King of the Hill/WMG

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


John Redcorn is the time travelling reincarnation and/or genetically altered version of Dale

Our Dale is aware of this fact and this is why he considers Joseph is son. He hides this from the others by feining ignorance and saying John Redcorn is gay. Not even John "alternate Dale" Redcorn knows that Dale knows.

Hank has other half-brothers.

Including Hal, the guy who was identical to Hank and made Dale and Bill jealous. Either that or Hal is Tom Anderson's son, who is also Cotton's half-brother.

Beavis and Butt-head happens in the future of King of the Hill.

It was never said but the real reason "King of the Hill" ended was because Hank stopped going on adventures,he got tired of his life.After years of this happening Peggy became tired of living with him and divorced him.Hank felt so bad from the experience he moved away.Once he grew old he met a woman who liked being calm and relaxed her name, Ms.Anderson.Since hank didn't feel like a man anymore he took her last name.After living like this for a while the events in "Beavis and Butt-Head" took place.

The last episode will be about Hank trying to solve a wrong situation (like any other episode), yet it turns out that he was wrong.

After that, we are treated to flash forwards of Hank being wrong time after time, and Bobby is right. Hey, at least the boy will finally be right, as Hank wants him to be.

  • General theory confirmed, details jossed.

Boomhauer's job as a Texas Ranger is what has been keeping Dale, Buck, and several other characters out of prison

He has to have some sort of pull with the police, since he is one of them.

It's the only logical explanation for how Buck hasn't been locked in state prison and Dale isn't in a mental hospital. Seriously, the crap Dale and Buck have pulled would land a person in prison.

Hank's family tree (including only Cotton, unrealted Bill, and their offspring):

Cotton
Hank G.H. Hank's half brother* Hal** Bill
Ezekiel*** Didn't any of them have kids? [1] Bobby
Edd (the whole year in the movie being a total fake; the Eds are in the future)
* : There once was a two-part episode that has Hank meeting his brother.
** : There was an episode aboout Hank meeting this guy, who was very similar to him. Seriously, it would be scary if they where not related.
*** : See here; combine the Ezekiel relation guess with the "20 minutes into the future" guess.

Dale Gribble has known that Joseph isn't his son since Day One, and has created his own fantasy world to live in as a result.

Furthermore, he also knows about Nancy and John Redcorn's affair (probably from the start). But his fragile mental state (caused by the refusal to accept the truth about his father's sexuality despite the evidence being right there in front of him and the normal traumas associated with being a skinny, dateless nerd in Texas of all places) simply couldn't handle the depths of his wife's deception and the realization that his greatest fear had come true (that a 'goddess' like Nancy could never love someone like him). So he ignored all the evidence in front of him and created a reality for himself as a badass bounty hunter/mercenary who was desirable to women and feared by men, with a son destined to grow up in his own image. And as he realized that more and more people knew the truth about his secret shame and the lies of his marriage, he sunk even deeper into this world and eventually lost himself entirely. He used government conspiracies and alien manipulations to explain away the discrepancies in his life, and used these paranoid fantasies as an excuse to lock himself away from the rest of the world at the drop of a hat anytime his subconscious mind attempted to force him to accept the truth. Becoming a pest exterminator allowed Dale to take out the hidden rage and buried frustrations he has about his sad existence without running the risk of a physical confrontation with a human that he would surely lose, and along with his bizarre 'experiementations' (another attempt to explain away Joseph's paternity by manipulating science itself) creates yet another barrier between himself and the rest of the world. And when he was forced to temporarily quit exterminating and had to exist in said real world, his hatred was manifested in the cold dispatch of his duties as the Stic-Tek 'hatchet man', the complete disregard of his family and friends and implied rough, angry sex with his wife. Plus, his refusal to use protective gear while using poisons, his haphazard use of firearms and artillery and other reckless behavior are clearly subconscious cries for help and indicative of a death wish. And you thought Bill was screwed up!

  • I support this theory in every conceivable way.
  • There WAS that freakily unexpected laugh once in an early season upon seeing Nancy go off with Redcorn. All i thought then was "he knows"
  • Then why wouldn't Dale have cheated with that attractive female exterminator that was clearly into him.
    • All other character flaws aside, Dale is fiercely loyal to his loved ones and especially his wife.
  • Or maybe Dale truly is just a naive man who has no idea, and that is all part of his charm. The fact that he is paranoid of nearly everything except the affair right under his nose is just there for irony. It's still an interesting theory, but I can't help but think that he would crack after all those years of denial and done something drastic. And when it came to his father Bug being gay, Dale honestly couldn't figure that out by himself until he saw it with his own eyes. Also, I doubt that Nancy would allow him to be rough with her in bed. We already know for a fact that she's the type of person who always gets her way. The lady's no pushover, and I can't see Dale as someone who would push himself on her. Especially considering that during the affair, she was the one who allowed him to sleep with her twice yearly (Christmas and his birthday). As for the whole death wish thing, I dunno. Dale seems pretty content with his life. He pretty much lives off of Nancy, but prides himself in his extermination jobs (even if he sells himself short, he enjoys it very much). Maybe I'm just optimistic, but I just don't see too much darkness in the mind of Dale Gribble. Even if he became more lucid and figured out the truth, I still have to believe that his forgiving/accepting nature would shine through.

Joseph really is Dale's son

Through the magic of recessive genes,Dale's Indian blood shines through.

  • One episode had a girl who had the same biological father as Joseph. This supports the theory that Dale WAS visited by aliens and they gave his DNA to Nany and Candi.
    • Or John Redcorn is a huge man-slut...YMMV, though.

Hank Hill has high functioning autism or Asperger's

  • He's probably really high on spectrum, but think about his strange behavior that are clear symptoms to aspergers.
    • His obsession with Propane and other interests
    • A bit uncomfortable with sexuality, and at times can be distant from his family.
    • Prefer to not be very emotional, Hank can be very stoic.
    • Seconded. In the episode where Hank gets addicted to video gaming while Bobby trains for the president's fitness award, the game based off of him is called "Pro Pain". Hank assumes that this is simply a misspelling, when it is really a play on words. Asperger's can lead to things like this.
  • Except:
    • His "obsession" isn't really that, just the dogged support of a man trying to stick by what he thinks is right, and have loyalty to the product he has spent his life selling.
    • Is a portrayal of middle aged man who was raised to believe men don't talk about their feelings.
    • Tying in with the above, Hank's been raised with a certain degree of stoicism and reticence regarding certain topics that are "polite" to talk about.
    • Hank's not very bright and has fairly unimaginative views (like many Americans he has a fairly narrow world view, unburdened by a great deal of experience, which is precisely the demographic the show is affectionately spoofing).
  • As it says on the main page, Hank is a somewhat unimaginative, slightly dim, massive stick in the mud, with very old fashioned values and world views that he tends to cling to in response to a changing world. If you looked up "average" in the dictionary, there is a real possibility you'd find a picture of Hank Hill.
  • Hank probably suffers Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (Distinct from OCD). People with OCPD are often seen as workaholics and perfectionists, putting a lot of emphasis on self-control in all situations. They can be so involved in their work that they ignore family and friends, and are often so insistent on doing things properly that they lose sight of the point of whatever activity they're undertaking. OCPD usually cares a great distaste for any form of emotional expression from both the suffer and those around him (emotions always carry a lack of control), and those diagnosed are often very judgmental and intolerant of others who do display excessive feeling or do things "improperly." As mentioned somewhere else on this site- Hank spends more time with his lawn, propane, his grill, his truck, and his dog than his family and shows them way more emotion, since they can't emote back.


Bill is Bobby's father.

Bobby looks a little more like Bill than Hank, and Hank has a medical condition that affects his fertility. Throw in Bill's constant obsession with Peggy and the answer is obvious. Hank is actually sterile, and Bill had an affair with Peggy that resulted in Bobby. The parallel with Dale, Joseph, and John Redcorn is the creator's joke on the audience - they're meant to laugh at Dale's cluelessness but miss a similar situation themselves.

  • I doubt this, Cotton looked almost exactly like Bobby.
    • I concur
    • Thirded. Children tend to look more like their grandparents than their parents.
  • Here's a picture of Hank as a kid. I think this speaks for itself.
  • Hank does have a son, Ezekiel.
  • Also, you really have to stretch things to believe Peggy would cheat on her husband. And with Bill, at that.
    • Hank is frosty and chaste. It would also explain why Bill is always so clingy and obsessive with her at times, and why Peggy hates him, even when she has no real reason. Seeing him reminds her of their affair and possible child.
    • let's not forget that Bill used to be quite attractive.
      • Not only that, but Peggy tends to be naive and cocky. If Bill wanted to sink to such a low, he could have told her that he was in the military and conveniently left out the part about him just being a barber. After all, some women like a man in uniform and if he used to be a looker, then just imagine how he would've looked in his military uniform. Peggy could have enjoyed bragging to Minh (if she lived in the US at the time) and Nancy about being with Bill because of the "military" thing, and it's not like Nancy could've said anything because she's cheating on Dale. As for Minh, she and Kahn think they're surrounded by rednecks, so for all we know Minh could've just kept her mouth shut just so she could enjoy the show, especially once Peggy conceived.

Hank is Blessed with Suck

He is destined to win (nearly) all social arguments. Unfortunately, that requires that everyone who enters his life is plainly wrong. He's destined to never meet a reasonable roleplayer who sees gaming as a hobby instead of something that requires drinking blood. Never to see a soccer coach who treats the sport well. Never to meet a liberal who makes sense. Hank Hill is doomed to forever encounter idiots and lunatics.

  • Hank is cursed with suck. Hank rarely meets a human being who isn't a complete idiot or total asshole. His friends his family and everyone hes ever shook hands with is either a gullible moron who can easily be swayed into beleiving that topic of the week or is the manipulative basterd who brought it in. Remember when Bobby went to special ed because he was lazy. Then the entire class of kids who were suposed to be normal kids then all stood up on the log flume and knocked each other in the water and did nothing but gleefully laughed as they approached the drop. My lord they shouldve been wearing helmets after that.
    • While the kids were certainly lazy, the school administrators were equally to blame. The Principal was encouraging them all to feign stupidity in order to exclude them from the SATs (which they would've done poorly on, thus bringing down the entire school district's average score). And it probably didn't hurt that Dale was their chaperone.
  • Wait a sec...

In relation to the theory above, Arlen is Blessed with Suck, not Hank.

Think about it. Sure, people are a little kooky outside Arlen, but why are the worst offenders in Arlen? And why are people at their worst there?

Some possible theories:

  • 1. Something's in the water.
  • 2. Hellmouth. (Hillmouth? King of the Hillmouth!)

Would explain why Cotton is well-behaved (by comparison) when outside of Arlen.

Mike Judge will end it in The Movie, where Beavis and Butthead will befriend Bobby.

Because that would be awesome.

The Manger Babies are made of a material that causes brain damage

How else can Luanne get stupider every episode since getting them?

  • I'd say it had more to do with Lucky. Hell, Luanne was going to community college for quite a few seasons, of her own accord no less.
    • Then that would make Lucky a witch, given that he appeared as a one-shot/one-line character at the end of the season where she quit college, and didn't even meet her until the next season. I support the Manger Babies theory, but only in terms of her increasing naivety; she remains a sense of intelligence for a while, but it could be argued that her naivety eventually had a severe effect on that, too.

Dale's grandmother really is Jamaican.

This would explain both his nonplussed reaction at Nancy giving birth to a child with dark skin, and his lack of overtly racist views despite his Right-Wing Militia Fanatic leanings.

  • More likely Filipino: Dale has shown he knows Tagalog and offered zero explanation for it. Or he's just not a racist. Dale actually comes off as more of a libertarian than anything else: he doesn't seem to have a problem with what other people choose to do as long as it doesn't infringe on his rights. See for example his opinion towards gays, which is actually more open-minded than any other adult on the show.
  • Or he's just a right-wing militia guy who's not a racist?

Octavio used to work in a mental asylum

But one fateful Halloween night a giant, mute psychopath broke out and killed him... or so it seemed. After the killer escaped he got up and ran away to Texas, where he took on a new identity.

The real last episode will have Hank and Peggy witness a murder

They'll be placed in the witness protection program, at which point they'll be move to a new town, where they end up living near to a pair of half-wit teenagers.

The show is actually the future of Beavis and Butthead.

Think about it. Hank is a descendant of Daria, having gained a bit of her mind. Just like Daria's family, the Hills have a few Quinns, Helens and Jakes. (Bobby, Cotton, Bobby, respectivelly. YMMV) Just as Daria's world was filled with idiotic people, so is Hank's world. His friends are related to the Fashion Club or Beavis and/or Butthead. I wouldn't be surprised if Boomhauer is Beavis's son.

    • I hate to say this, but a world filled with idiotic people is Truth in Television.
    • This troper's best friend has a similar theory only with Hank being a grown up version of Butthead and Dale as a grown up Beavis

One of Bobby classmates is an illegitimate son of Boomhauer.

    • Does anybody notice that kid from Bobby's class has similar skin tone and hair. It's very possible Boomhauer made a woman pregnant with a child.
      • It's an interesting theory, and maybe even an in-joke with the animators or something along those lines, but Boomhauer being a Darkskinned Blonde isn't genetic - he tans obsessively, and in one episode he also admitted he dyes his hair. So if the kid is Boomhauer's, then I guess it's a case of Lamarck Was Right.

Gerald Goode is another of Cotton's illegitimate sons

  • Alternatively, it's not Gerald but his wife Helen who is somewhere on the Hill family tree. She even once said that "some people only understand a good ass-kicking". Perhaps she's the secret love child of Charlie's wife and Cotton.

The whole series is the delusion of Tom Anderson as he rots in federal prison.

    • What is with you people and theories like this?

Bobby Hill grows up as a social worker for Arlen.

On the last episode in the series, Bobby has an experience with girls around the end that influence him to think higher and more aware of himself. This particular event makes Hank say more than three or four words of encouragement to Bobby. Much later in his life he considers taking a position at a social workers group for troubled adults and teenagers. He also marries Connie Junior, letting her be his assistant.

  • I don't think Connie would ever become Bobby's assistant. She has previously stated that she wants to go into journalism, and on top of that, is a stereotypical Asian over-achiever (both because she wants to do well and because Con and Minh put a lot of pressure of her) and would most likely aspire to something greater than Bobby Hill's assistant.

Bill became the opposite of a remembered hero due to Karma.

Bill was in the army once, so he has a badge of honor on his end. But due to unhealthy habits like dredging over an ex for years had turned him from recognized and honored person to a bummer of epic proportions.

    • Due to Bill's freaquent Acquired Situational Narcissism, and his status as a muscular babe-magnet as a teenager, you could argue he has a good case for having been a Jerk Jock in high school. Hank just doesn't remember it because he might've been the same way (look at his disapproving attitude for Bobby and people not into sports), and is pruning that out with his Nostalgia Filter.
      • Hank definitely was, as shown in his flashback in the episode where bobby was in a fashion show.

Boomhaur suffers from a severe case of OCD.

To put it more likely, a rare case of OCD that enforces strict vocalization of a sentence or a word. When he was very young Boom was pressured to read at a rate beyond the normal for a child, to the point where a bad habit of speeding up words became an indent to his mental establishment. This can be proven by the fact none of his youth is ever brought up except for College and High school. I can conclude it as unpleasant in a way.

    • I don't think so. I have OCD and I know a lot about the disorder, and language issues like that aren't symptoms. My hypothesis is simply that his upbringing and environment gave him that weird accent. Bear in mind his grandmother talks like that too. I live in the South, so I've heard real folks talk like him before. If there was a medical explanation for his manner of speech, it would probably be a simple speech impairment considering he imagines himself speaking normally while everyone else mumbles quickly (source: A Fire Fighting We Will Go) so clearly he's aware of it.
    • Seconded. I'm dating a guy who was born in Texas, and he spent part of his childhood there and in New Mexico. (Both of us live in Oregon.) He's said that some people in the South do talk in a similar manner but not as exaggerated as Boomhauer's speech. And, on a related note concerning an above WMG about the character's personality quirks, he's said it's a bit of a Truth in Television, but again, the show exaggerates it for laughs.

Hank really is rich

He's just extremely good at keeping it a secret so Bobby can learn the value of money and not waste the fortune when Bobby inherits it.

Aliens overwrote John Redcorn's genetic material with Dale's

John Recorn, being a attractive sample of humanity, is likely to get around, but with Dale's DNA being spread around, the future generation is likely to be just as weak as Dale. With a few hundred generations the population is ripe for an alien invasion. Boomhaur is also part of their plan due to him really getting around.

Peggy's flanderization into a Ted Baxter has an in-universe justification: it was the result of brain damage she sustained in the sky diving accident.

In seasons 1-3, she was a friendly woman with only occasional ego problems. At the end of season 3, she has the accident. From season 4 onward, she's dramatically less sympathetic and her ego and cluelessness are suddenly her most dominant traits. Coinincidence? I think not.

    • I second this into headcannon.

== John Redcorn is really an alien. == So technically Joseph really is part alien.

Luanne's flanderization also has an in-universe justification: brain damage sustained in the Mega-lo Mart explosion.

Note that one of her very first acts after said explosion is to take pictures of CNN broadcasts in an attempt to become a photojournalist...this could be considered her first really stupid act in the show.

Bobby is dead

Sometime after his 13th birthday, or after breaking up with Connie, Bobby died. This explains why he, and everyone remain the same age even though years are said to have passed and the rest of the series is his dying dream. Of course, one could argue this for any character (except perhaps Dale and Bill, for obvious reasons), but it fits when you consider that before he turned 13, almost everything Bobby did was against Hank's favor, but shourtly after, Hank began to accept at least some of Bobby's shortcomings. The final episode, in which Bobby and Hank discovered common ground with meat, was Bobby's very last moments, dying in the belief he and his father had finally found a relatable subject.

  • Perhaps this could explain why Bobby seems to remain pre-pubescent, while Connie gets her period and Joseph gets taller, grows a mustache, and develops a deeper voice.

Buckley is imagining the show post explosion

He sees the people he knew get stupider and meaner as he's closer to dying and the Buckley's angel ep is him wanting to guest star.

Bobby is an orphan

Hank and Luanne died in the Mega-Lo Explosion. Peggy was despondent, especially her wedding anniversary so Bobby got her a ski-diving lesson as a present. And she died. Either Tillie or Cotton got custody of Bobby and he communicates long distance with Joseph and Connie, while being probably miserable and escapes to daydreaming about what may have happened if they were alive. The show's later Seasonal Rot is him finding something to keep him happy and leavng behind the fantasy.

Nancy is losing her hair because the pressure of not telling Dale the truth about Joesph's father

  • At the very least, it's a case of karmatic punishment.

Peggy's Ted Baxter and Scrappy qualities are due to massive brain damage

Remember when Peggy nearly died after her shoot failed to open after she jumped out of the plane? Despite surviving, her brain was severely damaged thus ruining what Spanish skills she had and damaging her latter personality where she was genuinely smart and witty.

Beavis and Butthead grew up into Boomhauer and Dale

Okay, first, just look physically at the characters. Boomhauer looks like Beavis. He speaks incoherently (as Beavis often did). We have no frame of reference for when Beavis and Butthead took place. We simply know they were in their early teens, possibly in junior high or high school. We never saw the school year end on Beavis and Butthead, it easily could have been one school year, after which Beavis matured, took up playing football and could have evolved, and grew into the man wee see in Hank's flashbacks.

Dale could be an older Butthead, he has similar facial features and hair color. As with Beavis above, we don't know how long the timeline of Beavis and Butthead is, or even how old the boys actually were. They could have met Hank, decided to eschew their childish nicknames and started going by their real names, eventually gone out for football and become the young men we see in flashbacks with Hank and Cotton. Beavis and Butthead also takes place in Texas (though in the fictional town of Highland IIRC). Hell, it's even possible that Beavis and Butthead were taken from their poverty-stricken, neglectful parents by protective services and placed into adoptive care in Arlen.

Bill dated Peggy before Peggy and Hank got married.

Peggy dumped Bill, and after that, Bill never really had another successful romantic relationship. That's the reason he still is obsessed with Peggy, and he only stays friends with Hank so he might have a chance to get closer to Peggy. Peggy is sick of Bill's obsession, with is why she hates him.

The story takes place from Hank's point of view, though he doesn't directly narrate.

  • This is why Hank is so often viewed in the right while everyone else is either wrong, ignorant, or stupid. Hank is a fairly honest person so he's not portrayed as completely perfect, but he views himself as very moral which is why he's the "right man" in most situations. Had the show been told from Dale's point of view, he would have more hair and HE would be the right man, like in his POV scenario from the fireman episode.

Peggy has gone to Paradise Cove before

How else would she bring up the name of the nude beach so fast in "Sug Night"? And later when she disrobed there were no tan lines on her to be seen.

Buck Strickland was once as great as Hank treats him

  • Buck actually was the great businessman that Hank still sees him as, however over a decade of having his business essentially run for him by Hank and all social manners managed by Miss Liz effectively babied him and gave room for his descent into debauchery. Miss Liz stays with him since she still loves him and Hank still believes that Buck is the same man he once was and as such Buck really only shows signs of his old self when one or both leave him.

Dale knows about Nancy's affair with John Redcorn, but pretends to be ignorant about it.

Dale's always making up stories about how Joseph came from aliens because he doesn't want Joseph to know about the truth.

Hank was not always the honest propane salesman or great football player we knew him as.

Basically, you know that flashback to the night when he got drunk and had Bill's name tattooed on the back of his head? He must have been acting like that all the time up until he met Buck Strickland. People have simply never forgiven or forgotten. There is no other logical explanation for why absolutely every person he knows expects the worst from him at all times.

  • The flashback in "Husky Bobby" had him picking on an overweight guy, so maybe canon.

Cotton played a heavy hand in the men Dale, Bill and Boomhauer grew into.

Dale is president of the gun club and has a large collection, Boomhauer is basically a man-whore and Bill joined the army with the hopes of becoming a war hero. There are exactly three things Cotton loves: Guns, sex and war. Cotton rubbed off on each of them in a different way.

  1. ↑ No, not with eachother, pervert)
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