Hank Hill

Hank Rutherford Hill (born April 15, 1953) is the protagonist of King of the Hill. Hank has a central role in most story lines, along with his family (wife Peggy, son Bobby and niece Luanne). Hank's voice is provided by series co-creator Mike Judge. The Economist briefly mentioned him as one of the wisest people on television.
He expresses a fascination for of propane, knowing every intricate detail, similar to the fascination a similar character in Beavis and Butt-head named Tom Anderson expresses for butane. Ironically, Hank sees butane as an inferior gas. Hank is known to threaten people who have angered him with saying, "I'm gonna kick your ass."

## Appearance

Hank Hill stands 6'2" in height and weighs 220 lbs. He has brown, short, wavy hair, brown eyes along with peach-pale skin. He is fairly tall with a pot-belly. Among King of the Hill characters, Hank bears a noticeable resemblance to Tom Anderson, a character on Mike Judge's previous animated series, Beavis and Butt-head. The similarities in both voice and (to a slightly lesser extent) physical appearance between Hill and Anderson are especially noticeable when comparing early King of the Hill episodes to the later episodes or movie of Beavis and Butt-head. Hank also inherited much of Tom's serious, conservative personality; the differences, however, reflect the differences in tone between the two series. Unlike Tom, a senior citizen whose grumpiness was typically as absurd as his antagonists' stupidity, Hank's humorously no-nonsense attitude makes him a sympathetic voice of reason within the series. Hank drives three red Ford pick-up trucks throughout the series, including a Ranger (1997-2000), F-250 Super Duty (2001-2008), and F-350 (2009-2010)

## History

Hank Rutherford Hill was born on April 15, 1953, in the ladies' room at Yankee Stadium in New York City, NY to Matilda Mae "Tillie" and a war veteran Cotton Hill.
Hank along with Bill Dauterive, Jeff Boomhauer, and Dale Gribble, graduated Tom Landry Middle School, and later pursued secondary education at Arlen High. Hank had a childhood dream of winning the super bowl and joined the Arlen High Football team with the intention of going pro after he graduated. He was a running back and led the league in rushing (his record remains unbroken). He was able to bring the team to the Class 2A State Football Championship, but during the second half of the game his ankle was crushed, ending his dreams of a career as a pro football player (he attributed this to God punishing him for doing a celebratory dance after making a touchdown during the game's first half). This cost the team the game, but despite this he was still celebrated for "taking them to State."
After graduating from Arlen High, Hank applied to the Army in 1971, with his friend, Bill, However, Hank had a narrow urethra, and was rejected because officials thought he would be unable to relieve himself in a time of stress. During a celebratory party for Bill, Hank got extremely intoxicated and, wanting to show his appreciation for how much of a hero he thought Bill to be, he wandered into a tattoo parlor and decided to get a tattoo of Bill's name, despite Boomhauer's protests. He passed out on the chair shortly after and, because the tattoo artist refused to refund Hank's money, Boomhauer convinced the tattoo artist to instead add the tattoo on the back of Hank's head so he wouldn't wake up and regret getting it.
He worked at Arlen's Jeans West during his late teen years and sold a pair of Jordache to his future employer, Buck Strickland, of Strickland Propane. At an unspecified time he also worked as a tractor salesman. Sometime during his high school years, Hank began dating his future wife Peggy Hill.
Hank owned a Maverick. Hank and his wife Peggy both smoked until their son Bobby was conceived, but he has temporarily returned to the habit on at least two occasions; once when he showed Bobby how to inhale when forcing him to smoke an entire carton (Keeping Up With Our Joneses), and again when Mrs. Strickland and Debbie both started making sexual advances towards him due to the stress (Hanky Panky).

## Personality

Hank is often regarded as the well-meaning, hard-working, traditional American. Everybody looks to Hank when they have any seemingly useless, or dull work that needs to be done. On the other hand, Hank is easily angered when things do not go his way or when another person breaks something of his. When his dog Lady Bird attacked a black repairman working on their heating system, he was accused of being racist, but it was later proven to be false; She is accustomed to only Hank with the household repairs. Hank's reserved nature probably resulted from years of verbal abuse from his father Cotton Hill. However, if sufficiently provoked, Hank is just as willing to fight like his father, often exclaiming, "I'm gonna kick your ass!"
He is, for the most part, a staunch conservative, even once saying dreamily that he missed voting for Ronald Reagan. He initially supported George W. Bush during the 2000 election, 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 pre-party switch Democrats (such as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson). His dog Lady Bird is named after President Johnson's wife Lady Bird 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, he scolded Bobby (not only because Bartlet is a fictitious character but also because Bartlet is considered to be a typical liberal president on the show), who proceeded to do his report on Ronald Reagan. Hank also has a great amount of respect for former Democratic Governor Ann Richards.
He considers his wife his best friend, and feels that physically punishing children is wrong; he is usually verbally strict, but does not usually hit / spank Bobby. Instead, he often confiscates Bobby's many belongings.
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 viewpoints; 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 feigning an adoration for propane. The man was later revealed to be a completely unreliable drug addict. Hank can be summed up as being deeply set in his ways, and typically reacts to things he does not understand with hostility and disdain, regardless of whether or not he fully grasps them.
He does, however, share a few progressive values. One of them is his fondness for organic food 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 is an environmentalist (though he distances himself from the movement at large). He laments air pollution in Houston, believes that global warming should be fought, and opposes the building of McMansions. When Buck Strickland was found dumping propane into the water, Hank encouraged the business to become more environmentally conscious.
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 personally cracked down on a crooked mold expert with the help of Bill, giving the expert a taste of his own medicine. Another example is when he forced a man who was harassing Luanne to be attacked by the same dolphin that attacked Hank.
Hank is very passionate about his hobbies, whether it be sports, woodworking, construction in general, and playing his guitar.
He has shown to be afraid of bats. When surprised, he reacts with a "Bwah!" or "Baah!" This popular "Hankism" was used in the title of the episode "Mutual of Omabwah", and "Bwah My Nose."
Several episodes show Hank expressing unexpected views. One example is when he said his sewing and stitching is an important part of upholstering, an industrial practice.
Hank's facial expressions can be quite stoic, with him trying his best to not get excited and over confident. While he does not want men to cry at all (and gets tired of Peggy and Luanne crying), he has cried a few times. He cried in front of Peggy about his old truck. He shed tears with Peggy when they thought she was going to die in jail. The other times he began crying he tried to hide his face or walk out of the room or both. In "Hank's Cowboy Movie", he accidentally says he loves Bobby. Bobby never expected him to say that; indeed, the Pilot showed that it was very difficult for him to so. Hank is noticeably much more embracing towards Junichiro when they first met. He accidentally told Buck Strickland he loved him after Buck gave him a promotion, humiliating Buck and Cotton and leading Hank to lose his promotion. Hank laughed in front of a crowd in Meet the Propaniacs.
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 signed a petition to legalize hemp not knowing that it was to legalize marijuana. Additionally, he interacted extensively with the owners of Stems and Seeds, a headshop, without understanding that the shop sold marijuana products. He also unknowingly introduced a woman, who later turned out to be a prostitute, to several business associates. This led her former pimp, Alabaster Jones, to believe he was her new pimp.
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. Hank admired Bill greatly for this decision, to the point that he stumbled drunkenly into a tattoo parlor and asked to have Bill's name inked onto his chest. However, Boomhauer persuaded the proprietor 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. He had the tattoo 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, or they simply run out of things to talk about, they will give short words of agreement, such as, "Yup," or, "Mm-Hmm." This changes in several episodes, such as Bill drinking (and conversing) on the other side of the alley, Luanne drinking and saying, "Yup," in the alley when nobody else is around, and Kahn occasionally joining them. Other people also participate, such as in Won't You Pimai Neighbor?.

## "Propane and Propane Accessories"

Hank Hill makes his living as a propane salesman and has developed a curiously obsessive relationship with propane. While most people would call a propane tank a barbecue accessory, Hank refers to grills and spatulas as "propane accessories" and becomes very upset when Bobby uses a spatula to slap the beats of the song "Wipeout" on his body. He often personifies propane when he speaks of it, with an affection that at times virtually borders on the erotic. In at least two episodes, he refers to it as "Sweet Lady Propane." When Hank has a strange dream in which he is feeling very pleasant while barbecuing hamburgers with Nancy Gribble and they're both naked, it disturbs him greatly until Peggy tries to recreate the dream with herself in the nude instead - only to have Hank become distracted by a couple of young hippie women after striking up a conversation which quickly becomes a propane sales pitch. At this point, both Peggy and Hank realize that Hank enjoyed his dream because he'd been propane grilling, not because he was with Nancy in the nude. Hank says "I always thought of propane as a dignified lady...but she can be a dirty girl, too."
A running gag throughout the series is Hank's devotion to taking care of so called "propane emergencies". As a result, if someone wants to talk to Hank about a pressing issue or get him to do something for them they'll call in a fake propane emergency. Despite Hank's distaste at people doing this, his devotion to propane and quality customer service leads to him always falling for it, mainly because be never asks what the specific emergency is. Such instances include Elizabeth Strickland trying to seduce him in her hot tub (Hanky Panky), Buck Strickland asking Hank to bail him out of jail and act as his personal driver until his license is returned (The Father, the Son, and J.C.), and John Redcorn expressing his concerns about how Dale is raising Joseph and the need for Joseph to undergo a vision quest (Vision Quest) among others.