Terms of Enrampagement

You know what I just realized? King of the Hill is one of the only mainstream shows on television that prominently features characters with ongoing, realistic mental illness. There’s an episode when Khan accidentally goes off of his bipolar medication and rotates through waves of mania and depression while he’s building a grill with Hank. And Bill’s depression and PTSD are referenced a lot (see above). And not as a punchline, really. Just something he’s living with.

This show is weird and I kind of love it more and more as I rewatch it as an adult. I’m genuinely surprised at how often I relate to it. There’s an episode where Hank talks about getting a big bonus at work, and he turns to Peggy and says, “And you know what we could do with that money? Redo the bathroom. And you know what that means: two sinks.” And Peggy goes “That. Would be Heaven.” I quote it all the time, because it’s such a real moment between two people who live together for a while and love each other dearly but GOD, is it too much to ask for you to wipe your toothpaste out of the sink after you brush? Etc and so forth.