Dale Gribble

*This article uses material from the “Dale Gribble” article on the King of the Hill Wiki at FANDOM is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.*

**Dale Gribble** is one of the main characters from the *King of the Hill* series.

Dale rounds out Hank's circle of friends. Dale, an exterminator by trade, is a paranoid conspiracy theorist who has prepared for just about any unlikely situation you can think of. And yet, he can't seem to figure out that his lovely wife Nancy is having an affair right under his nose.

In the AWA fics, Dale is a student at the AWA Academy.

## **Appearance**

Dale is a lanky man with a light-brown hair. He wears a brown collared shirt over a white top, blue pants, brown shoes, an orange cap and gray shades.

## **Personality**

Dale is highly suspicious of all levels of government and ardently defends his Second Amendment rights, once remarking, "Guns don't kill people; the government does." Dale also refuses to pay taxes, does not vote ("The Perils of Polling"), and occasionally prints his own currency (Hank Hill typically appearing on the "Hundred-Gribble bill"). He runs away and sweats a lot when the IRS comes knocking on his door. In the episode "Movin' On Up", he refused to give Hank his social security number so the quartet of friends could rent a house on the block to use as a clubhouse. In another episode, he believed the government had tested "deadly placebo drugs" on Bill, supposedly made by "Puh-fizer" (Pfizer). This is why as a gun owner, he has never joined the N.R.A.

Dale smokes heavily, always Manitoba brand cigarettes. According to a high-ranking Manitoba employee, Dale should have died a long time ago. They calculated that he has smoked over 991,863 cigarettes, enough to earn every item in their catalog (and he has). Dale said that if he were a Canadian, he would smoke pot instead.

## **Abilities**

Dale, unlike Hank and Bill, has very little physical strength. According to "The Texas Skilsaw Massacre", Dale can only bench press 35 pounds. And in Get Your Freak Off, Dale himself admits that a little girl could probably beat him up.

## **Trivia**

* Dale presumably suffers from Paranoid Personality Disorder, although it is unknown how he acquired the disorder.
* Even on countless occasions, Dale never found out about the affair of his wife, Nancy Hicks-Gribble, and close "friend", John Redcorn. The closest he ever came to learning of the affair was when Peggy was about to tell him but didn't since Peggy knew Dale was a good father and did not want to ruin the relationship between him and his family. He once had a subconscious dream that in "Vision Quest" that was telling him about Redcorn's involvement, but he seemed to misread the situation completely: A native American man with a ceremonial headdress was making love to his wife and he was handed Joseph wearing the same headdress. It is possible he does know and is simply in denial.
* In ”The Exterminator”, it is revealed that Dale likes eating nine small meals per day.
* Dale is extremely close to Hank's father, Cotton. He respectfully always addresses him as colonel and shares Cotton's sense of humor.8
* In two episodes, Dale has been known to speak fluent Russian and have an interest in Russia's controversial president Vladimir Putin.
* Dale seems to understand Bobby and be more attentive to his personal interests than either of his parents.
* It is unknown who his mother is but in one episode he said she had passed on and Dale is seen after mentioning it.
* The license plate on Dale's truck is LXD-352.
* Dale wears a hat with Mack (a truck company) on it.
* In "Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do", it was revealed by Bobby that Dale reads romance novels.
* Dale shares his last name with Gribble, an underwater crustacean that is, in essence, the equivalent of an underwater termite. This most likely coincides with Dale being an exterminator.
* He has been known to try surviving outside his house. Quite possibly this helped keep him alive when he thought he had rabies in To Kill a Ladybird and again in Master of Puppets.
* Dale always wears eyeglasses with clip-on sunglasses on a hinge.
* He personally seems to respect Bill the least, taking every opportunity to insult him.
* He can eat more hot dogs at once than Bill.
* The first time Dale uses the alias Rusty Shackleford is at a Mason Lawnmowers seminar.
* Dale's "Bugabago", a reference to RV manufacturer Winnebago, is a 1992 Dodge Grand Caravan that does not even remotely resemble an RV.
* Dale was originally going to be voiced by Steven Root, but Root did not feel he suited the character. He was instead voiced by Johnny Hardwick.
* At the end of "Night and Deity", Dale reveals that his favorite show is *Sanford and Son*. In *Hilloween he is also seen watching it. This is also referenced in the episode "Pregnant Paws", when Dale briefly stops in front of the TV set (which is playing*Sanford and Son*) before proceeding to arrest Jim Helstrom. In the closing credits of the same episode, he is seen watching the show with Jim.*
* In the episode King of the Ant Hill, Dale attempts to persuade Hank to reconsider hiring him to spray his lawn, explaining to Hank that he has dedicated his professional career to the study and control of arthropods. Dale, continuing to elaborate on his experience and expertise as an exterminator, explains that he's "personally taste-tested each and every household insecticide."
* It is possible that he and Boomhauer are very close. In one episode, it is revealed they take a yearly fishing trip together without Bill or Hank. Also, when Hank isn't the one to talk Dale out of something, it is usually Boomhauer - that, or Boomhauer is almost always with Dale on his crazy schemes. Dale also rarely insults Boomhauer or has a bad word to say about him, being the first to stick up for him in Luanne's Saga after Hank jumps to the conclusion that Boomhauer is dating Luanne.
* In the episode “DaleTech“ Dale tells Cotton that he’s allergic to citrus fruit when Cotton asked him if he was the one who drank Hank’s grapefruit juice.