Four Times Boomhauer Made the Most Sense on ‘King of the Hill’
If King of the Hill fans were to choose a singular image to represent the show, it would likely be the one with Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer sipping their beers in front of a fence. Only three of those characters, however, ever spoke in a way that could be understood.
The fast-talking, heavily-accented, vaguely Southern and Cajun drawl of Boomhauer — coupled with his quiet, contemplative nature — made him the least explored of King of the Hill’s main quartet, but longtime viewers still got to know him pretty well over the show’s original 13-season run. For one thing, unlike Bill and Dale, Boomhauer rarely flew off the handle. He was also much more well-read than his friends, as he was known to make references to art, literature and philosophy that go over their heads. He was morally centered and entirely sensible as well — sometimes even more so than his common sense-spouting pal Hank Hill.
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Below are four examples of when Boomhauer made more sense — despite that indecipherable accent of his — than anyone else on King of the Hill…
When Dale Burned Down the Dang Ol’ Firehouse
In Season Three’s “A Fire Fighting We Will Go,” the four guys volunteer as firemen, and naturally, they end up burning down the firehouse. The fire chief is unsure of who to blame, so he interrogates every member of the foursome. Throughout Bill and Dale’s skewed versions of the truth, it becomes clear that Dale is to blame, but Hank, looking to protect his friend, decides to lie and blame the fire on a recently-deceased fireman. Boomhauer, however, is the only one telling the truth. The problem is, the fire chief can’t understand him, so Dale gets away with it.
When Bobby Went Hunting for a Dang Ol’ Snipe
The third episode of the first season focused on the guys taking Bobby and Joseph on a camping trip. While on the trip, Hank sends the boys on a “snipe hunt” — a snipe, of course, being an animal that doesn’t exist. Still, Bobby mistakes an endangered whooping crane for the elusive snipe, seemingly killing it. When a park ranger comes looking for the creature later, Hank covers for his son, but Boomhauer tells the complete truth to the ranger, including that the crane was in the very cooler that Hank was sitting on.
Like with the fire chief, though, the ranger has no idea what Boomhauer said. This is the earliest example of Boomhauer’s unshakable morality and proof that, even if no one could understand what he was saying, the writers knew who Boomhauer was right from the start.
Dang Ol’ Dadaism
Mike Hamilton, who co-hosts BWAAA! A King of the Hill Podcast with “Rusty Shackleford,” notes that, “In the episode ‘Ceci N’est Pas Une King of the Hill,’ Hank tells Boomhauer that the purpose of art is to spruce a place up. But Boomhauer disagrees, making reference to Duchamp’s Fountain and Dadaism. He’s looking at it way more deeply than Hank.”
When He Spoke About the Dang Ol’ Meaning of Life
Hamilton also points to a more ethereal example of Boomhauer’s sensibility. “In ‘Death of a Propane Salesman,’ the characters are talking about the meaning of life and Boomhauer goes off,” Hamilton explains, referencing a speech in which Boomhauer makes passing references to the butterfly effect, the “tree falls in a forest” thought experiment and Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am.”
According to Hamilton, “The scene seems to say that, of those four guys, Boomhauer is the only one capable of existential thought.”