needed three words of encouragement to willingly join their brainwashing cult.

  • Peggy and Luann are both very very stupid and gullible. It doesn't take much.
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