Hank Hill

From King of the Hill Wiki

Hank Hill
Name	Hank Hill
Gender	Male
Hair	Brown
Age	50
Job	Assistant manager of Strickland Propane, briefly Mega Lo Mart propane salesman (Propane Boom)
Relatives	Peggy Hill (wife) Bobby Hill (son) Cotton Hill (deceased father) Tilly Hill (mother) Didi Hill (stepmother) Good Hank Hill (half-brother) Junichiro (half-brother) Dusty Hill (cousin) Rita (cousin)
First Appearance	Pilot
Voiced by	Mike Judge

Henry Rutherford Hill is the main character and usual protagonist of the animated series King of the Hill. Hank, along with his family (wife Peggy, son Bobby, and niece Luanne), has a central role in most story lines. Hank's voice is provided by series co-creator Mike Judge. The Economist briefly mentioned him as one of the wisest people on television.

[edit] Description

Hank Rutherford Hill, born 1958, stands 6'2"(1.88 meters) in height and weighs 220 pounds. Among King of the Hill characters, Hank bears one of the more noticeable resemblances 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 Beavis & Butthead's final episodes or movie. 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. He also expresses a love of propane, similarly to Anderson's admiration of butane which ironically Hank sees as an inferior gas. Hank is known to kick people's asses who have ticked him off with or without saying " I'm gonna kick your ass" or "kick his ass."

According to the episode "Yankee Hankee" Hank believed he was born in the fictional Texas town Arlen to Tillie Mae Hill and Cotton Lyndal Hill but finds (to his horror) 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. In the episode "Hank Gets Dusted," Hank is shown to be the cousin of ZZ Top bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill.

Hank played American football in high school and held a record for most rushing yards (however in one episode, he was supposed to be a quarterback and in another his friend Bill was the star running back, however Bill was moved from offensive tackle most likely due to his strength in short yardage situations, thus resulting in the record for most touchdowns). He had a promising career until he snapped his ankle in the state championship game. This incident had a major effect on his character, as he regarded it as "punishment" over-ebulliance, thus explaining his current unwillingness to show emoton. After graduating from high school in 1974, he went on to work as a salesman at Jeans West, a clothing retailer.

Hank proudly sells propane and propane accessories as an assistant manager at Strickland Propane. During one episode he was promoted to manager, but he was instantly demoted following a rare lapse in his emotional self-control, during which he told Buck Strickland he loved him. He was promoted to manager again in another episode when Buck's wife/ex-wife (Miss Liz) took over Strickland Propane. Unlike Strickland's nemesis, M. F. Thatherton, Hank believes that selling propane through honesty and hard work is what life is all about. He sometimes has trouble selling propane, because Thatherton often takes advantage of Hank's honesty. Hank idolizes Buck Strickland, the owner of Strickland Propane (who calls Hank "Ol' Top"), and keeps a somewhat idyllic picture of him even though he often sees his boss's many shortcomings (excessive gambling, alcoholism, womanizing, and general lewdness).

He only has one child, Bobby Hill, but would have had more if not for his "narrow urethra". He is often frustrated by Bobby's innocently effeminate tendencies and disappointed that his son is hardly interested in sports. Early in the series, he often says of Bobby, "That boy ain't right." However, Hank absolutely 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 cooking and theater. In the first episode of the series, Hank deals with an unruly social worker when he puts Hank's parenting skills into question. But this is laid to rest when Hank speaks with Bobby when his son thinks he might be a disappointment, Hank immediately rebukes this and tells him how proud he is of him, as he is Bobby's father and by definition is proud of everything he does well. However, in one episode Bobby explains to his friend Joseph that they are unlikely to get into trouble for something because it is football season, which means "I'm way off his radar."

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. Like most cartoon characters, Hank is always drawn wearing the same clothes: a white t-shirt, blue jeans, low-cut brown work boots, and black horn-rim glasses. When at work, he wears a short-sleeve blue work shirt with nametag. Occasionally, he has been drawn in a suit, usually when going to church (he is a practicing Methodist, and while he may not necessarily know what Methodism "is" he is a Devout Christian). His haircut is a flattop (or "Roger Staubach") which has remained consistent throughout the series, except for episodes that flash back to his high school days, and another episode in which he is infected with head lice and shaves his head. When his barber goes insane and the Army charges him $900 for a haircut, he forgoes a haircut and has shaggier hair.

Hank drove a red Ford Ranger pickup truck drawn to two different body styles (First generation (1983-1988) and Third generation (1993-1997)). In a later episode, the Ranger breaks down and is subsequently destroyed by a train. At the end of the episode, he buys a red Ford F-250 Super Duty 4x4. Both of Hank's trucks had/have a stick shift (and even share the same shift knob.) He gives great love and affection to his lawn and his elderly dog Ladybird, while also clearly caring greatly about his family. Hank attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He is sometimes naive and close-minded, but he is generally tolerant of people different from him (intensely disliking being called a redneck or hillbilly) even when they show a complete lack of common sense or manners.

Hank and Peggy both smoked cigarettes early in their relationship, but both gave up the habit when Peggy became pregnant with Bobby. Twelve years later, Hank started smoking again inadvertently after trying to kick Bobby off of the habit. Peggy soon followed, even though both were against cigarette smoking. All three managed to stop smoking cold turkey, with Luanne's help ("Keeping Up With Our Joneses").

[edit] 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 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 is just as willing to fight as his father, often proclaiming, "I'm gonna kick your ass!", often resulting in him chasing the person down and literally kicking them in their 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," presumable Al Gore, he said "I don't know." He is a Republican, but admires old-school Democrats (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, 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 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.

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), once lamenting air pollution in Houston, and he opposes the building of McMansions. 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, 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 in the present. 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, or they simply run out of things to talk about, they will give short words of agreement, such as "yup" or "mm-hmm."