Hank Hill’s Iconic Catchphrase Has United Dominatrixes
To dominatrixes and kinky King of the Hill fans alike, Hank Hill’s signature catchphrase of “propane and propane accessories” can pertain to more than just his former career at Strickland Propane. “If I was a professional dominatrix, I would advertise myself as pro pain and pro pain accessories,” reads one viral tweet recently shared to the King of the Hill subreddit. “My company would be called Kink of the Hill.”
This propane/pro-pain gag is nothing new. The pun first emerged roughly a decade ago, and has inspired memes, T-shirts and sex workers like London-based dominatrix Trans Princess Jezebel, who offered her stamp of approval on the Reddit post, remarking, “Speaking as a real life pro dominatrix, I approve this message.”
And while she isn’t ready to undergo a Mike Judge-inspired rebrand just yet, she’d be open to the idea if her clients all “had the same King of the Hill reference points.” “If they did, I’d roll this term out immediately!” she tells me.
Papa Titty, a drag performer and dominatrix from Portland, Oregon, says they, too, would definitely make this pun in front of clients, arguing that the prevalence of targeted online censorship — and the probable wrath of Fox/Hulu/Disney’s lawyers — has likely stopped sex workers from truly embracing the King of the Hill bit. “I haven’t seen many folks use the propane/pro-pain line, but that may be because of the fact many SW-ers get shadow-banned on social media,” Papa Titty says.
It makes sense that King of the Hill has left a hurts-so-good red welt on the dominatrix community. Trans Princess Jezebel, who’s watched the animated series since she was a teenager, says that Season Five’s “Ho, Yeah!” highlights the series’ “leftist moral compass” through its grounded take on Tammy Duvall, a sex worker who stays with the Hill family after leaving her life in Oklahoma City.
“You’re really allowed to see the humanity in her character,” she explains. This representation is “absolutely not” perfect, she admits, but King of the Hill’s largely positive portrayal of Tammy was definitely ahead of its time. “For an animated show formed in the ‘90s, it certainly does better than most shows of its time on matters of race, sex work, gender and sexuality,” she adds. “There’s always an underlying message of acceptance to be taken away.”
To Papa Titty, the show “helps white, working-class Americans understand basic empathy for people different than them.” “The show does a great job of representing consent to folks who would otherwise never hear that kind of language,” they explain, citing Season Six’s “Bobby Goes Nuts” as a particularly pertinent example of expressing one’s autonomy.
Along those lines, Trans Princess Jezebel says that even as a “left-leaning person,” the show has helped her garner more compassion for those across the political aisle, providing a much-needed reminder “that most people are fundamentally good and decent people, despite what you’re led to believe in an increasingly polarised world.”
“King of the Hill represents a comforting vision of the world where the differences between left and right are less than we’re conditioned to believe by media and politics,” she says, noting that despite her many differences from Hank and company, she’d still feel right at home on Rainey Street.
“I’m sure that if I could stand out in the alley having a beer with Hank, Dale, Bill and Boomhauer, even a transgender, pansexual dominatrix like me could explain about my pro-pain and pro-pain accessories, and I’d be welcome.”
There’s definitely nothing painful — or propane-ful — about that.
