Hank Hill

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Hank Hill
Hank Hill.
First appearance	Pilot
Last appearance	To Sirloin With Love
Cause/reason	series conclusion
Created by	Mike Judge
Portrayed by	Mike Judge
Information
Gender	Male
Age	41-43
Occupation	Asst. Manager at Strickland Propane, Mega lo Mart Propane salesman, back to Asst. Manager at Strickland Propane, former sold Tractors and Tractor accesories.
Title	"I sell Propane and Propane accessories"
Family	Cotton Hill (deceased father) Tilly Hill (mother) Didi Hill (stepmother) Hank Hill (GH or "Good Hank") (half-brother) Junichiro (half-brother) Dusty Hill (cousin) Rita (cousin)
Spouse(s)	Peggy Hill (wife)
Children	Bobby Hill (son)
Religion	Methodist

For Hank's half-brother, also named Hank, see G. H. Hill

Hank Rutherford Hill is a fictional character in the animated series King of the Hill. Hank lives in Arlen, Texas and works at the fictional Strickland Propane selling propane and propane accessories. Hank's voice is provided by series creator Mike Judge.^[1][2] The Economist briefly mentioned him as one of the wisest people on television.^[3]

Description

According to the episode "Yankee Hankie," Hank proudly believed he was born in Texas to Tillie Mae Hill and Cotton Lyndal Hill but finds (to his disgust) that he was actually born in New York City. His mother told him she gave birth to Hank in the ladies' room at Yankee Stadium due to Cotton's failed attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro during a rare American visit. Hank was devastated to learn of his true birthplace after having thought of himself as a native Texan for over forty years but eventually came to accept his heritage when he realized that many of the Alamo heroes were not from Texas either. Hank, who previously thought he was an only child, finds out he has a Japanese half brother named Junichiro in the episode "Returning Japanese". This is due to an affair his father had with his Japanese nurse while recovering from leg injuries in post-World War II Japan. Also, in the episode "Hank Gets Dusted," Hank is shown to be the cousin of ZZ Top bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill.

Hank was on the Arlen high school football team (as were Bill and Boomhauer). He was a running back and led the league in rushing (his record remains unbroken). He had a promising career until he snapped his ankle in the state championship (although this cost Arlen the game, he is still celebrated for "taking them to State"). This incident exacerbated Hank's already-restrained emotionality, as he regarded it as punishment from God for hot-dogging (doing a celebratory dance) after earlier scoring a touchdown, thus explaining his fear of showing joy. After graduating from high school, he went on to work as a salesman at Jeans West, a clothing retailer, until Buck Strickland found that he was a good salesman and hired him at Strickland Propane, where Buck taught him everything about propane and propane accessories. According to his neighbor, Dale, he also had a brief stint as a tractor salesman.

Hank sells propane and propane accessories as an assistant manager at Strickland Propane. He was briefly promoted to manager when Buck's wife/ex-wife ("Miz Liz") temporarily took over Strickland Propane. Hank was also briefly promoted to manager by Buck Strickland while helping Buck rebuild a house for Habitat for Humanity as part of Buck's community service after a drunk driving conviction. He was then demoted after blurting out "I love you" to Strickland. Unlike Strickland's business enemy, M. F. Thatherton (and Strickland himself), Hank believes that selling propane through honesty and hard work is what life is all about. Hank idolizes Buck, who calls Hank "Ol' Top," and keeps a somewhat idyllic picture of him, even though he recognizes his boss's many shortcomings (excessive gambling, alcoholism, womanizing, and a general lack of principles). When it comes to Strickland, loyalty wins over all else. Hank must frequently clean up his boss's unsavory "situations": bailing him out of jail, facilitating his vices, and performing suspicious errands. In one episode he went as far as covering up Strickland's illegal price fixing agreement with the other local propane providers to keep him from being arrested.

He only has one child, Bobby Hill, but would have had more if not for his "narrow urethra," a running joke throughout the series. Early in the series he often says of Bobby, "That boy ain't right." And in one episode Peggy says "Bobby isn't a girl," to which Hank respnds "No Peggy, I don't think we have to worry about that anymore." Although Hank is often perplexed and irritated by Bobby's eccentricities, he clearly loves his son, even though he's reluctant and uncomfortable to say it to his face. He even feigns an interest in Bobby's passions such as comedy and theatre. Hank is relieved when Kahn tells him that he caught Bobby and Connie taking their clothes off since, up until that time, Hank was unsure of Bobby's interest in girls. In the first episode of the series, Peggy prompts inexpressive Hank to tell his son that he loves him—after he finally manages to do so, Bobby says that he thought he was just a "big disappointment," which Hank immediately rejects, earnestly (if, to the viewer, implausibly) declaring that Bobby is the one thing in town that's never disappointed him.

According to his medical record, Hank is 6'2" and weighs in at 220 lbs. Hank suffers from a fictional genetic disorder called Diminished Gluteal Syndrome (DGS). His essentially non-existent buttocks cause stress on his spine and force him to wear an "orthogluteal" prosthesis while sitting down.

Hank drives a red pickup truck, likely a Ford Super Duty, which replaced his original truck, a red Ford Ranger after it was destroyed by a train. He gives great love and affection to his lawn and his dog Ladybird. In several episodes it is implied that Hank spends more time with his dog and lawn than Peggy and Bobby. When Hank mourns over the fact that his lawn is sub-par compared to his neighbor's, he remarks, "I put so much work into this, my sweat, blood, tears, all the tender feelings I should have given my family." In another episode, Peggy is bitter at Hank for forgetting her birthday but throwing a special one for Ladybird. Hank's idol is Outlaw Country singer Willie Nelson, and he also plays the Acoustic guitar.

Hank is sometimes naive and closed-minded, but generally a good person. Although he dislikes change and novel situations, he can adapt to them quite well, quickly mastering unfamiliar social milieus. He can be pushed too far on occasion, usually by his neighbor Dale. A running joke throughout the series is an angry Hank yelling "I'm gonna kick your ass," a threat which, when he makes good on it, he acts out quite literally. Hank's honesty and naivete often get him in unpredictable and troublesome situations. Ultimately, Hank cares for the people around him, particularly his family and friends and is always out to do what is right.

Personality

Hank is often regarded as the wise, hard-working, traditional American. Everybody looks to Hank when they have any seemingly useless, or dull work that needs to be done. When his dog Ladybird attacked a black repairman (voiced by Bernie Mac) working on their heating system, he was accused of being racist, but it was later proven that she is only prejudiced towards repairmen in general, as she knows Hank is usually the one to make household repairs. Hank has briefly worked at Mega Lo Mart as a propane salesman trainee when he lost his job at Strickland Propane. Hank's reserved nature probably resulted from years of verbal abuse from his father Cotton Hill. However, if sufficiently provoked, Hank has proven not to be a pushover often ending disputes with his self popularized quote "I'm going to kick your ass "

He is for the most part a staunch conservative (he once said dreamily that he missed voting for Ronald Reagan.) He was initially a huge fan of George W. Bush, but had second thoughts about voting for him because of his weak handshake, and when asked if he would vote for "the other guy," presumably Al Gore, he said "I don't know." He is a Republican, but admires some Democrats who had hawkish tendencies such as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. His dog Ladybird is named after Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of Lyndon B. Johnson. In one episode, Bobby chose to do a school report on his favorite president, Josiah Bartlet of the dramatic TV series The West Wing. When Hank discovered this, seemingly going against his admiration of people despite their political persuasions, he scolded Bobby, not because Bartlet is a fictional character but because Bartlet is a liberal. He then had Bobby do his report on Ronald Reagan. Hank also has a great amount of respect for former Democratic Governor Ann Richards (although he displays great respect for, and deference to, all authority figures).

He considers his wife his best friend, and feels that physically punishing children is wrong; he is verbally strict, but not directly abusive.

Political parties aside, he is very conservative and old-fashioned, naturally thinking everyone shares his sense of right and wrong and being largely ignorant of new trends and view points; several episodes involve him dealing with things like yoga, boy bands, etc. Hank is portrayed as having traditional family values, and he is shown to be uncomfortable with hiring a woman to work at Strickland because she was believed to be too attractive, even though she was overly qualified; instead, he hired a man for shallowly expressing a fondness for the Dallas Cowboys and a blatantly fraudulent adoration for propane. The man was later revealed to be a completely unreliable drug addict. His old-fashioned ways extend to a suspicion of new technology. He does however, eventually get a cell phone, and briefly becomes addicted to a computer game whose main character is modeled on him. Still, he does share a few liberal values. One of them is his discovery of organic meat in the episode "Raise the Steaks". He even goes as far as to defend the hippies, something he seemed somewhat ashamed to do but nevertheless found himself agreeing with them when it comes to natural food. He has also been shown to have fairly moderate views on issues like gay rights and other religions. Hank has some environmental leanings (though he distances himself from the movement at large), once lamenting air pollution in Houston, opposing the building of McMansions, and running for city council on a platform of removing low-flow toilets because they waste more water than they save. Despite his apparent naivety to general things, he has been shown to be very clever in various scenarios. These include tricking a crooked lawyer attempting to sue Strickland into making it appear as though he is the one that injured his plaintiff; forcing a veterinarian who was shaking him down on costly and unnecessary treatments for a soldier's cat to approve the cat's file, or Hank would tell the vet's customers about a completely inefficient imaging machine the vet couldn't afford; and getting the see-no-evil parents of a youngster who was bullying him to exert discipline by having Bobby behave exactly like their son towards them.

He has shown to have chiroptophobia. When surprised, he reacts with a "BWAAAAAH!". This was used in the title of the episode "Mutual of Omabwah", and " Bwah my nose."

Hank can be rather gullible, as for the past twenty-five years, he was buying cars at sticker price from Tom Hammond's used cars. He has also been tricked because of his relative ignorance concerning drugs or subcultures. Hence he once mistakenly bought vials of crack believing they were fishing bait and in a time of stress took a hit of marijuana because he thought it was a cigarette. He also introduced a woman, who later turned out to be a prostitute, to several business associates. This led her former pimp, Alabaster Jones (voiced by Snoop Dogg), to believe he was her new pimp, a role he was forced to act out to rid her of him.

In Be True to Your Fool", a flashback reveals that shortly after Hank graduated from high school with his three best friends, Dale Gribble, Bill Dauterive, and Jeff Boomhauer, Bill enlisted in the United States Army -- a night of celebratory drinking led them to a biker bar, where the then-formidable Bill saved a drunken Hank from a beating. In gratitude, Hank stumbled off to a tattoo parlor and paid to have Bill's name inked onto his chest before passing out. Only Boomhauer was with Hank, and, unable to persuade the proprietor to ignore Hank's purchase, convinced him to put the tattoo in a less conspicuous place, the back of Hank's head; Hank had completely forgotten that night, but was reminded of it while undergoing treatment for head lice in the present (an affliction caused by an absurd scheme of Bill's). He had the name removed out of disgust, but eventually had a jailhouse tattoo of it put on to show Bill that the two were still friends.

In nearly every episode, Hank and his friends Dale, Bill and Boomhauer, will stand about in the alley behind Hank's house, drinking Alamo beer and discussing the events of the day. When consensus is reached, and at breaks in the conversation, they will give short words of agreement, such as "yup" or "mm-hmm."

See also

• Peggy Hill
• Bobby Hill

References

External links

• Official site for King of the Hill
• Hank Hill bio site
• King of the Hill at the Internet Movie Database